Four fresh inches of fluffy snow fell between yesterday afternoon and late in the evening, which meant my plans to bird Cape Elizabeth this morning were thwarted by the need to spend the first hour of the day snowblowing the driveway, once again. So, instead of heading to Cape E, I stayed local, birding in Freeport and Yarmouth, which has been very productive of late. And today, my outing shattered expectations, producing some great birds and some great numbers of great birds!

The LL Bean Headquarters and the Freeport Plaza still had a little fruit left on the trees, but both locations were frugivore-less this morning. Then, it was on to the South Freeport Town landing, which is the more reliable location for Barrow’s Goldeneye at low tide when there’s little ice in the river. And, the warm – above normal, actually – temperatures over the last few days has broken up what ice had formed to date on the Harraseeket. And, as expected, with little ice on the river, most of the birds were well up stream at dead low this morning, including 2 drake Barrow’s Goldeneye.

I then headed for Winslow Park, with two flocks of frugivores distracting me on my way. The first was just up Pine Street from the town landing, where I enjoyed close views of a flock of 75+ American Robins, 50+ Cedar Waxwings, and about 15 Bohemian Waxwings feasting on a crabapple in a front yard. Then, along South Freeport Rd, I spotted a flock of 150+ Bohemians, with 25+ Cedars mixed in, roosting in a tree at the edge of the field.

Finally arriving at Winslow, I found 18 Purple Sandpipers and a lone Dunlin off of the point, but ducks were few and far between thanks to some gunners on an island offshore. Meanwhile, seven Hooded Mergansers were in the Cousin’s River behind the Muddy Rudder restaurant, and 4 more were off of the Lower Falls Landing on the Royal River in Yarmouth.

But, it was the waters off of Sandy Point Beach on Cousin’s Island that stole the show this morning. For one thing, I had planned on making an effort this winter to fill in a couple of seaduck holes one my Sandy Point Patch list. Secondly, a female Harlequin Duck was found here earlier this week, which would make a great and unexpected bonus bird for the patch list. Thirdly, the early winter duck (especially Common Eider) concentration here can be extremely impressive.

So, with those three things in mind, I set up the scope in the snowbank at the edge of the road on the bridge’s east side, I scanned the water. I was not disappointed! At least 2,000 Common Eider were in a massive, dense raft, diving for shellfish. They were joined by a number of other species, and about 50 Herring Gulls who - opportunists that they are - would attempt to snatch shellfish away from surfacing ducks.

As impressive as the armada of at least 2,000 eiders was, the overall diversity of waterbirds here today - including 12 species of waterfowl - was truly outstanding. I soon filled in the hole on my patch list with 19 White-winged Scoters (Sandy Point Bird #150); and the 12 Black Scoters were #151 on the list. I soon spotted the hen Harlequin Duck, then a drake Barrow’s Goldeneye, and then a small flock of 12 Purple Sandpipers on a distant exposed rock – all great birds, and all new to my Sandy Point Patch List. Then, add to that: 86 Common Goldeneye, 63 Canada Geese, 40+ Bufflehead, 38 Long-tailed Ducks, 25 Surf Scoter, 18 American Black Ducks, 4 Common Loons, 3 Greater Scaup (plus 6 unidentified, distant scaup), and a single Horned Grebe. Not bad for a quick stop just down the road!

Meanwhile, back at the store, feeder-watching continue to be unusually productive for us, with many more native sparrows than we’ve had in previous winters. Today, three Dark-eyed Juncos were new arrivals, adding to our list of 20 species that are now frequenting the feeders. A complete list of this week’s feeder bird counts for the store are on our website.