The heavy rain had yet to arrive by dawn on Monday, so I took advantage of a surprisingly nice morning to visit the Libby Hill Forest Recreation Area in Gray. Over 6 miles of trails (I walked 5.3 miles of them this morning) wind through mostly upland woods dominated by White Pine, Red Oak, and Red Maple. On this morning, there were plenty of territorial Yellow-rumped and Pine Warblers, plus a LOT of Chipping Sparrows. I ended up with 35 species for the morning, including my first Eastern Towhee and Black-throated Green Warbler of the year, as well as a Ruffed Grouse and 3 fly-over Evening Grosbeaks. The wooded swamp along the Outback Trail is probably the most interesting habitat here (but take note that the trail – although well marked – is not well-trodden, and I collected a fair number of ticks), and Moose poop and sign was quite common. This park will definitely be worth checking in June or early July for breeding birds, and there is definitely some patch-listing potential if you live nearby.

Speaking of patch listing, as you may have noticed, I have been spending a lot of time at my local parks this spring. In part, it is my desire to continue to reduce my gasoline consumption (both for environmental and fiscal reasons!). But, it is also because of my interest in patch listing, and my quest to find my next great patch. And, with some excellent birding at each location of late, it’s hard for me to want to travel further afield.

Last fall, I blogged about my interest in Patch Listing, and my search for new patches in the Pownal area. (Read that entry here).

At the time, I was contemplating which park to make my second local patch. At the time, I concluded that each potential patch had enough birding potential, that it was worth exploring further. Over the winter, and so far this spring, I made it a point to visit one of the potential patches each week. Thanks in large part to this winter’s irruption of finches, shrikes, and frugivores, I added some great birds to each list.

My two original Patch Lists grew this winter as well:
Eastern Promenade, Portland:
#158 Northern Shrike, 2/3.
#159 Purple Sandpiper, 3/8.

Dragon Field, Portland:
#151 Pine Grosbeak, 12/8.
#152 Northern Shrike, 3/29.
#153 Bohemian Waxwing, 3/29.

It seems we are now going to pay the price for the glorious weather of the last two weeks! An unsettled pattern should develop, thanks to a large trough of low pressure. However, we can actually use the rain now, as this prolonged dry period has parched the surface enough that we are seeing very high fire danger here in Southern Maine at the moment. Plus, our gardens could use a good quenching – and I’ll be happy not to be behind the hose watering my new fruiting bushes for a few days.

After above-normal temperatures for the better part of the past two weeks, we are now due to see a period of below-normal temps. That, combined with the wet flow off the still-cold ocean, will produce some rather raw weather. Insects, especially flying ones, will not be abundant, and flowering plants may get delayed again. Therefore, with hummingbirds and orioles, among others, due to arrive in the very near future, make sure your feeding station is well stocked with fruit, jelly, and nectar. Remember, in those hummingbird feeders – DO NOT USE RED DYE! In fact, use NOTHING other than pure, white, granulated table sugar – which is 100% sucrose, which is what flower nectar essentially is (in a one-part sugar to four parts water ratio. Boil. Cool. Refill every 3-5 days, at this time of year, more often in the summer. Nothing more, nothing less!). While we are happy to provide the convenience of an “instant sugar” here at the store - that saves the boiling and cooling step - PLEASE avoid any of these commercial mixes that include things that a hummingbird doesn’t need, want, or even worse – could be deadly. In fact, the Red 40 used in many mixes, which is made from coal tar (!), has been linked with kidney failure and cancerous lesions. At the very least, you are wasting your money, and at the worst, we are killing our hummingbirds with kindness. Meanwhile, oranges and grape jelly (especially together on its own feeder) is exceptionally popular with early-arriving orioles, tanagers, catbirds, and others. And don’t forget mealworms – both live and dried – for those hungry insectivores! My guess is that the next week will produce some good feeder-watching, from hoards of White-throated Sparrows feasting on white millet on the ground to Pine Warblers snacking on suet cakes.

