Virtually nothing moved Wednesday night into Thursday morning, with a light to moderate south to south-southwest wind blowing. A morning visit to Freeport’s Florida Lake Park produced very, very little, but the 4 Bohemian Waxwings perched in a tree along the lake’s edge more than made up for that lack of overall diversity. This is the earliest that I have seen this northern, irruptive species in the state, and fits the larger pattern we’re seeing this year of early arrivals of irruptive species (small groups of Bohemians have been spotted as far south as Saco already).

A cold front passed Thursday evening, producing only a narrow line of light showers, but switching the southerly winds back around to the west and then northwest. Those winds, and clearing skies allowed for some bird movement overnight. In fact, it was perfect conditions for migration – except for the fact that it is November 2nd. By now, most of our migrants have already passed through. There’s still a wave of American Tree Sparrows to arrive, and there will be plenty of diurnal migrants (especially finches and robins) yet to come, but the night skies will not be as crowded as they have been. Therefore, this will be the last radar posting of the season – unless something noteworthy occurs.

Furthermore, the conditions overnight would have produced a great flight at Sandy Point, had it not been for the late date. I did have some stuff, however (complete totals below), with the highlight being a Tufted Titmouse making the crossing. While titmice are regularly seen in the woods on Cousin’s Island and around Sandy Point, most titmice are residents. Therefore, I rarely tally them as they are not deemed to be migrating. However, this morning, one bird – after making three false starts – took off from the bridge-side birch and left the island. This was my first titmouse that I have seen make the crossing here, and one of the very few – if any! – that I have ever seen crossing over water; this is not something titmice are very keen to do. But, despite the conditions, there were not a ton of birds, so I do believe this will be may last Morning Flight Count for the season.

After an hour at Sandy Point, I headed inland to wander the countryside in search of geese, shrikes, waxwings, etc. First, it was to Thornhurst Farm to look for the Cackling Geese – and hopefully find another rare goose or two – but most of the geese were out of view. The 11 Snow Geese were still present, however. Gillespie’s Farm on Mayhall Road was goose-less today, and so I headed over to the orchards in Cumberland to check on the fruit crop. There were still a lot of apples on the trees at the Whitney Rd orchard, and the trees at Double-T were absolutely dripping with unpicked apples. And, only one more house has been built, so we’ll have at least one more year of birding here. Today the only frugivores were a pair of House Finches, but this hotspot should be filled with Bohemian Waxwings, and hopefully Pine Grosbeaks, this winter. Finally, a second visit to Thornhurst Farm on the way to the store did confirm that the 3 Cacklers are in fact still present.

So, this weekend could be an interesting one. Hurricane Noel is forecasted to become an extremely powerful Extratropical Storm, and produce some rough weather on Saturday. Seawatching may be productive, but this might be a good day to enjoy college football (like Rutgers playing #16 Connecticut at 7:00pm!). Hopefully, the winds will subside enough to allow for productive birding on Sunday, when we hold our 4th Annual Rarity Roundup. Noel, and the strong N and NW winds that are expected to follow, could produce some great birds – as long as Sunday’s winds aren’t too fierce for us to find them!

And, between chasing rarities that will be found this weekend, please don’t forget to head to the polls on Tuesday. Of relevance to birders is the bond issue that will borrow $35.5 million dollars to replenish the Land for Maine’s Future program. While I’d love to avoid more borrowing by our government, I firmly believe that this critical program needs to be funded – now. Borrowing via public-approved bonds is the way to do that. Land isn’t getting any cheaper, and once a prime parcel is lost to development, we aren’t going to be getting it back. This bond proposal also allocated money for state parks, historic sites, and riverfront projects – all critical to Maine’s economy. So, as birders who regularly use state parks, local land trust properties (often purchased with funds from the Land for Maine’s Future program), etc, etc., I urge you to take a moment to vote YES on the bond issue (#3, I believe) to replenish the Land for Maine’s Future Program.

Location: Sandy Point Beach, Cousin's Island, Yarmouth
Observation date: 11/2/07
Notes: Clearing skies overnight with lt W becoming lt NW by dawn.
Last morning flight count of the season, I expect.
Number of species: 24

American Black Duck X
Common Eider X
Bufflehead 16
Double-crested Cormorant X
Bonaparte's Gull X
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Mourning Dove X
Downy Woodpecker X
Blue Jay X
American Crow 10 High flock flying north to south; deemed to be
migrating.
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 1 After 2 false starts, flew across river to
mainland. First TUTI that I have seen cross here, and one of the few (if
any) that I've ever seen crossing water.
White-breasted Nuthatch X
American Robin 7
European Starling X
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
White-throated Sparrow 3
Dark-eyed Junco 21
Red-winged Blackbird 2
Rusty Blackbird 3
Common Grackle 2
American Goldfinch 1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)