I’ve been out of town and away from the store for the last few days, so I’m playing a bit of catch-up on all fronts. As for my birding over my past few days, it has been truly fantastic – as the last week of May often is.

Saturday, 5/24.
2:30pm: Left store.
3:15pm: Arrived at Morse Mountain in Phippsburg.
4:00pm: Walked over Morse Mountain to Seawall Beach (2 miles).Desperately searched for previously reported Curlew Sandpiper, but no shorebirds were present as tide was just beginning to recede (a few roosting shorebirds were visible on offshore rocks).
4:45pm: First few Black-bellied Plovers arrived on beach. Jeannette’s voice saying “This is why I don’t chase birds!” was ringing in my head.
5:02pm: CURLEW SANDPIPER arrives along with 1 Red Knot, 1 White-rumped Sandpiper, 7 Sanderlings, and 24 Semipalmated Sandpipers. Photographed. Phew, all was not in vain!
5:08pm: Curlew Sand flew about 300 yards, viewed at distance
5:20pm: Pointed it out to Jan, who just arrived. I left, walking quickly and jogging portions of the two miles back to the car (with scope).
5:50-ish: Left for Machias.
10:00pm-ish: Arrived, exhausted, in Machias for Downeast Birding Fest. Numerous passerine calls were heard overhead, but I could barely stand. Would have loved to listen and count carefully, but instead I went inside and passed out. Yes, this was even more tiring that it sounded, but hey, I got a state bird and I didn’t have to wake up ‘till 5:30am -- ugh.

And, for the record, Jeannette successfully twitched the ‘piper the next morning!

Sunday, 5/25.
Downeast Birding Festival trip to Machias Seal Island with Captain Andy Patterson.
Near dead calm, sunny, warm (I was on the island in a t-shirt!!). Amazing, more-than-perfect day.

I was nearly as excited about this visit for the landbird potential as I was for the seabirds, as almost anything can show up out here at this time of year. Here’s the landbird list for the visit:
Savannah Sparrow: 10+ (breeder).
Gray Catbird: 4-5
White-crowned Sparrow: 3
Barn Swallow: 2
Common Yellowthroat: 2
Alder Flycatcher (my first of the year): 1-2
Least Flycatcher: 1
Tree Swallow: 1
Cliff Swallow: 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch: 1 female (been present for about 10 days, flycatching from wire and foraging on side of the lighthouse and other buildings).
NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD: 1(arrived on 5/24, may only have been island’s second or third record).
Yellow Warbler: 1
American Redstart: 1
White-throated Sparrow: 1

3 Purple Sandpipers were lingering on Gull Rock, while the only seabird that we had in transit was a single Northern Gannet on the way back. As for the seabirds on the island, however, well, that was another story. The good news is that terns were back, and quite a bit of courtship feeding was observed – they had completely abandoned the island last year. We enjoyed over 200+ Arctic Terns on this day, with some Common Terns mixed in. As for the alcids, and our time in the blinds? Well, words really can’t describe this place – especially on gorgeous days like this - so I’m not even going to try. Therefore, I’ll just leave it to the pictures! (All photos taken by “digi-binning” – holding my digital point-and-shoot up to my binoculars).

This puffin was excavating its burrow under the blind.

The Common Murres prefer lower ledges, near the water, as opposed to the rubble higher up where the puffins and Razorbills breed.

One of my goals for my visit was to improve my selection of Razorbill images. The bright sun on a black and white bird is tough, but I think I did pretty well.

Razorbill egg.

After begrudgingly returning to the mainland, I grabbed some lunch, and then decide that it was best to not return to my motel, otherwise there’s little doubt that I would not make it out for the banquet. Instead, I took a leisurely stroll to the water (3 miles roundtrip) via the Bold Coast trails, which included a great look at a Bay-breasted Warbler. I sat down at the bluff to enjoy the view. I woke up a half-hour later and had to really hustle to make dinner!

5/26. Quoddy Head State Park, Lubec, 6:00am.
I would have preferred to sleep later than 4:30am this morning, but there was no way I was going to miss leading this trip! Although we did not plan on making the entire 4-mile loop, we did – note: the cut-off trail that links the Coastal and Interior Trails, as shown on the park map, does not exist! – and were rewarded with some great birding. Two Great Cormorants were off the point, and an Eastern Bluebird was in the parking lot. We tallied 11 species of warblers, including a crippling view of a Blackburnian, and a great look at the breeding Palm Warbler in the bog. The local Lincoln’s Sparrow also cooperated, and after giving chase to a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and not seeing it, we had point-blank views of one (my first of the year) farther down the trail.