OK, moving on . . .With a light northerly flow overnight Thursday into Friday, very few birds were on the move. However, I did enjoy a nice aggregation of 75+ “Yellow” Palm Warblers and 50+ Yellow-rumped Warblers at Florida Lake. My guess is that these birds arrived earlier, possibly in the mini-fallout of Thursday morning. This park also tends to hold these two species for days after they arrive, thanks to a plethora of small, flying midges that hatch here this time of year. In fact, this park is probably my favorite late-April patch. On Friday, I also spotted my first Cliff Swallow of the year, cruising around with the local gang of Tree Swallows.

It was back to Florida Lake on Saturday morning with my birdwalk group, and it did not disappoint. My first Green Heron of the year flew over Rte 136 on our way to the park, and we also spotted my first Black-and-white Warbler of the year. A female Rusty Blackbird was a real crowd-pleaser, but the stars of the show this morning were the 150+ Yellow-rumped and 100+ “Yellow” Palm Warblers covering the edges of the park. (A complete run-down of the outing is on our website). The radar was down for maintenance, so I couldn’t download the radar images. However, my guess is that a moderate flight occurred on the light and variable winds overnight.

Not a whole lot moved Saturday night into Sunday, but a small flight of Yellow-rumped Warblers was still detectable in the morning. However, at Old Town House Park, I found very, very few migrants, although a nice look at a Wilson’s Snipe and a pair of nest-building Brown Creepers made the trip worthwhile. Then, I headed up to the Hawkwatch to see if there were any raptors moving on the calm winds ahead of an approaching front. Unfortunately, there were few – only 3 Osprey and 4 Broad-winged Hawks when I left at 11:30 (with a light drizzle beginning to fall). I think we saw our “pre-frontal flight” yesterday – 98 raptors, including an immature Northern Goshawk and TWO Black Vultures! However, there was a steady trickle of passerines - mostly Yellow-rumped Warblers and Purple Finches, but also a group of 7 Evening Grosbeaks.

Meanwhile, my guess is that we’ll be seeing a much slower hawkwcount this week than we have seen in the past 2 weeks due to the aforementioned weather pattern shift. However, at this time of year, birds have little time to dilly-dally, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see some decent flights – especially of small falcons – on less-than-ideal conditions. Furthermore, we have not yet seen our pulse of immature Broad-winged Hawks yet, so another wave of birds is still on the way. There’s a reason we count until May 15th!

Yesterday, I postulated that there was a chance for a fallout overnight. An approaching cold front, with scattered showers and thunderstorms, was passing through and would shift the winds from the southwest to the northwest. Such conditions are exactly what is needed for a “fallout,” our “grounding” of nocturnal migrants.

The front came through as expected, and the precipitation was slightly more widespread than predicted. The winds did indeed shift from the southwest to the northwest by morning. Now, I could have uploaded the radar immediately this morning, but that would have entailed getting up even earlier – or getting out the door even later. Instead, as usual, I elected to go birding first and look at the radar images later.

With the potential for a fallout, I headed down to Portland – since I needed to get some errands done anyway - and began at Evergreen Cemetery. This “urban oasis” is just the spot to enjoy a fallout if said fallout did indeed occur.

Upon arrivals, I was immediately greeted by a small group of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. A good sign indeed. In the next hour and a half, I estimated 90+ White-throated Sparrows, 60+ Yellow-rumped Warblers, 25+ Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and 12 Chipping Sparrows. 8 Yellow Palm Warblers, 6 Northern Flickers, 5 Hermit Thrushes, 4 Purple Finches, 3 Blue-headed Vireos, 2 Pine Warblers, 2 Savannah Sparrows, 1 Swamp Sparrow, and 1 Dark-eyed Junco rounded out my tally of migrants. Although this was by no means a major fallout, some of these birds – especially the White-throated Sparrows – had definitely arrived overnight, and in a larger concentration than we have been seeing recently. (Meanwhile, over at Hedgehog Mountain Park, Jeannette estimated 75 White-throated Sparrows while walking Sasha. Yesterday, I had 2 white-throats there).

