Cold, below-normal temperatures continue, allowing for little melting of snow. It’s still quite the picturesque winter wonderland out there!

On Wednesday, I checked out two sheltered locations with abundant fruit and seed crops in Portland, hoping for rarities, tardy migrants, and anything else that may have been concentrated by the snowstorm.

First, it was the Fore River Trail, which was once again quite productive, with a lingering Belted Kingfisher and Northern Flicker, a Carolina Wren, a Fox Sparrow, 7 spiffy Hooded Mergansers, and a good raptor show: 3 Red-tailed Hawks, and once each of Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned. The only frugivores, however, were two small flocks of European Starlings and 4 Northern Mockingbirds, while the only finches were scattered small groups of American Goldfinches, a few House Finches, and 4 Common Redpolls passing overhead.

Then, I checked out Capisic Pond Park, which is often quite birdy in early winter, and it definitely was today. One Cedar Waxwing was with a flock of 15 American Robins scarfing down crabapples, one Snow Bunting flew overhead, and a female Purple Finch dropped in – the first that I have seen in a week or two; this irruptive has really thinned out of late. Plus, the usual residents of course: including 11 Northern Cardinals (which are always plentiful here. The bright scarlet males always look especially magnificent against a back drop of pure white, fresh snowfall.)

Thursday morning, Jeannette and I – and Sasha, of course - went for a dawn cross-country ski at Old Town House Park. It was cold, 11 degrees in fact, but without a wind, we found it quite pleasant once the sun broke the treeline and we worked up a little warmth. It has been cold enough these past few days that the snow was still light and fluffy, and the skiing was perfect. About 10 Common Redpolls flew overhead, our avian highlight for the morning.

Then, I checked out the South Freeport Town Landing and Winslow Park, looking to see if the Barrow’s Goldeneyes are back in town yet. Unfortunately, high tide is not the best time to look for these guys, as they are often far upriver until freeze-up begins, and this morning the heat shimmer was awful. There were plenty of ducks upriver from the town landing, including some goldeneye, but most were just fuzzy, wavy, unidentifiable lumps in the distance. I did have a White-winged Scoter, rare this far up river, from the town landing, and 3 Dunlin at the tip of Winslow Park.