I had a most enjoyable Sunday morning. I slept in a little bit, and then spent a couple of hours studying shorebirds, followed by watching the end of the Tour de France. It was a good day.

My shorebirding time was spent at Brunswick's Wharton Point. A mere 20 minutes from my house, this is my closest good shorebird habitat. But, unfortunately, there are only a couple of hours on each side of the high tide that provide good viewing. At other times, the birds are too far away, or hidden in the marsh. Today, however, the timing was perfect, and I enjoyed a full two hours of prime time as the tide was rolling out. The totals for the morning:
141 Lesser Yellowlegs (typically, my highest fall counts of this species occurs here).

129 Short-billed Dowitchers

~25 Semipalmated Sandpipers
4+ Greater Yellowlegs
3 Semipalmated Plovers
2 Least Sandpipers.

18 Snowy Egrets, 14 Glossy Ibis, and at least three Bald Eagles were also present, and I was happy to see seven American Kestrels along Highland Road on my drive over.

After my discussion the other day with Dan about how under-birded the Sebago Lake area is, I decided to visit Sebago Lake State Park on Monday morning. I was thinking about shorebirds and crossbills. But, clearly, I was not thinking all that well #not unusually for me, especially in the early morning hours # because I failed to consider how all of the rain that we have had of late would affect the limited shorebird habitat here. Sure enough, high water resulted in just a narrow sandbar at the mouth of the Songo River, and it contained only 11 Spotted Sandpipers and 5 Killdeer, all of which are probably local breeders. No crossbills today either. But, there's no such thing as a bad day of birding, and observations of 4 Common Mergansers, 3 Common Loons, two juvenile Hooded Mergansers, one molting Wood Duck, and about 30 Ring-billed Gulls # including fresh juveniles # along with a very tolerant family group of busy Pileated Woodpeckers that allowed close approach (close enough that I could see the beetle larvae that they were extracting from the tree!) more than made up for the lack of shorebirds and crossbills.

But, today, I am going to leave you with a request for a small favor. Would you mind filling out a little survey? You can cut-and-paste the questionnaire into the comment field below, or, paste it into an email and send your responses to yarmouthwbc@yahoo.com. I know that this is a bit unconventional # to put a survey about one's own blog in one's own blog - but your answers will help to make this blog better. Furthermore, Mainetoday.com is going to be making some changes to the Outdoors section, and to its blogging tools, so feedback could be most helpful. Thanks!

1) Hometown, State:____________________________________
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3) How often do you read my Maine Birding Field Notes Blog?
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8) Do you take trips with the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth (such as pelagics, Monhegan, etc)?
( ) Yes.
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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.

On Tuesday, Jeannette and I wanted to do a bit of hiking. However, we also wanted to see the Dark Knight, and watch some Tour de France. We also wanted to avoid a long hike in the rain. Although the forecast was calling for only isolated showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon, we didn't really trust that call.

Taking all of this into consideration, we decided to forgo a 2+ hour drive to embark on a long hike, but instead drove less than an hour and bagged three "peaks." OK, these were merely hills, but they were three short hikes that amounted to a very good day of exercise # and birding! Plus, all three were new trails for us.

Unfortunately, our pessimism about the day's weather forecast proved correct, as it began to rain as we approached our first stop # Douglas Mountain in Sebago. In fact, it rained most of the morning # including the duration of this walk, which also included a fairly strong downpour. Luckily, we were able to dry out while driving from trail to trail, so that part of our plan turned out rather nicely.

Douglas Mountain is the highest point in Southwestern Maine at 1416 feet, and it is topped by a stone tower - which on days that don't feature rain and dense fog as this morning did, apparently provides a view from the Presidential Range all the way to Casco Bay. The mixed woods featured a lot of beech and hemlock, and it is likely full of Blackburnian and Black-throated Green Warblers (a few of each were heard today, despite the weather and late date). This spot will definitely be worth checking again earlier in the summer for breeders, and it may be worth some exploration as a fall hawkwatch location.