I then birded Capisic Pond Park, which was its usual busy self, but mostly with resident and breeding birds. My migrant count was only 20+ White-throated Sparrows, 9 Yellow-rumped Warblers, and 5 Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Meanwhile, only a few migrants had landed in the “Mercy Woods” area of the Portland Peninsula – although 15+ Savannah Sparrows were present. Unfortunately, I ran out of time – and the wind was really picking up – before I could check out the Eastern Promenade, which has been the site of many a spectacular sparrow fallouts (and I was torn between beginning here or at Evergreen this morning).

So, clearly, some birds were on the move last night. My guess is that some birds were in fact grounded by the weather, but since the clouds cover and then the precipitation arrived earlier than I had expected, there were simply not too many birds in the air last night. Now, to see what actually happened overnight, I turn to our trusty NEXRAD radar.

There was only a light movement of birds overnight Sunday into Monday, according the radar. And, once again, it seemed that more birds departed than arrived. That certainly seemed to be the case for Luke and I as we covered a lot of ground, birding from Cape Elizabeth through Sprawlborough Marsh.

We began at Dyer Point with a little seawatching that produced, among other things, one Northern Gannet and one Great Cormorant within a flock of Double-crested. We then thoroughly birded Kettle Cove, Crescent Beach and Two Lights State Parks, the Great Pond Trail, the Runaway Farm Trail, and Massacre Pond. There was only a smattering of landbird migrants, led by Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Song Sparrows.

27 Ring-necked Ducks were in Grondin Pond, and the two Ruddy Ducks at Prout’s Pond were the birds of the day. A goodly three pairs, plus an additional drake, Northern Shoveler behind the Pelreco building was the Sprawlborough Marsh highlight, along with my first Little Blue Heron of the spring. 75 or so Glossy Ibis had just picked up out of the marsh, disappearing across the tracks, when we arrived, foiling our hopes of finding a vagrant White-faced Ibis. Otherwise, our total – among our various stops – of 12 Snowy and 5 Great Egrets, and 2 Greater Yellowlegs, were surprisingly low. Was everything out roosting at Stratton Island as the astronomically high tide – augmented by the easterly winds – flooded much of the marsh? Perhaps, but overall the birding here today was eerily quiet.

Light movements of birds occurred overnight both Monday-Tuesday and Tuesday-Wednesday. Clear and calm conditions once again allowed birds to proceed unimpeded. However, I enjoyed a very nice concentration of Yellow-rumped Warblers (100+) and “Yellow” Palm Warblers (30+) at Florida Lake Park on Tuesday morning, although this is probably mostly a remnant of the 300+ Yellow-rumps and 100+ Palms that Jeannette was treated to here on Sunday morning. Later, I also heard my first Blue-headed Vireo of the year at Bradbury Mountain. On Wednesday morning, a trickle of migrants was moving through Hedgehog Mountain Park, including 26 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 5 Pine Warblers, and 3 Blue-headed Vireos.

There was only a light movement of birds overnight Sunday into Monday, according the radar. And, once again, it seemed that more birds departed than arrived. That certainly seemed to be the case for Luke and I as we covered a lot of ground, birding from Cape Elizabeth through Sprawlborough Marsh.

We began at Dyer Point with a little seawatching that produced, among other things, one Northern Gannet and one Great Cormorant within a flock of Double-crested. We then thoroughly birded Kettle Cove, Crescent Beach and Two Lights State Parks, the Great Pond Trail, the Runaway Farm Trail, and Massacre Pond. There was only a smattering of landbird migrants, led by Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Song Sparrows.

