On Sunday, Jeannette and I took walks at the New Gloucester Marsh and the Pinelands Public Reserve Land. This morning, I strolled Hedgehog Mountain Park. Each outing was thoroughly enjoyed.

While many birders put their binoculars down in the month of July, I find quite a bit of enjoyment in the woods these days. For one, the second spurt of singing that often occurs in the first two weeks of the month liven morning outings. Secondly, it’s fledgling season!

Adults are busy foraging for food, fledglings are out and about learning the ropes, and all of this combines to make for a lot of activity. Keep you eyes open, and you’re likely to see adults with beaks full of insects. Follow one for a bit, and you may be lucky enough to discover a nest, or a family of recently-fledged kids.

All of my walks in the past few days have yielded such observations. It’s a great time to hit your local patch and “confirm” breeding activity by seeing adults carrying food, occupied nests, or recently fledged juveniles. Meanwhile, some birds in their often-short-lived juvenal plumages can provide some educating identification quandaries, and most field guides do not include these pre-“immature” plumages.

Also, believe it or not, “fall” migration is now underway. The first southbound shorebirds are already being reported, and our earliest passerines are also on the move.

By month’s end, the migration of adult shorebirds will be in full swing, and “post-breeding dispersal” will be underway. This is when birds, finished with their breeding duties, wander around in search of food, and perhaps prospecting for new territories for next year. Post-breeding dispersal brings stuff like Great Egrets far inland in Maine, and offers the potential to produce a rarity or two – terns and waders in particular.

Seabirding can also be very good, and onshore winds – when there isn’t fog! – can provide some great birding, and some great birds. It’s also the time of year to head offshore to visit seabird breeding islands, and search for pelagic species.

And, we do have a limited amount of spaces remaining for our ½-Day Pelagic out of Portland on Saturday (6/12). The trip runs from 5:30am to 11:30am, and leaves from Long Wharf on Commercial Street in Portland.

After a quick cruise past Outer Green Island for Roseate and Common Terns, Black Guillemot, etc, we’ll head offshore and chum for the rest of the trip. Last July’s outing was wildly successful, with dozens of Sooty and Greater Shearwaters, 200+ Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, 8-9 Northern Fulmars, and one Atlantic Puffin.

Some of the marine mammal possibilities at this time of year are Gray Seal, Fin Whale, Minke Whale, Humpbacked Whale, Common Dolphin, and Atlantic White-sided Dolphin, while Harbor Seals are to be expected.

Trip reports from our extremely successful 2007 outing can be found here:
http://outdoors.mainetoday.com/naturewatching/fieldnotes/013817.html
and
http://www.kiroastro.com/writings/pelagic.html

Leaders will include Derek Lovitch, Ed Hess, Luke Seitz, and Doug Suitor as our marine mammal specialist, with another spotter TBA. Dan Nickerson will once again be maintaining the chum slick.

For reservations, contact See Life Paulagics at info@paulagics.com, or by calling 215-234-6805. Or, you can call the Wild Bird Center at 207-846-9002, or email yarmouthwbc@yahoo.com

And finally today, I will share with you the photos of the Rotary Park Lawrence’s Warbler that my client, Lynn Barber, photographed last week. It’s really a gorgeous bird, isn’t it!