Our second hike was Mount Cutler in Hiram, which turned out to be surprisingly rugged. White Pine and Red Oak dominated the woods along the trail, with a diverse mix of moderately-stunted trees at the summit, including ash, elm, and chokecherry. This hike produced the "bird(s) of the day," as a group of White-winged Crossbills flew overhead. There were at least 3 together, but likely many more, as we only heard, but could not see them. Two other singles passed overhead as well. With reports of 200+ coming from Acadia National Park, Monhegan and Vinalhaven Islands, as well as smaller numbers elsewhere, it looks like we are in store for another big irruption of this species. Keep an eye out in your local patches, and listen for their calls as they move overhead.

Our store's Saturday Morning Birdwalk group enjoyed an outing to Dragon Field, which was highlighted by a Meadow Jumping-Mouse, three Indigo Buntings # including a female with a face-full of food, Bobolinks, and a lot of Cedar Waxwings.

On Sunday, I led a birdwalk for the Friends of the Eastern Promenade. Unexpected, was an American Kestrel heading north, but more expected were the plethora of Song Sparrows, Gray Catbirds, and European Starlings, along with Yellow Warblers and an Osprey nest with one nestling getting very close to fledging. But, for much of our walk, we identified plants as well, including the few valuable native plants still scratching out an existence in a park overrun with nearly the entire suite of invasive species # from Oriental Bittersweet to Japanese Knotweed.

Then, on Monday, I simply took Sasha for a walk around Florida Lake. It was a rather birdy outing, with quite a few species of warblers seen and/or heard, including three Canada Warblers, two Magnolia Warblers, and one Northern Waterthrush. At least one Marsh Wren is still there # singing away once again today # and I heard at least three different Swamp Sparrows.

Meanwhile, this stubborn frontal boundary continues to hold in place over our region, with various impulses of energy moving along it, triggering more showers and thunderstorms. Instability, coupled with heat and humidity, is producing some very strong storms. This unsettled pattern is forecasted to continue through week's end.

Keep an eye out in any flooded fields and large puddles for shorebirds that may have put down ahead of - or during # a strong storm. With the migration of adult shorebirds now in full swing, now's a perfect time to find some unusual shorebirds in some unusual locations.

And finally, today, here are some photos and writings from our ½-Day Portland Pelagic last weekend, for your viewing and reading pleasure:

Dan Nickerson's Blog.

Kirk Rogers' Photo Essay.

I spent the morning at Biddeford Pool today. I began at Hill's Beach, as the tide had just begun to roll on, and then went over to the Pool itself. Biddeford Pool Beach was next, but I missed primetime there. And, much to my surprise, no shorebirds were roosting along Ocean Avenue. In addition to a plethora of shorebirds, some of the other sightings of note today included an Arctic Tern on Hill's Beach, along with a number of recently-fledged Common Terns. One fresh juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron and one adult were at Great Pond, while numerous young Herring Gulls and Double-crested Cormorants were on the rocky islets off of East Point. A sure sign that post-breeding dispersal is indeed underway, four Great Blue Herons passed high overhead, heading north.

Since many of the shorebirds move from location to location in and around Biddeford Pool as the tides ebb and flow, I'll simply report the high counts, and their respective locations, for each species. The highlight were my first Sanderlings of the "fall," and a "Western" Willet # a soon-to-be-species-but-still-currently-subspecies that is rather rare here in Maine.

Black-bellied Plover: 10, The Pool.
Semipalmated Plover: 49, Hill's Beach.
Killdeer: 1, Hill's Beach.
Greater Yellowlegs: 8, The Pool.
Lesser Yellowlegs: 1, The Pool.
"Eastern" Willet: 156, The Pool.
"WESTERN" WILLET: 1+, The Pool.
Spotted Sandpiper: 2, Ocean Ave.
Whimbrel: 2 each at Hill's Beach and Biddeford Pool, but I do think these were different.
Sanderling: 17, Hill's Beach
Least Sandpiper: 2, The Pool.
Short-billed Dowitcher: 92, Hill's Beach.

My last stop was the muddy Westbrook Skating Rink pond, which hosted four Glossy Ibis, three Great Blue Herons, 1 Black-crowned Night-Heron, and four molting Wood Ducks.

Finally today, in the all-too-rare "Good News" department, Ontario has recently protected its boreal forest, with half (225,000 square kilometers) of the entire ecosystem restricted for "tourism and traditional aboriginal use," while the other half will fall under much-needed updated laws and regulations.

The ramifications of this monumental decision were nicely summarized in the blog of Jeff Wells, of the Boreal Songbird Initiative.