27 Ring-necked Ducks were in Grondin Pond, and the two Ruddy Ducks at Prout’s Pond were the birds of the day. A goodly three pairs, plus an additional drake, Northern Shoveler behind the Pelreco building was the Sprawlborough Marsh highlight, along with my first Little Blue Heron of the spring. 75 or so Glossy Ibis had just picked up out of the marsh, disappearing across the tracks, when we arrived, foiling our hopes of finding a vagrant White-faced Ibis. Otherwise, our total – among our various stops – of 12 Snowy and 5 Great Egrets, and 2 Greater Yellowlegs, were surprisingly low. Was everything out roosting at Stratton Island as the astronomically high tide – augmented by the easterly winds – flooded much of the marsh? Perhaps, but overall the birding here today was eerily quiet.

Light movements of birds occurred overnight both Monday-Tuesday and Tuesday-Wednesday. Clear and calm conditions once again allowed birds to proceed unimpeded. However, I enjoyed a very nice concentration of Yellow-rumped Warblers (100+) and “Yellow” Palm Warblers (30+) at Florida Lake Park on Tuesday morning, although this is probably mostly a remnant of the 300+ Yellow-rumps and 100+ Palms that Jeannette was treated to here on Sunday morning. Later, I also heard my first Blue-headed Vireo of the year at Bradbury Mountain. On Wednesday morning, a trickle of migrants was moving through Hedgehog Mountain Park, including 26 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 5 Pine Warblers, and 3 Blue-headed Vireos.

So, I am going to be taking full credit for the glorious weather of the weekend and most of this week. See, on Thursday, I planted 20 bushes in the garden. 10 Blackhaw Viburnum and 10 Gray-stemmed Dogwood (also called Red-panicled), both native fruit-bearing species, have now been added to augment our backyard habitat. The plants showed up on the doorstep last Wednesday, and Thursday afternoon and evening I spent 3 glorious hours in a t-shirt playing in the dirt on a wonderful spring day. I noticed that the long-range forecast was calling for some rainy days in our near future, so that was perfect for tree-planting. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to stand behind the hose, enjoy more sunshine, and keep an eye out for “yard birds!” Could be worse, huh?

Speaking of plants, as everyone who has been on at least one of my birdwalks has noticed, invasive plants are a hot topic with me. My interest in them, and concern about them, was amplified by research that I did last fall for an article for the excellent journal, North American Birds. My friend Marshall Iliff and I authored the Changing Seasons essay for this past winter’s issue. That article is now online, and the PDF can be downloaded here.

The excellent journal - which I cannot recommend enough - collects and synthesizes bird sightings from around the country each season (4 issues a year). The Changing Seasons essay attempts to synthesize this synthesis even further, putting observations into the "big picture." Issues, such as climate change, and how they impact birds and their populations (and birding itself) are often discussed. I wanted to look into the issue of invasive plants and their effects on birds and birding, and admittedly got in way over my head into plant ecology and avian physiology!

However, I think the end product was fairly good, and I am proud of it. In addition to being thought provoking (well, at least the stuff Marshall had to say!), I used a handful of references to Maine birds and locations, and therefore I thought this would be of interest to some. If anything, it makes a wonderful cure for insomnia!

Meanwhile, the dry weather, with temperatures running 10-15 degrees above normal on many days, looks like it is going to persist through the better part of next week! Clear and calm conditions at night should produce excellent daily turnover in migrants.

Clear and calm conditions overnight these past two nights have allowed the migrant floodgates to open. There was a big movement overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning. And, could the weather this entire week be any nicer? (Although for hawkwatching, a few clouds would be welcome!) In fact, temperatures on Friday rose into the 70’s for the first time since October!
Here’s the 10:00pm radar and velocity images:

12:00am (but I am not sure as to what all of that clutter of the Mid-coast is; I don't think birds are producing those strong echos):

Last week, we had attempted to take a ride over to Vinalhaven. As you know, that attempt did not go as planned. This week, we decided to try again.

