My Wednesday morning birding was limited to a visit to Portland’s Capisic Pond Park while out running errands. Good ol’ Capisic though – there’s always something to see here, and once again, it was quite (relatively speaking) birdy. While the only frugivores were a single American Robin and a group of 17 Cedar Waxwings, I was quite interested to watch American Goldfinches feeding on crabapples as well. At first, I thought maybe they were just digging for their seeds, but close inspection revealed that they were in fact eating the flesh. I don’t think that I have seen this before. They feasted away for a while, at least until a Northern Shrike – my 16th of the winter! – came zipping by!

During my stroll around Hedgehog Mountain Park on Thursday morning, I noticed a considerable increase in the territorial activity of woodpeckers. A Pileated was loudly announcing his intentions, combining drumming with bouts of calling, while Hairy Woodpeckers were also busy delineating their territories. Although the days are now only marginally longer (it is day length that triggers hormonal changes that trigger the various seasonal activities), the earliest breeding birds are already beginning to think about spring (and the warm weather doesn’t hurt).

Later in the day, a flock of about 25 Common Redpolls descended on our store’s feeders. Jeannette and I were combing through them, and one was definitely a bit bigger, and quite a bit whiter. Unfortunately, a close pass overhead by a Rock Pigeon cause the redpolls to panic and they took flight – not to be seen again. It COULD have been a Hoary, but I guess we’ll never know!

So, it does look like our January thaw is coming to an end, with temperatures predicted to return to normal by early next week. It certainly felt less spring-like as I wandered around in the sleet and cold rain at Florida Lake (with few birds to show for it!)

For us, we’ll continue to enjoy spring-like (in Maine) temperatures for a couple of more days, it seems, as in a few minutes we’ll be leaving for our trade show in Atlanta. After two days of bidness, we’ll take a day and half to do some birding. And, since the Green-breasted Mango and Smith’s Longspur are still around, we are very much looking forward to that outing!