On a brisk (welcomed by me!) Sunday morning, I ventured down to Scarborough Marsh. A few very good birds have been seen here of late, and I hoped to twitch them, and find a surprise or two for myself.

I began at Pine Point Beach, where a Western Grebe was discovered on Saturday. It was not seen on Sunday, and I – along with other birders out today – could not relocate it either. But, we tried – Robby and I worked the shoreline to and from Old Orchard Beach to no avail. The bay did have a lot of birds, however, including impressive numbers of Red-throated Loons, Red-necked and Horned Grebes, and Red-breasted Mergansers. (Complete list below).

We did see one of the other targets of the day – a very tardy Hudsonian Godwit that has been in the area for about a week and a half. The bird has a bum foot, but it can forage and fly just fine. However, it’s a long way to South America. That one worm that we watch it wrestle – a solid 10-12 incher – will help, no doubt! Meanwhile, the sandbars of the river were rather filthy – for such a late date – with other shorebirds: 275+ Dunlin and 100+ Black-bellied Plovers!

(based on how cooperative this bird was, I really should have gotten better shots than this; I’m rather disappointed with the my effort)

And the aforementioned bum wheel . . .

I then made various stops before spending some time at Dunstan Landing where a Western Kingbird has been seen sporadically for about a week and a half as well. “Dipped” on the Kingbird, too, but I did have a Carolina Wren.

Walking the edge of the Eastern Road Trail through the marsh at high tide produced a couple of Swamp Sparrows and one late sharp-tailed sparrow. This sparrow was unusually cooperative, perching nicely in a bush in perfect, full sun. I snapped a number of digiscoped photos.

The buffy throat, lack of distinct, bold streaking on the breast, lack of a thick, distinct submalar streak, and the overall dingy tone of the bird made me think that this was a Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow – which is also the species that is a little more likely at this late a date. However, a couple things were odd. One, was the fairly bright white “braces” on the back, the bright ochre face, and especially the pinkish (or maybe “horn”) colored bill are more along the lines of a Saltmarsh. Also, the breast streaking is relatively clear. Is this one of the interior subspecies of Nelson’s? Or, is it a dreaded hybrid? Or, is it just a fairly bright, relatively heavily marked Nelson’s? Ya know, the more I look at the sharp-tailed sparrows in Scarborough Marsh, the less I think I know about how to identify them – especially immatures in the late fall. (Comments are welcome on this bird).

Look at how a slight change in my angle (moving about 15 feet to the south) changed the overall color of the bird. Plus, the streaking now looks so indistinct. But, that’s definitely not the blue-gray bill of a typical subvirgatus (the expected, locally-breeding subspecies) Nelson’s Sharp-tail.

Today (Monday), I turned inland for some Androscoggin County birding, with duckage on my mind. A handful of stops along the Androscoggin River from Lisbon Falls through Lewiston produced just a smattering of ducks, including my first (15) Common Goldeneye of the season off of the Lewiston boat launch. 30+ Common Redpolls flew over the Papermill Trail in Lisbon, while I enjoyed watching the Peregrine Falcon feasting on a Rock Pigeon atop the steeple of St. Mary’s Church, as viewed from Railroad Park.

Then, it was over to Sabattus Pond, which provided the avian highlights of the day. Mass quantities of ducks were around the pond, as viewed from a number of different locations. The 643 Ruddy Ducks, 176 Common Mergansers, and 76 American Coots were great tallies, and the dingle hen Northern Shoveler was a surprise – my first for Androscoggin County.

I was really enjoying myself on this cold, crisp morning, especially when I was diligently searching through a huge mass of ducks along the pond’s southeast corner. At least 1500 ducks were sleeping in the corner, and I had carefully counted each goldeneye, ruddy, mallard, merganser, etc, I was ready to move on to the conglomeration of Aythya. One by one, I identified each bird, clicking “Ring-necked Duck,” “Greater Scaup,” or “Lesser Scaup” on my hand-clickers. I was about 1/3 the way through the raft when some loser redneck comes tearing through with his boat, going out of his way to get each and every duck to lift off – just for the hell of it, apparently – or, he was attempting to herd the birds with his boat.

I ended up running into this moron at Martin Point, and I voiced my displeasure with his actions, and we exchanged some heated words. It’s idiots like this guy that give respectful, law-abiding hunters a bad name, and I decided to let him know how I felt.

At least the outing ended on a high note, however, as I pulled over to enjoy an immature dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk perched in a swamp along Rte 9 in Sabattus, just north of the turnpike.

Here’s the list from this morning:
Location: Sabattus Pond
Observation date: 11/12/07
Number of species: 28

American Black Duck 54
American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid) 2
Mallard 208
Northern Shoveler 1
Green-winged Teal 6
Bufflehead 19
Common Goldeneye 38
Hooded Merganser 72
Common Merganser 176
Ruddy Duck 643
duck sp. 800 All Aythya. Very roughly 2:3:1, Ring-necked
Duck:Lesser Scaup: Greater Scaup.
Common Loon 2
Horned Grebe 1
American Coot 76
Ring-billed Gull 52
Herring Gull 3
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker X
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
White-breasted Nuthatch X
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Northern Cardinal X
Common Redpoll 6
American Goldfinch 3

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

. . .And the list from Pine Point on Sunday morning . . . .

Location: Scarborough--Pine Point
Observation date: 11/11/07
Notes: Walked from Municipal parking lot at Beach, north to jetty,
west to Co-op and Jones Creek, and back to car through neighborhood.
Number of species: 29

Greater Scaup 4
Common Eider 50
Surf Scoter 3
White-winged Scoter 50
Black Scoter 15
Long-tailed Duck 30
Bufflehead 75
Red-breasted Merganser 200
Red-throated Loon 50
Common Loon 10
Horned Grebe 100
Red-necked Grebe 75
Double-crested Cormorant 10
Great Cormorant 1
Black-bellied Plover 100
Hudsonian Godwit 1
Dunlin 275
Bonaparte's Gull 50
Ring-billed Gull X
Herring Gull X
Great Black-backed Gull X
Mourning Dove 4
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee 4
European Starling X
Song Sparrow 4
Snow Bunting 2
House Finch 20
House Sparrow 40

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