But first, on Monday, I covered Dane’s day off at the Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch so that Jeannette and I could escape on Tuesday. Before heading up to the hill, Dane and I visited Florida Lake Park. Jeannette had over 40 Common Mergansers here on Sunday morning, and since I had not seen this charismatic species at Florida Lake, it seemed like a good way to start the day. In addition to the 14 Common Mergs that were still present, I tallied a goodly 28 Hooded Mergansers, 8 Ring-necked Ducks, 5 Wood Ducks – plus the ubiquitous Mallards, American Black Ducks, and a pair of Canada Geese. One Pied-billed Grebe was my first of the year, and a pair of Rusty Blackbirds flew by as well.

After 103 raptors were tallied on The Brad on Sunday, I was very optimistic for my stint on Monday. And, I was not disappointed! Despite light to moderate, and at times gusty, northwest to north-northwest winds and considerable cloud cover all day, I finished the day with 123 raptors – our highest tally of the season to date – including 45 Osprey and my first 12 Broad-winged Hawks of the spring.

Other birds were on the move as well, including 5 Bohemian Waxwings, 2 Common Mergansers, 6 Tree Swallows, my first Barn Swallow of the year, and a total of 9 Purple Finches – finally returning to the area after a multiple-month absence. The show was stolen, however, by a Sandhill Crane that I spotted soaring high above the summit at 11:40am, slowly circling on a thermal with its massive, broad wings outstretched and eventually drifting off to the north. This is my third spring in a row with a Sandhill Crane from the Brad. Most likely, this is one of the 6-8 pairs of cranes now suspected of breeding in the state.

So, when we failed to make the Vinalhaven ferry last week, we were lamenting the fact that we had wasted a beautiful day, which would have been perfect for a boat ride. We thought, “How could we expect a better day in April?” Well, while we didn’t expect a better day, we got one! Unlimited sunshine, a very light wind – seas were about as calm as they get, and mild temperatures in the low to mid 50’s.

The ferry from Rockland to Vinalhaven is well known among birders for its winter birding potential, but much less is to be seen in the spring. However, our tally of 33 Black Guillemots was nothing to shake a stick at, nor where the 150 or so Purple Sandpipers on a rocky islet that all picked up when a migrant Merlin zipped by. We also watched a male Northern Harrier leave the headland at Owl’s Head State Park, and head straight out over the water to North Haven without pause. Also, we spotted a lone Laughing Gull – also a first of the year – roosting on a rock just off of Vinalhaven Island.

Well, it turned out to be quite a bit nicer than we expected this weekend, huh? In fact, Saturday night – partly cloudy skies, mild temps, and little wind – would have made a fine and dandy evening for a Woodcock walk. Too bad I pulled the trigger on Friday morning to postpone our Woodcocks Gone Wild Walk at Pineland Farms. Hoping to give folks enough of a heads-up, I didn’t wait for the pair of low-pressure systems to miss us: one stayed to our south, and the other that passed to our west, leaving us with a mostly dry Saturday – except in the mountains and far southern York County. Well, I apologize if this inconvenienced anyone, but I hope you can make it to the walk NEXT Saturday (once again meeting at the Pineland Farms visitor center at 7:00pm). Let’s hope for even NICER weather next weekend.

Anyway, on Sunday, I joined up with Lysle and Luke for a little birding in the Freeport-Yarmouth area. Gulls and ducks were fewer in the Thornhurst Farm fields than they were yesterday, but we did have 6+ Killdeer and 2 American Kestrels. A pair of Greater Scaup and a Bald Eagle was at Winslow Park, 16 Double-crested Cormorants were off of Sandy Point Beach, and 2 Ospreys were fishing off of the causeway to Little John Island. Afterwards, I took a walk at Bayview Preserve, which was quite productive: 27 Green-winged Teal at the river’s edge; 2 Wood Ducks in the partly-open pond; a Ruffed Grouse; and a total of 5 singing Eastern Phoebes. I also heard a Spring Peeper and a couple of Wood Frogs.

