After Thursday night’s victory celebration, I wasn’t out the door nearly as early as I had hoped for on Friday morning. Then, it began to rain. However, Allen and I did make a short trip to the Armond Bayou Nature Center – where I had originally planned on heading after Challenger 7 Park on Wednesday. However, the occasional showers, gusty wind, and long wait for breakfast tacos abbreviated our visit. This park, especially the restored prairie, really seemed worthy of further exploration.

I only added Cedar Waxwing to my unofficial "trip list," but I did get more opportunities to study Orange-crowned Warblers. Plus, I was impressed by the size of one of the Pine Warbler flocks that I happened upon. The varied habitats, and lengthy trail system of this park no doubt held many more suprises. Well, maybe next year, although to be honest, our sights are set much higher than another trip to the Texas Bowl!

I arrived back in Maine Friday night, just before 9pm. At 6:45am Saturday morning, Bob rolled up to join me on the Brunswick-Freeport Christmas Bird Count – and we met Rich a short while later. Exhaustion from my trip, and a mildly sprained knee (apparently thanks to my late-night sprint after a cab when one of my friends realized that she left her wallet in it – luckily, I caught the cab, but my knee paid the price!) failed to slow us down. However, the weather soon slowed us down significantly.

By 9:30, light flurries turned into a steady snowfall, and by mid-afternoon nearly 4 inches has fallen. Heavier bursts of snow limited bird’s activity, and our ability to detect them, but we pushed on. However, when Bob nearly put his 4WD light SUV in a ditch, we decided to call it quits at about 2:30. We covered about 2/3rds of the territory, producing only 25 species (my 4-yr average for this territory is 30), led by 239 Black-capped Chickadees and 152 American Goldfinches. 21 Wild Turkeys were under the same feeder that they have been for the last 3 counts, and our “best” birds were a flock of an undetermined number of Common Redpolls that passed overhead, calling, but never seen.

Now, sleep deprivation, poor nutrition (just what food group is beer in anyway?), and sitting next to someone who was sick on the plane has rendered me feeling like I was just hit by a Rutgers blitz (I’m guessing I feel a lot like KSU’s Quarterback did on Friday morning!). So, tomorrow’s weather forecast calling for rain and ice will actually be welcome. I’m thinking tea and the “other” bowl games will be on my New Year’s Day schedule!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Ah, yes, the sweet taste of victory! Well, it only took 137 years, but Rutgers – The State University of New Jersey – has finally won a Bowl game. We simply crushed Kansas State in the inaugural Texas Bowl in Houston Thursday night, 37-10.

While I normally do enjoy a “good” game, I was more than happy with the utter domination: RU gained 479 yards on offense, and only yielded 162 yards on defense! After suffering through only 8 total wins in my four years at the school, and so many nailbiters – my friend Mark and I have a theory that being a fan of RU athletics decreases your life expectancy – I was not interested in any drama for a change! Heck, that triple-overtime loss to West Virginia this season knocked a solid three days off of my life on its own.

I could go on and on, but if you do in fact care to read anymore about the Scarlet Knights, simply check out the Star-Ledger on NJ.com and ScarletNation.com, and many other sites.

Before leaving for the Texas Bowl, Jeannette and I spent our Christmas with my family in New Jersey. We snuck in some birding early Christmas morning with a visit to Allaire State Park. There were hundreds of White-throated Sparrows, and a smattering of the other expected species, such as Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Carolina Wrens, Carolina Chickadees, and one single Field Sparrow.

I spent a couple of hours this morning seawatching once again from Dyer Point in Cape Elizabeth. I was soon joined by Charlie, David, Robbie, and Mike. All of us were looking for alcids, especially Dovekies. In a little less than 2 hours, we saw 4 birds – three that flew by, but one that landed close to shore. A handful (7) Razorbills passed by farther offshore.