My next stop was the Lubec Flats on the incoming tide. I tallied 76 Black-bellied Plovers, 3 Short-billed Dowitchers, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Willet, and one Least Sandpiper. Then, I took a walk around the streets of Lubec. 50+ Cedar Waxwings were scattered about, feeding in blooming apple trees. I encountered a few migrant warblers, but the highlight – possibly the “best” bird of the festival weekend, was an immature male Orchard Oriole in an apple tree on Green Street. I’m guessing that there are not many records of this southerly species in Washington County.

Arrived home in Pownal at 7:30pm.

5/27. Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, 6:15am. With Jeannette. Hot! 85 degrees in Portland was a new record.
Light southwesterly winds overnight likely had birds on the move in volume, but there was nothing to concentrate them. Nonetheless, we had a very good morning. What was lacking in warbler diversity (8 species) was (nearly) made up in flycatcher species (7!). In fact, if we were able to locate a single Eastern Phoebe, we would have tied! Our first Willow Flycatcher(1) of the year, and my first local Alder (1-2) and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers (1), were treats, joining 5+ Least Flycatchers, 3+ Eastern Wood-Pewees, 2 Great-crested Flycatchers, and 2 Eastern Kingbirds. A fly-over Glossy Ibis was a good sighting as well.

Capisic Pond Park hosted a pair of Ring-necked Ducks (interesting; are they considering breeding here?) and the local pair of Orchard Orioles. Then, in the afternoon, we walked Sasha at the Merrymeeting Wildlife Management Area in Bowdoinham, which produced 4 Prairie Warblers and a Yellow-rumped Warbler singing along Brown’s Point Road was our 13th warbler species of the day, while an Eastern Phoebe – finally! - was our 8th flycatcher of the day (only Olive-sided eluded us), and a glistening Indigo Bunting was pleasing.

5/28.
Last night, my friend Chris - who lives in Georgia, but works in Florida, but is originally from New Jersey, but whom I met when I worked in Florida . . .oh, nevermind, but I haven’t seen him in 7 years – arrived to begin a week of birding Maine (he went to Unity College). This morning, we poked around some of my local patches. There was virtually no migration last night on a moderate northwesterly wind, so our birding was a bit slow, but the various local breeders were what we were more interested in anyway. We then worked our way down to Sprawlborough Marsh, where I was able to get Chris his lifer Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows. In fact, the looks we had were absolutely amazing, as we watched a battle between 4 birds that even involved some serious wrestling!

Although we were not really following the right tide schedule for the maximum shorebird activity at the various locations we visited, we still had some very good totals. 7 White-rumped Sandpipers and a Pectoral Sandpiper were in the salt pannes off the Eastern Road Trail, but most of the other shorebirds had departed for the tidal flats by the time we had arrived. And, by the time we hit said tidal flats, the flats were almost fully exposed, and many of the shorebirds were far. Nonetheless, our count was very good. 5 Red Knots and 100+ Dunlin (my first of the year, and maybe my highest spring count in the state?) led the way, along with 150+ Semipalmated Sandpipers, 125+ Black-bellied Plovers, 40+ Ruddy Turnstones, 30+ Semipalmated Plovers, and 20+ Short-billed Dowitchers. About 50 Bonaparte’s Gulls were also present, and a lone Brant was a bit late, and rather out of place sitting on a sandbar. The swallow show (4 species) behind the Pelreco building was quite impressive, and overall it was a great outing with a nice mix of birds, and some great conversation as we had quite a bit of catching up to do!

Now, my plan was to return to the store, sort the photos, and post my blog, but when I did return to the store, I of course, found plenty of work after being gone for 3 ½ days. Therefore, this catch-up summary continues with . . .

5/29.
Chris got an early start on his trip north and east, so I simply enjoyed a leisurely walk with Sasha at Hedgehog Mountain Park. The highlights were a migrant Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and a female Scarlet Tanager gathering nesting material on the “summit”, walking to within 3 feet of both me and the dog.

5/30???
Sleeping you ask? Uh, maybe next week!