So, after our attempt to visit Vinalhaven Island failed last week, we’re going to give it a go again this Tuesday – but this time with RESERVED ferry tickets. Therefore, I’ll be up on Bradbury Mountain for the day on Monday, giving Dane his day off. Light northwest winds and mostly sunny skies are predicted, which shouldn’t be bad at all. At this point in the season, we’ll get birds moving on almost any wind, even normally unproductive winds, if they are light enough. Milder temperatures won’t hurt either.

And don’t forget to tune into Bill Green’s the Green Outdoors on the 6:00 news on our local NBC affiliate on Monday to see his story on our hawkwatch!

Wow, we really have had some glorious spring weather this week, haven’t we? Well, I think its safe to say that we earned it this year! Unfortunately, this weekend’s weather isn’t looking too great.

My plans for the second half of the week have also turned out quite nicely (as opposed to the first half; see the previous blog). On Wednesday afternoon, I headed south to spend the evening birding in Kittery before heading over to Rye, NH for my presentation on Alaska’s St. Paul Island for the Seacoast Chapter of NH Audubon. My first stop was Fort Foster, but I didn’t arrive until nearly 4:00pm. Although this is far from the most productive hour of the day, I thoroughly enjoyed a pleasant hour wandering around the park. 5 Brant were offshore, and the nearby Seapoint Beach produced my first Greater Yellowlegs of the season, while Legion Pond hosted 5 Ring-necked Ducks.

After dinner at Loco Coco’s Taco, I headed over to the Science Center at Odiorne State Park. The program went very well, I believe, and I don’t think I forgot the names of any of the plants in my slides this time. 40 people attended, including a gentleman who was in St. Paul last summer and a woman who was heading there this summer.

On Thursday morning, I was once again up on Bradbury Mountain, where we successfully filmed a segment for Bill Green’s “Green Outdoors.” It was exceptionally beautiful out, with a light west wind. Unfortunately, there weren’t too many birds in the air this morning (in fact, when I left at 11:00, we had only tallied 5 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 2 Red-tailed Hawks, despite relatively favorable conditions), but a couple of the local Turkey Vultures and Bald Eagles made close passes for the camera. Just like Wednesday, I’m hoping things will pick up by noon – we tallied a season high of 66 raptors by the end of the day yesterday. Look for the Green Outdoors this Monday night on the local NBC 6:00 news.

When I checked the radar upon arrival at the store, I noticed that we had a pretty good passerine flight overnight Wednesday into Thursday. Here’s the midnight radar for example:

OK, things are not going quite as planned so far this week. Unusually jam-packed with various events and activities this week, I knew I was going to be busy, but hopefully a bit more productive than I has been so far.

No problems on Monday, as I spent the day counting at Bradbury Mountain to give Dane the day off (instead of Tuesday). A rather damp and chilly east wind was blowing off the water, but the clear blue skies and strong April sun made things more than pleasant. In fact, it was simply gorgeous out. And, since this was the first sunny day in the past 4 days, a few raptors were taking to the air. I tallied 11 raptors by 11:00, including my first Osprey of the year. Unfortunately, the east winds picked up a bit, and the count slowed down – only 6 more birds, for a total of 17 by day’s end.

However, local birds were quite active, especially Bald Eagles. At one point, all three local pairs were in the air, circling together. There was a lot of talon-dangling, and some brief dogfights, but mostly they just circled in the deep blue sky, all 6 often in the same binocular field of view. It made we want to sing the Star Spangled Banner. The show continued for a while, in fact, at least 2 birds were visible from about 10:45 through about 12:15! Two Merlins made close passes, and 12 Bohemian Waxwings dropped in for a visit. A flock of 11 Horned Larks passed by near the day’s end, my 32nd species tallied from the summit this day (I always keep a “big sit” day list when I’m counting for a whole day. It gives me something to do when the hawk flight is slow, and it’s a good way to keep the mind alert and the eyes sharp. Plus, I enjoy it).

