It wasn’t a very birding, nor a very pleasant, morning stroll at Hedgehog Mountain Park today. Light rain, and temperatures in the upper 30’s were less than ideal conditions. Yesterday however, Jeannette and I enjoyed a very productive, and very pleasant outing in Scarborough Marsh. Temperatures rose into the low 40’s (10+ degrees above normal), with mostly sunny skies, and very light winds through the early afternoon.

Even though this is not the most productive season in the marsh, it was an enjoyable day. We tallied 31 total Hooded Mergansers in three places (Jones Creek, Eastern Rd, and Dunstan Landing), a couple of large flocks of American Robins, a single immature Northern Shrike (my 17th of the season in Maine!) at Dunstan Landing, and a pair of adult Bald Eagles circling over Rte 1/9 on the north side of the marsh. Plus, Sasha got to run on the beach, and we got to skip the parkas, so it was a successful January outing.

We also saw a Barred Owl hunting at the Scarborough River Preserve. Unfortunately, our enthusiasm was tempered by the realization that an owl (most owls, that is), hunting during the day is not a good sign – it usually means that it is starving.

Speaking of owls – RANT ALERT! RANT ALERT! – I was sorry to read this morning that a Great Gray Owl that has been seen in Jackson, Maine, is now at a wildlife rehabilitation center. It was first suspected of being hit by a car, but the initial diagnosis was that it was severely emaciated. Anecdotal reports and opinions indicate that harassment from birders may have played a role in this bird’s trouble. This one was lucky, rehabbers were able to capture it, and give it a chance to survive. But, once again, the inability to exercise self-control on the part of some birders and photographers (and only some; most birders and photographers were perfectly well-behaved) put a bird at risk. I firmly believe that birders have killed Great Grays before, and the MAY have come close this time. Behavior by a few bad apples not only ruins it for everyone, but can severely impact the birds we’re all trying to enjoy. If this was an isolated incident, we can fairly easily ignore the significance of it. However, this is a pattern that has been repeated time and time again, especially with such charismatic megafauna as Great Gray Owls. There’s a reason I don’t go looking for birds like the Jackson Great Gray – I just don’t want to be part of the mayhem. And, this episode yet again reaffirms my commitment not to broadcast rare owls. It’s sad, really. Hopefully, for this one Great Gray, there will be a happy ending.

OK, switching gears a bit, and lowering my blood pressure, after Scarborough Marsh, Jeannette and I spent a short time scouting the piers and wharfs of Old Port to track down some gulls – and some good locations – for my Gulls of Greater Portland workshop/field trip that I am doing for York County Audubon on Sunday.

We encountered two Iceland Gulls. One, was this straightforward 1st-Cycle bird at the Portland Fish Exchange.

The second, was a bit more interesting, if not problematic. It was an adult Iceland Gull with pure white wingtips. It was big, too, for an Iceland Gull. The pure white wingtips suggest the possibility of being the nominate subspecies, Larus glaucoides glaucoides, from Greenland, instead of our usual “Iceland Gull,” or “Kumlien’s” Gull, Larus glaucoides kumlieni. The status of glaucoides in the Northeast is uncertain, due to the difficulty in distinguishing them from Kumlien’s Gulls with a wing score of zero (according to Dunn and Howell in the Peterson’s Gulls of the Americas). In my opinion, the mantle color of this bird (only a shade or two lighter than a nearby Herring Gull) is too dark for glaucoides, but I would like to have seen it side-by-side with another adult Kumlien’s-type. Furthermore, the bird looks quite big to me, and I began to wonder about the odd white-winged gull that Lysle and I have studied a few times along the Eastern Promenade in the last few years – a bird that shows features of BOTH Iceland and Glaucous Gulls. But, this bird does look longer-winged than that particular mystery bird (Iceland/Kumlien’s Gulls are proportionally longer-winged than Glaucous). I do wish I had a better look at the eye, and the orbital ring (the thin fleshy circle around the eye), however. Ah, gulls, always a challenge.

The good news is that there are white-winged gulls around for my trip on Sunday! Hopefully, I’ll be able to identify all of them!

And finally, 17 Pine Grosbeaks were in the crabapples in front of the Pine Tree Academy on Pownal Road in Freeport in the afternoon (and again this morning).