If tomorrow wasn’t the busiest shopping day of the year, I would certainly be camped out for the long-haul at Dyer Point. A strong storm (which is predicted to produce mostly, if not all, rain for us here at the coast – although the composition and duration of the mix keeps changing) should produce a sustained period of strong onshore winds. With all of the Dovekies nearshore already, there is the potential for a big “wreck” of these birds and other alcids along the shore. Tomorrow would be a very good day to bird the coast, especially seawatching and checking sheltered coves.

Hopefully, some of the storm’s bounty will be around on Sunday morning, where I should be able to sneak in a few hours before the store opens. Then, it’s on to Joisey for Christmas. Looking forward to seeing family and Carolina Chickadees, but I am NOT looking forward to that drive!

But, Tuesday afternoon, I board a plane for Houston for the Texas Bowl! GO RUTGERS! Hopefully, our first ever Bowl victory will be my belated Christmas gift this year.

I’m planning on a half day or two out of birding, so that should be an added bonus. I won’t venture far from town – maybe head to Galveston at the coast if I get ambitious, but otherwise, I’ll hit a few local parks on the southeast side of town where my friend lives. At the very least, I should get to see some birds that I don’t see very often here in Maine. And, if anyone happens to run into a Groove-billed Ani while I’m around, I may just have to make a quick run for it! (Actually, one of the parks I’m planning on hitting is supposed to be decent for this rare and local – in winter anyway – species).

So, with that I leave you with best wishes for a Happy Holiday, and of course – GO RUTGERS! See ya in a week . . .

Jeannette and I get a lot of calls and inquiries about strange birds. “I have this bird in my backyard that I never seen before, and it looks like . . . What is it?” is a common question that we receive. We always do our best to answer it. In fact, I enjoy these challenges. More often than not the “rare” bird turns out to be a rather common species that someone had simply not noticed before. Hey, everything is a life bird at some point!

Sometimes these challenges are easy, sometime they are impossible. Sometimes, perfect descriptions are provided, and we can come to a quick conclusion. Other times, this is not the case. And often, the strangest descriptions come from non-birders. Simply, if you’re not used to looking at, and then describing birds, it is a very challenging thing to do! How does a non-birder know to look for a wing bar if they don’t know what a wing bar is?

But anyway, this is one of the challenges that owning a retail wild bird store provides. Each time, Jeannette and I do our best to answer it – and hopefully get the bird correct! And, every now and then, you find out about something REALLY good this way.

That was the case this time, well, sort of anyway. We got a call from a customer, who had a very odd duck in her yard. She has a small pond in her Falmouth backyard, and a group of Mallards visits it daily as they sample her feeders nearby. Well, three days ago, they had a “friend” with them.

After looking through numerous books, Nancy concluded that the bird was a Pochard. Her description fit – although not perfectly to my ears. However, this was because I was picturing a Common Pochard, which as occurred in North America – mostly, if not exclusively, in the western Alaskan Islands however.

A week or so ago, I excitedly reported that I finally spotted my first Dovekie in Maine. Well, just like when I finally spotted my previous nemesis – Buff-breasted Sandpiper, when it rains, it pours!

Now, I’m seeing Dovekies everywhere. OK, not necessarily everywhere, but specific places along the coast that I am going to specifically to look for Dovekies. Apparently, something is happening in the Gulf of Maine that is producing exceptional numbers of Dovekies, and Razorbills, in nearshore waters. A week or so ago, when I came up with some winter predications, I mentioned that alcids can irrupt into nearshore waters due to an abundance of food inshore, or a dearth of food offshore. Dovekies eat things like krill and euphasids. Razorbills eat mostly small fish. So, either there’s a lot of that inshore, or none of it offshore. Water temperature, currents, climate change, overfishing, and other things can effect the distribution of alcids. Whatever is going on, it is producing lots of Razorbills and Dovekies nearshore.

Today, I spotted one Dovekie flying by East Point in Biddeford Pool, but I also tallied 45 Razorbills heading south (plus 12 unidentified “large alcids” that were likely Razorbills). A couple of Razorbills were on the water, rather close to shore.