On Tuesday, Jeannette and I got an early start, enjoyed breakfast at the Brunswick Diner, and then headed east to Rockland. The plan was to take the ferry to Vinalhaven to meet up with a local boat captain for a two-hour cruise – the reason we gave Dane Monday off instead of his usual Tuesday, when our store is closed. We have not taken this ferry before, so we discussed the plan with a friend on the island, and we called the respective ferry terminals for more info. We decided to take the car over, so we can bird and hike on Vinalhaven with Sasha – as opposed to rushing to and from home. We just didn’t want to drive 1 ½ hours each way and pay for the ferry just for a 2-hour tour. Instead, we wanted to relax, take our time, and see some more birds and places.

So, we were instructed to arrive 30-minutes early for the ferry. We arrived 35 minutes early, got our tickets – including a reservation on the return ferry, which apparently can be problematic, even at this time of the year – and got on line. The ferry began to board. We crept slowly towards the boat. Then, a gentleman in an orange vest walked up to the car and informed us that the ferry was full. Only two cars were in front of us, but it didn’t matter, of course. The boat pulled away.

Our Saturday morning birdwalk was a huge success yesterday, including my first two Tree Swallows of the spring at Bayview Preserve, the Turkey Vulture gang here in Yarmouth, and a first-cycle Glaucous Gull and two drake American Wigeons at the Twin Brook Recreation Area in Cumberland – and much more. Here’s the complete summary from our store’s website.

Then, on Sunday, Luke and I birded from Biddeford Pool to Scarborough Marsh. We began the day at East Point, which featured 4 lingering Harlequin Ducks, 17 Brant, 3 Great Cormorants, and about 50 Purple Sandpipers. We also had a total of three Northern Harriers – including one close pass by a magnificent adult male, and a buzz-by Merlin.

4 Green-winged Teal and a single drake Ring-necked Duck were in the small pond by the beach parking lot, but there was very little behind Hattie’s on the quickly rising tide. Few birds were in the neighborhood either, but good numbers of all three scoters – including quite a few Blacks - were off of Ocean Avenue. 14 more Ring-necked Ducks, along with two Common Mergansers and 18 Bufflehead were in the middle pond at Fortune’s Rocks beach as well.

We then began to work our way northwards, making stops at the Biddeford boat launch (quiet), the Saco Yacht Club (one Eastern Phoebe), Water Street (nothin’), and Boom Road, which was also surprisingly quiet – although we did have 2 American Kestrels, a few Killdeer, and plenty of Mallards, American Black Ducks, and Canada Geese.

All in all, we were having a pretty good morning of birding. However, things really picked up when we hit Scarborough Marsh. Green-winged Teal have increased exponentially – we had well over 125 today, and a drake hybrid “American” Green-winged x “Eurasian” Green-winged (or “Common”) Teal was teased out from the group behind Pelreco -a very good bird indeed. Pelreco was really hopping today. In addition to the aforementioned teal-age, we had a pair of Blue-winged Teal (my first of year), a drake Northern Shoveler (my first of year), a pair of Hooded Mergansers, 4 drake and 2 hen American Wigeon, 3 pairs of Gadwall (a goodly total on its own for the state, plus another pair elsewhere), along with the usual Mallards and American Black Ducks. 4 Snowy Egrets huddled in a corner, trying to avoid that same cold, damp wind (moderate northeast off the water, with temps in the mid-30’s) that we were not enjoying either, and 4 Glossy Ibis – both first of years for me as well – foraged in the tall grasses. Meanwhile, another harrier, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a wicked spiffy adult male Peregrine Falcon – which made a close pass overhead at one point – kept a watch on all of the goings-on.

I was still coming to terms with the Rutgers loss to Connecticut in the Elite 8 of the Women’s college basketball tournament Tuesday night when I wrote my Wednesday blog entry. I was a bit shell-shocked after we blew a 14-point lead, after having absolutely dominated the first half. But yes, the better team did win, as I believe we simply became mentally and physically tired against a great team due to our short bench. Also, we may have simply been outcoached in the second half of the second half. It was a tough game to watch – for an RU fan, anyway – and once again, I do believe Rutgers athletics have taken another day or two off the end of my life thanks to the stress that their fans are put through. Anyway, moving on . . .

