The forecast for Thursday night called for light and variable winds becoming light to moderate East by the morning. Fine for migrants to pass through, but not great for a flight at Sandy Point. Well, the winds ended up being calm all night, but turned to the NW by 5:00am. And, there were quite a few birds in the air. However, it did look like a larger volume departed than arrived.

Here’s the 12:00am image:

And the 5:00am image:

I wonder if that was long enough to get enough birds over Casco Bay to produce a good flight at Sandy Point? I’ll never know, as I spent the morning trekking my 6-mile loop through my Pownal neighborhood. Shortly after I began the walk at dawn, an Evening Grosbeak called as it flew over (and I heard another single later). 3 Rusty Blackbirds flushed from a field edge, and a flock of over 100 Common Grackles passed high overhead (plus another flock of 20 later and about 10 in a yard). I also encountered a total of 7 American Pipits, heard at least 2 Horned Larks, and spied 5 Red-winged Blackbirds passing overhead. There were plenty of Dark-eyed Juncos around, and a lot of American Robins were passing overhead in small flocks. But, the highlight was the 6 White-winged Crossbills that flew by me, calling, and circled a few times before heading off towards Bradbury Mountain. Yes, it just might be a finch-tastic winter!

A quick check of Thornhurst Farm did not produce the Cackling Geese – although the majority of the flock were out of view – but I did see the 11 continuing Snow Geese and this one Canada Goose, that I think might be of one of the “Lesser” subspecies. The smaller size (although not as small as Cackling Geese), dusky chest, dark back, skinny neck (verses the bull-neck of Cackling), and moderate-length bill (not the stubby triangle of Cackling), lead me to believe this is a Branta canadensis parvipes. Or, is this just a dark, runt B.c.Canadensis – the “Atlantic” Canada Goose? But, I have minimal experience with “Lessers,” so comments are welcome.

Sibley has a very good treatment of the Canada/Cackling Goose complex on his website, by the way.

I did return to Thornhurst Farm later on Friday afternoon, hoping to get more views of the possible “Lesser,” and looking for the Cacklers. I did find the three Cackling Geese, but I could not relocate – or it did not stick out – the Lesser among 500-600 “regular” Canadas (which themselves are actually a mix of 2-3 subspecies, I believe).

Very little, if anything moved on Friday night thanks to southerly winds ahead of the approaching low. Rain began after midnight, and continued – heavy at times – into the morning, and it was expected to continue through the day. However, depending on the timing of tonight’s cold front – and the associated clearing – Sunday morning could be a very good day to be out in the field.

And today isn't the worst day for a slow, wet day at the store. Thanks to the weather, I'll be able to head home to watch the Rutgers/West Virgina game at noon. It doesn't get any bigger than this. National televised on ABC. #6 vs #25. The winner is likely to win the Big East and get the automatic bid to the BCS. Yup, IF we're able to hold off Pat White, Steve Slaton, et al, we could be heading to the BCS. (Not that we want to get ahead of ourselves, as UConn is no push-over this year, and we still have to travel to Louisville). But, is that oranges I smell???

And finally, I’d thought I’d share this photo of our backyard Wild Turkeys (the poor quality was due to taking it through a screen and dirty windows of the second floor in evening light) using our footpath – mostly.