Also today, while spending the morning birding Biddeford Pool, I enjoyed seeing a wheeling flock of about 300 Purple Sandpipers wheeling around, shuffling between rocks, off of Ocean Drive, and a very tardy Hermit Thrush in the neighborhood.

Yesterday, while participating in the Southern York County Christmas Bird Count, Luke, Lysle, and I enjoyed a spectacular alcid show. We covered the northernmost territory in the circle, from the ocean west to the Maine Turnpike, between Moody Point and downtown Ogunquit. We tallied a very respectable 55 species, including two Dovekies (one, a dawn fly-by off of Moody Point, and the other quite close to shore along the northern end of Marginal Way) and a total of 57 Razorbills on the day, mostly fly-bys off of Moody Point and Ogunquit Beach.

Yesterday’s Greater Portland Christmas Bird Count was a great success, with a preliminary total of 101 species being recorded. Ridiculously mild weather helped to increase participation and coverage, while the complete lack of ice or snow allowed many species (especially waterfowl) to linger much later than usual. Some great birds were found by the group as a whole (I’ll summarize this for Thursday’s Southcoastal Maine Rare Bird Alert), and my effort on the Portland Peninsula was extremely fruitful.

I began at dawn on the Eastern Promenade, birded lots on the East End, walked the piers of the Old Port, birded West Commercial Street and along the new Commercial Street extension, along with the Western Promenade, Western Cemetery, a few blocks of the West End, and finished up at Deering Oaks Park. In 5 1/3 hours, I covered 7 miles by foot, and 7.6 miles by car. Despite being confined to the urban Portland Peninsula, I managed to tease out 35 species.

I had the highest totals for Rock Pigeon, Northern Cardinal, and House Sparrow. I also lucked into the 2nd count records of Orange-crowned Warbler and Chipping Sparrow – great birds indeed. I couldn’t find my Baltimore Oriole from Friday’s scouting, but I think I made up for it! Plus, the fact that I was participating in a CBC in Maine without a jacket on was amazing – we just missed another new record high, falling a degree short at 52F. Actually, I thought it was TOO nice – a CBC isn’t the same without a little suffering!

Here’s the tally for my section:

Yesterday, I enjoyed the balmy (a new record high of 55 in Portland) day and spent the morning walking my long loop around Pownal (6-7 miles). I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of activity, with lots of Black-capped Chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and the usual winter residents out and about. A flock of 20+ Wild Turkeys were fun to watch, and two flyover Purple Finches were the first that I have seen in a couple of weeks.

Today, I spent the morning scouting the Portland Peninsula for tomorrow’s Christmas Bird Count. The bird of the morning was a Baltimore Oriole that I found in the same Sheridan Street lot that produced the Yellow-breasted Chat earlier this fall – this place has been on fire this fall! Hopefully, I’ll be able to refind the oriole tomorrow, and I wouldn’t mind a better look than I had today (there was one view that seemed to suggest that there was a lot of white in the wing. . . hmmmm.)

I checked a number of other lots in the East End. Since you can’t possibly check every single nook and cranny during a CBC, scouting in the days before help to refine your route to maximize you time in the most productive places. These places often change from year to year, and besides, since this is only my fourth time doing this section, I am still refining my route. I then scouted some of the piers of Old Port, and some of the side streets in the West End (looking for active feeders in particular).

I checked Deering Oaks Park, hoping to see where the resident Red-tailed Hawks were hanging out, but I was happy to see open water in the park this year – which will bolster my Mallard, American Black Duck, and Ring-billed Gull counts tomorrow. I also checked here and there for where the rambunctious European Starling flock is feeding these days (on Hawthorns on Munjoy Hill).

Finally, while multi-tasking in Old Port (checking gardens and courtyards while Christmas Shopping), I spotted a Peregrine Falcon overhead.