Thursday was an absolute beautiful day, but I was unable to get out to take advantage of it, save for an afternoon walk in Royal River Park – which did produce 5 Hooded Mergansers. 40 raptors were tallied at the Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch. Meanwhile, errands and inclement weather (mid 30’s and rain, about as unpleasant as it gets in my book) precluded any birding this morning as well.

However, there was one birding highlight to enjoy – and part of it has been enjoyed from the comforts of the inside of our store. 27 Turkey Vultures are roosting in trees next to the Yarmouth skating pond, behind the Key Bank and American Legion on Main St. There’s a lovely rotting deer carcass on the bottom of the embankment that has attracted their attention. Jeannette and I noticed a few “TV’s” soaring around the pond area yesterday afternoon, and we spied a total of 15 in the air.

As of the end of yesterday, April 1st, the 17th day of the 2nd Annual Bradbury Mountain Spring Hawkwatch project, sponsored by the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth, 344 raptors of 11 species have been tallied (a complete breakdown of the daily counts can be found on hawkcount.org. At this point last year we had tallied 367 birds. But, it was a 104 bird day on 4/1 last year that skewed this statistic quite a bit, as only 263 birds were tallied in March as compared to 337 this year.

However, this year we started 5 days earlier (March 15th) in order to catch a little more of the passage of our earliest migrants: Northern Goshawk, Rough-legged Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, and Bald Eagle. While we have yet to tally a Rough-legged Hawk this season, we have already tied last year’s count of Northern Goshawk (4), we’re nearing last year’s total of 29 Red-shouldered Hawks (24 to date this year), and we’ve already beaten last year’s total of 38 Bald Eagles (43 already so far this season). And, the 62 total raptors tallied on March 18th clearly demonstrate the potential of starting the count on March 15th. Unfortunately, we’ve been plagued by strong north and northwest winds this “spring” so far (although last season we lost more days due to snow and/or fog than we have this year) which has limited our total tally. Nevertheless, we are off to a great start, and things will only continue to heat up (and hopefully, so will the air temperatures!)

Yesterday was Dane’s day off, and Jeannette and I were to cover the count – or at least try to. Dense fog (thanks to warm - finally! - temperatures that rose into the upper 50’s, and a still deep snowpack – 1-2 feet in the woods) precluded an on-time start. I REALLY wanted to get up on the hill, however, as the winds were an absolutely perfect light-moderate south-southwest. Unfortunately, the fog was just too dense too see anything, let alone migrant hawks (which, depending on how low the fog layer is, may have been migrating right overhead of it all), but I just couldn’t sit around any longer. Since birds seem to appear (likely birds that had been migrating over the fog banks) as soon as fog lifts, I wanted to be up at the summit for when it broke. I arrived at 11:15, and set up the sign, scope, and sat down in our chair to patiently await the lifting of the fog and the commencement of what was sure to be a big flight.

An hour passed. Still near-zero visibility. What was I doing up here? But, as I began contemplating heading home for at least a little while, my friend Casey arrived. We hadn’t seen each other in a while, so we decided to spend our foggy time together chatting and catching up, and waiting for that blasted fog to lift. Occasional quick breaks in the
fog would reveal one of the fields in the distance teased us repeatedly; moments later, visibility would once again be close to zero. Another hour went by.

At about 1:30, the fog FINALLY began to REALLY lift, and 15 minutes later, a local Turkey Vulture took to the air to look for lunch. At 2:15 a Cooper’s Hawk was in flight, heading northwest – our first migrant of the day! Finally, we weren’t skunked! Over the course of the next hour, the fog cleared out, and there were even a few breaks of sun and blue sky, but it seemed that conditions hadn’t become favorable soon enough in the day.