Periods of heavy rain were forecasted throughout the day on Thursday, so I elected to spend the morning watching more of the Tour de France while competing in my personal Tour De Living Room on my stationary bike. Good thing, too, as the predicted downpours did in fact occur. (If birding-by-car is to your liking, however, I would highly recommend spending some time in the next few days checking out lawns, playing fields, mowed hay fields, etc for migrant shorebirds!)

But, all was not lost for birding on this day. The biggest surprise came on my afternoon walk with Sasha to Royal River Park. Sasha comes to the store with us two or three times a week, and each of those days, we take an afternoon stroll down to the river for her to swim in. And, as always, I take my binoculars along # just in case. Even in the middle of the afternoon, this little park is often surprisingly birdy, and I know some day I am going to be sprinting back to the store with some amazing rarity discovery. While that "mega" has so far eluded me, I did have a real treat today when I stumbled upon a Louisiana Waterthrush. It was calling from the dense riparian bushes near the base of the falls, and I pished it right in for a point-blank view! This is a rather rare, and extremely local, bird in Maine, so it was a very exciting find # and a sure sign that fall passerine migration is indeed underway!

Earlier in the day however - in addition to the Tour de France - I spent quite a bit of time watching our hummingbird feeders. Three fresh juveniles have appeared, bringing our total hummer activity up to 6 birds, with two females and a male continuing. We have three feeders up at the moment, and are filling at least one of them every day!

This was our first "confirmed breeding" of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in #or at least in close proximity to # our yard. This serves as a testament to the work we have done improving our five acres of habitat here in Pownal. This is our fourth summer here, and each year, we have seen a steady improvement in the numbers of birds breeding in our yard.

In the case of the hummers, we have added numerous planting to provide them with insects and nectar. Bee Balm, Cardinal Flower, Turtlehead, and other are providing nectar, while we regularly see them feeding on insects on many of our other flowers. Meanwhile, we have greatly expanded the amount of brush in the yard, including some dense thickets of brambles, which are perfect for nesting hummingbirds.

In our first summer in the house, there were very few flowers, and very few bushes # just mature woods and short-cut grass. We had three hummingbird feeders placed around the yard, but only saw hummers for a short period in May when migrants were passing through, with some visits again during fall migration. Same for year two. However, last year, we had a pair spend the entire summer in the yard # although we never did confirm breeding. This year, two females and one male (the males may mate with more than one female) have been present and accounted for since early May. And, now, we've got kids!

In addition to hummers, we keep track of all of the birds that breed in our yard. Using breeding bird atlas" style methodology, we keep track of birds that are deemed to be either "possibly," "probably," or "confirmed" as breeding in and around our yard. A singing male for example is a "possible" breeder, but if it is clearly territorial, it becomes a "probable" breeder, and when it is seen carrying food, it is a "confirmed" breeder, for example.

This year, we have already confirmed 9 breeding species (we confirmed only 6 species in 2006 and 2007, but the 9 species confirmed in 2005 was due to a considerable amount of effort spent looking for nests), which are: Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, Eastern Phoebe, Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Chipping Sparrow, and Purple Finch. And additional 20 species are currently listed as "probable" breeders, including 5 species of warblers: Pine, Black-and-white, Yellow-rumped, Black-throated Green, and Ovenbird. A territorial Brown Creeper is our first "probable" breeding record of this species. Meanwhile, four species are "possibly" breeding, including a Black-throated Blue Warbler that has spent the entire summer singing from in and around our yard. I believe that this is a subadult bird that is staking claim to inadequate territory, but it is good practice for the fella. Plus, it's our first summering B.T. Blue.

That makes for 33 species that are either breeding, or suspected to be breeding on our five little acres. And, although we still have plenty of time left to confirm additional breeding species, this is a marked improvement over the 28 species that we entertained in our first summer!

On Friday morning, I checked the radar, and noticed that the rain had finally moved off to the east # for now anyway. Therefore, I took the opportunity to head down to Seawall Beach in Phippsburg. I've been jonesin' for some shorebirds, and with the stormy southerly flow of late, a rare tern seemed like a good target # and Seawall is about as good as anywhere to find one.

The good news was that I enjoyed a rain-free morning, and there were even a few peaks of sun through the low clouds and fog. The bad news was that I was a bit too late in arriving at the beach, and therefore the tide was farther out than I hoped. That meant a lot of beach walking, and a lot of spread out shorebirds. Plus, many had already moved upriver to feed on exposed tidal flats.

Nevertheless, I did have a decent shorebird total, and I thoroughly enjoyed a rain-free walk along the beach (boy, the beach is a lot longer these days though, thanks to the eastward shift of the Morse River) and through the Morse Mountain Preserve. Here are the totals:
98 Semipalmated Plovers
74 Semipalmated Sandpipers
41 Sanderlings
2 adult Piping Plovers
1 Black-bellied Plover
1 Lesser Yellowlegs
1 Ruddy Turnstone (my first of the fall)
And by the way, there are only 37 days until the start of the Rutgers Football season. I know you are all counting down as well! Here's a link to a great preview of this year's team from Sports Illustrated.