Once again, I heard from Jeannette, “This is why I don’t chase birds!” But yet again, here we were chasing a bird on our day off. Today’s target was a Greater White-fronted Goose that was discovered last week in the Fryeburg area.

Admittedly though, this chase was really just an excuse to visit the Fryeburg area - which has some great birding habitats, to hike in the mountains (or foothills), and to go to this great sausage shop in North Conway, NH. We hadn’t been to the area in a while, so the chance at a State Bird was a good enough reason to head in that direction.

We arrived at the fields that the goose was in an immediately found the flock of Canada Geese that it has been traveling with. 183 Canadas, but no White-front. We did, however, enjoy two Northern Harriers – an adult male and a female, and two Snow Buntings passed overhead. We wandered around the roads of Fryeburg Harbor, but didn’t find anymore geese.

And sometimes, wandering around looking for birds produces highlights that we never would have found if we weren’t out birding. For example, on our way to Fryeburg Harbor, we stumbled upon the Hemlock Bridge, which according to the sign there designating it as a Maine Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, which (built in 1857) is now the “Oldest surviving example of a Paddleford Truss system used in a Maine covered bridge.

I began the morning at Portland’s Dragon Field, hoping to add a Northern Shrike to my Patch list. No luck with that, or much else for that matter – it was dead! Evergreen Cemetery – where I was hoping for winter finches – was almost as unproductive.

However, Capisic Pond Park once again produced! Even when it doesn’t have a rarity, it always seems to produce good numbers of common species. In other words, there’s always lots of activity and something to look at.

While the three Swamp Sparrows today were the “good birds” for the morning, I thoroughly enjoyed the 13 Northern Cardinals – 8 of which were males, which certainly brightened an otherwise gray and dreary morning. The 75-100 House Finches that split time between a crabapple tree, a nearby feeder, and some Evening Primrose that avoided the mowing, may have been the largest flock of this species that I have encountered in Maine. 12 White-throated Sparrows, 9 Song Sparrows, 6 American Tree Sparrows, and 2 Dark-eyed Juncos were tallied – definitely the most sparrow-age that I have seen in a couple of weeks!

After scanning Back Cove (lots of Bufflehead, American Black Ducks, and an increasing number of Common Goldeneyes) for a bit, I headed downtown for some Christmas Shopping.

I ventured north to begin my morning today at Sabattus Pond. I was surprised to see a fair amount of ice on the lake, especially at the productive southeast end. Nevertheless, I had a very good tally of waterbirds:
172 Common Mergansers (a few large groups of which launched up and disappeared high in the sky, heading south).
166 Ruddy Ducks
139 Mallards
139 Ring-billed Gulls (probably the most that I have tallied here)
50 Unidentified Scaup (a little too far, but they were probably Lessers)
28 Greater Scaup
12 Lesser Scaup
17 Herring Gulls
6 Common Goldeneyes
5 American Black Duck
5 Bufflehead
4 Hooded Mergansers
3 Great Black-backed Gulls
1 1st Cycle Bald Eagle

I then wandered around towards Cobboseecontee Lake, enjoying a close pass by a 4th Cycle Bald Eagle at Cochewagon Lake in Monmouth. I was very surprised to see how much ice was on “Cobbosee,” and the productive southern end was thickly iced in. However, one view from the west edge produced two Common Loons, and two Long-tailed Ducks. One distant cormorant was intriguing – either a very late Double-crested or a rare-inland Great.

Woodbury Pond was also frozen, so I headed to Merrymeeting Bay to seek out open water. A few stops didn’t produce too much – the tide was low, and most of the locations I was checking were better at high tide – but my third eagle of the day, an immature of an undetermined age, was at the mouth of the Abagadasset River in Bowdoinham.

