I skipped out of work a little early on Friday to check some flooded fields on "my way" home # OK, a very roundabout way home! A single Greater Yellowlegs was in a front lawn on Middle Rd in Cumberland, and two Lesser Yellowlegs and 5 Killdeer were at Spring Brook Farm off of Greely Road. Now, for the record, if you're casually scanning the marsh/flood at Spring Brook Farm with binoculars and you see some wacky passerine feeding in weeds in the distance that just "had to be good," and you rush to your car, almost getting clipped by a dump truck to fetch a scope and camera and then have to wait impatiently for traffic to pass while knowing that the bird was going to leave . . . well . . .don't bother . . . it's a House Sparrow with white wings . . .

Continuing on the loop, there was a Great Egret in the ponds of the Toddy Brook Golf Course. I had high hopes for a patch bird or two when I found the lower fields completely flooded at Old Town House Park in North Yarmouth, but unfortunately, it was shorebird-free. One lone Lesser Yellowlegs was in a flooded field on Merrill Road in Freeport.

Then, on Saturday, my birdwalk group enjoyed an excellent outing to Wharton Point and Highland Road in Brunswick (see our website, as always, for a complete birdwalk summary), which enjoyed 8 species of shorebirds among the other fun stuff.

On Sunday, Doug and I headed south for a long, full day of shorebirding. We met at the store at 6:00am, and rolled back in at almost exactly 6:00pm. 12 hours produced 14 species of shorebirds (a little disappointing, actually), but an extremely enjoyable day. For one thing, we were out birding all day. For another, it was actually dry # and partly sunny # and even rather warm! What a concept!

We began at Biddeford Pool, hitting all of the sites at shorebirding prime-time. Unfortunately, fog precluded us from any early-morning seawatching, and it did hamper our efforts at scanning distant mudflats and sandbars all morning. A smattering of Yellow Warblers included a few high-flying, calling migrants, but our mission was shorebirds.

This juvenile Cooper's Hawk landed on a wire in front of us as we walked Ocean Ave in Biddeford Pool. He was just too cooperative to not snap a few digiscoped shots. Unfortunately, I was too close!

Basket Island and Hill's Beach in the fog.

After the Biddeford Pool area, we decided to check out Laudholm Beach in Wells. There were a decent amount of shorebirds, but admittedly, it was a rare tern that I was hoping for here today. Unfortunately, not a single tern of any flavor was present this afternoon.

Our next stop was the Winding Brook Turf Farm, which hosted an out-of-place Great Egret, and a smattering of shorebirds. However, there were significantly fewer birds here than when Jeannette and I visited it on Tuesday. My guess is that a lot of birds left the area in the fair weather of Saturday and Saturday night.

Our final stop of the day was the salt pannes at high tide at Scarborough Marsh. Although we knew the pannes would be brimming with all of the recent rainwater, we decided to try our luck anyway. There were some shorebirds, and plenty of molting sharp-tailed sparrows, but a total of 13 Little Blue Herons made the extra trip a little more worthwhile.

Here are our shorebird "high counts" for the day:
Black-bellied Plover: 20+, The Pool, Biddeford Pool.
Semipalmated Plover: 60+, Laudholm Beach.
Killdeer: 30, Winding Brook Turf Farm, Lyman.
Greater Yellowlegs: 6, The Pool.
Lesser Yellowlegs: 3, Laudholm Beach.
Eastern Willet: 3, The Pool.
Spotted Sandpiper: 11, East Point and Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool.
Whimbrel: 7, The Pool.
Ruddy Turnstone: 29, East Point and Ocean Avenue, Biddeford Pool.
Sanderling: 56, Laudholm Beach.
Semipalmated Sandpiper: 150+ (including my first juveniles of the year), Biddeford Pool Beach.
Least Sandpiper: 20+, The Pool.
White-rumped Sandpiper: 4, Biddeford Pool Beach.
Short-billed Dowitcher: 29, Hill's Beach.

Stepping out at about 9:30 last night, I was surprised to hear quite a few flight calls passing overhead. Yup, it's fall!

But, this morning, passerines were still not my focus, as I began with an hour of seawatching at Dyer Point in Cape Elizabeth with a light ENE wind. In an hour, I didn't see much # a steady trickle of Laughing Gulls (30) were the only obvious migrants going by. I was very surprised to not see a single Wilson's Storm-Petrel. However, I did spot a Parasitic Jaeger. ANY day that I see a jaeger is a good day in my book!

After Dyer Point, I walked through Kettle Cove, Crescent Beach State Park, and finally Two Lights State Park. Common Yellowthroats # including many juveniles # were in abundance; with at least 16 encountered this morning. A decent amount of shorebirds on Crescent Beach was led by 54 Semipalmated Plovers, and a Brown Thrasher was in the scrub. A female Eastern Towhee was at Two Lights State Park, with a sprinkling of Ruddy Turnstones foraging along the shoreline. And, the rain held off for at least one more morning of excellent, and dry, birding.