After a couple more brief stops, I headed south to the Harraseeket River in Freeport, hoping to see a newly arrived Barrow’s Goldeneye or two. Not yet, but there is a growing amount of duckage here. 2 Red-throated Loons were off of the South Freeport Town Landing, and a goodly 5 were off of Winslow Park. 13 Dunlin and 41 Purple Sandpipers (a very good count for interior Casco Bay) were here as well.

And speaking of winter . . . that was a pleasant (for me anyway!( suprise this morning to wake up to a few inches of snow! The forcasts had only called for a few scattered snow showers, so this one cam out of no where, dropping up to 7" on the area. It was a perfect morning for feeder watching - especially with a hot cup of tea or coffee (shade-grown of course!) - which is exactly how I spent MY morning.

Yesterday, I began to babble about my winter birding predictions. Here's Part II of that dribble:

As for the frugivores, Pine Grosbeak and Bohemian Waxwing in a particular, I’m guessing we won’t see many of these this winter. Fruit crops – especially Mountain Ash and Winterberry – to our north and west are tremendous, and it will take a while for these guys to eat their way into Maine. However, if they do arrive here – likely late in the winter – we should still have food around for them, but American Robins and Cedar Waxwings – both of which should stick around, and more will likely arrive from farther north as the season progresses – will likely consume much of it.

As for predators, Rough-legged Hawk are nowhere to be found, but a few early Snowy Owls signal that there may be a lack of rodents on the tundra. Maybe this year will produce widespread Snowy Owl sightings. That would certainly be welcome! But, what about the other northern owls? We can only hope!

I have been thwarted in my previous two attempts to explore the new trail (which circumnavigates the lake) at Florida Lake Park in Freeport due to high water, but today’s attempt was a success. A nice new trail, with 4x6 plank bridges over some of the wettest areas, makes for a very pleasant stroll through some great woodland and riparian habitat.

It passes through some nice mixed woods, with some patches dominated by Yellow and White Birch, and other patches dominated by Eastern Hemlock and Balsam Fir. In other words, it looks great for finches! And, just as I thought that this, a White-winged Crossbill flew over, calling. A few minutes later, I heard a small flock up ahead. They sounded like they were either feeding, or just taking off from feeding – or maybe even flying in a tight loop just overhead. Regardless, I never did happen upon them again.

However, this was a very good sign – along with our Crossbills in Camden Hills on Tuesday, and reports from Northern Maine of a lot of finches – maybe we will have a decent finch winter afterall. So, speaking of finches this winter, I will now go out on a limb and try to make some predictions about what our winter birding – finches and others – will hold in store for us.

Most of our winter finches are irruptive (in some years they go farther in larger numbers than most years), and irruptions are caused by food. In years with a lot of food in the species’ normal home range, they don’t irrupt. If there’s little food, they may irrupt to look for food elsewhere. Sometimes these irruptions are predictable. If there’s a lot of a certain food resource to our north, the species that depend on them are not likely to head very far. Spruce, fir, birches, and alders are all important food sources that have cyclical production – some years they produce a lot, in other years they don’t. In other words, these northern denizens are simply nomadic – they travel to where the food is.

It looks like winter weather has arrived here in Maine, and I for one, am quite happy about it. Hopefully, it will last . . .

Jeannette and I enjoyed a wintry hike in the cold air and snow-dusted woods of Camden Hills State Park yesterday. We spent the morning hiking around the park. As expected this time of year, few birds were encountered in the woods, but we had a very pleasant surprise as we summitted Mount Battie.

Crossbills! In the distance, we heard some chatter of a flock of birds. By the time the synapses finally fired up and we realized that the calls were from a flock of 18 White-winged Crossbills, they were now passing overhead, heading south over the summit. We just got our bins on the tail end of the flock, as they disappeared into the distance. Then, a short while later, when we were just below the summit, we heard – but this time did not see – a Red Crossbill as it also passed overhead. There are some finches around this year!

After lunch in Camden – and a quick check of the harbor area, we slowly meandered south, checking a number of coastal sites along the way. We explored a few side roads in Camden and Rockport, with Lily Pond (2 Hooded Mergansers and 4 Bufflehead today) being a site worth remembering, along with the Rockport Marine Park, which gave me a “good bird someday” vibe.

Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow . . . Finally, a little winter around here – enough with these 60 degree temps!

Before the short-lived snowfall began, I was at Dyer Point at Cape Elizabeth, scanning the suprisingly calm ocean waters. It was supposed to be a quick check to see if any Harlequin Ducks were near the shore, but 45 minutes had blown by when the snow began to fall and visibility was reduced. Despite a very light – and variable wind – my brief bought of seawatching was very productive.

Since the visibility was so good, and the water so calm (with only a 1-3 foot swell, but no chop whatsoever), I just had to look around for a while to see if anything was moving. I thought I might spot a Razorbill – which I did, but 11 southbound Black Guillemots were a good count. 26 Common Eider, 20 Northern Gannets, 10 adult Black-legged Kittiwakes, 9 Harlequin Ducks, 7 Black Scoters, 3 Red-throated Loons, 2 Common Goldeneye, 1 Long-tailed Duck, 1 Common Loon, 1 Bonaparte’s Gull, and the aforementioned Razorbill and Guillemots were all tallied heading south. However, while quantity was low, quality was VERY good. In addition to those birds, I enjoyed a Pomarine Jaeger (an immature) – which I am always happy to see, but also a overdue, yet unexpected addition to my Maine list – a Dovekie!

This miniscule little alcid, measuring a mere 8 ¼ inches (only the Least Auklet of the North Pacific is smaller) spends most of its life on the open ocean, far from land. It’s a real treat to spot one of these little gnomes from land. They’re not rare at all, but they just stay very far out to sea for all but the breeding season. Therefore, this was a great sighting – at least from a rare-occurrence perspective. The sighting itself wasn’t exactly great - it was REALLY FAR out there, but the minute size, plump, football-like shape, and black-above, white-below pattern is unmistakably in the Atlantic. Flying south, it was coming slightly closer to shore before landing near a lobster trap buoy – which completely dwarfed it. It then dove, and I never saw it again.

Shell-shocked, crushed, deflated, dumbfounded . . . yup, all of those would fit how I am feeling today after the game last night. It took three overtimes, but we fell just a little short. No BCS game for Rutgers. No Miami birding for me.

Instead, llast night’s devastating loss to West Virginia, 41-39 in triple overtime, will likely send us to the inaugural Texas Bowl in Houston. Yeah, Houston! Well, I have never been there, at least.

Ya know, if anyone had said we would have fallen a two-point conversion short of a BCS game at the beginning of the season, even a tried and true, scarlet-bleeding Rutgers fan like me wouldn’t have believed it. The stars were aligned – even the West Virginia stars – or lackthereof as superstar Pat White was not able to play!

But now, having been so close that I could almost taste oranges (we would have likely gone to the Orange Bowl in Miami with a win last night), we deal with the taste of defeat and the dreaded day-after what-ifs? What if we made the conversion to send it to a 4th overtime? But, what if Townsend didn’t drop that pass that would of put us up by a touchdown with 4 minutes left in regulation? What if we called a better play than the 3rd down pass that was broken up before the 51-yard field goal attempt by The Judge? (Run Leonard up the middle behind Corcoran to either get the first down, or shave a couple of yards off the field goal attempt). That horrible call was overshadowed only by the ridiculous two-point conversion play that ended the game? (Come on, no running back in the backfield; that situation was screaming draw play!). To take the what ifs a little further, what if the refs didn’t blow the play dead when Slaton fumbled – and Rutgers returned the fumble for a touchdown? Ugh, I hate what-ifs. But, that’s what a football fan does in the aftermath of a defeat like that.

But hey, we’re going to a bowl game for the third time in the school’s history, and for the first-time ever we’re going to a bowl two years in a row. Oh, wait, this is a BIRDING blog, isn’t it. Sorry.