My family has been visiting this week, so my birding has been limited. On Sunday, on the way to the airport, I stopped by Back Cove. 14 Semipalmated and 2 Least Sandpipers, and 1 Semipalmated Plover worked the shoreline. And, for the 3rd time in 4 years, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows are breeding (at least one pair) in the small remnant marsh here.

On Monday, I took a morning walk with Sasha to Hedgehog Mountain Park. There were quite a few Ovenbird fledglings around, and it appears that most of the Cliff Swallows have fledged, although I did hear a few nests still with chirping youngsters. A brief look at a large, long, and dark animal was probably my third-ever Fisher sighting, but it was just too quick of a look to confirm.

On Tuesday, Jeannette and I began the day by exploring some Freeport Conservation Trust properties. First up was Jackman Woods, at the end of Litchfield Rd. A short walk through mixed woods down to a grassy river edge was fairly productive today, including single singing Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, and Golden-crowned Kinglet. The next location was the Quarry Woods, off of Lower Mast Landing Road. This property features more of the mixed woods typical of the area, but also a couple of gullies dominated by Eastern Hemlock, and some wet swales and a stream. The trails connect to the Mast Landing School, providing a nice chunk of property that bears some further exploration.

The third and final property that we visited was the Powell Point Preserve, off of Lambert Road. This was definitely the highlight of the morning, and a place I will surely return to # and perhaps with a Saturday morning birdwalk in tow. Although this property was more of the typical mixed woods, the trees were quite a bit larger, and overall, the forest looked "better." There are lots of hemlock here # and therefore a lot of Black-throated Green Warblers as one would expect in such habitat, as well as one or two Blackburnian Warblers (there are no doubt many more here; we just heard one or two on this warm July late-morning. And, we finished off the stroll with an adult Broad-winged Hawk perched above our car.

We played tourists/tour guides the rest of the day with my family, including an outing aboard the Lucky Catch. While I have run a number of birding trips with this boat, I had never been out on their "regular" tour. And, since my Grandparents are big lobster fans, what better prelude to a lobster dinner than a little lobster fishing!?

My Grandfather having to work for his dinner.

It was just too nice out! Really, on Saturday, warm temperature and complete calm air actually worked against us on our ½-Day Pelagic birding trip out of Portland, sponsored by the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth and See-Life Paulagics.

Simply put, there was no wind for shearwaters to be shearwatering! As pleasant as conditions were for us, the lack of wind is unfavorable to energy-efficient shearwater-style flight. No doubt there were hundreds of shearwater loafing on the surface somewhere out there!

In fact, I don't think I have ever seen only ONE Greater Shearwater! Sure, it was a great close-up look of it sitting calmly on the glass-calm water, but still - ONE Greater Shearwater? Sooty Shearwaters were only slightly more numerous - five in total, including some great looks of two different birds that came into the chum slick. But, speaking of the chum slick, even the attendant gulls (Herring, Great Black-backed, and a few Laughing Gulls) were sparse. Wilson's Storm-Petrels were also rather scarce, but we slowly amassed a total of 33 over the course of the trip.

While the lack of wind was indeed one of the problems, the bigger problem was likely the Herring trawlers out working the very same banks where whales and seabirds were abundant earlier this week. We've seen this far too often # a lot of life, followed by a few trawlers scooping up everything around, and then a dearth of activity for weeks.

We dipped on Roseate Terns around Outer Green Island, although admittedly, we spent very little time looking. Common Terns were abundant all day, especially in and around Outer Green, but the tern highlight were the fair number of very well seen Arctic Terns fishing far offshore.

I had a very enjoyable morning at Reid State Park on Thursday. A strong cold front Wednesday evening ushered in a respite from the hot air and high humidity. It was still warm and rather muggy in the morning, but a cool breeze was comforting.

The walk down the entrance road provided a number of family groups of Yellow-rumped and Black-throated Green Warblers, plus some singing Northern Parulas and Blackburnian Warblers.

Down at the shore, the migration of southbound shorebirds is definitely underway. 44 Short-billed Dowitchers, 9 Least Sandpipers, 1+ Semipalmated Sandpiper, and one each of Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs were feeding here this morning, all adults, and all are likely recent arrivals from the far north.

I found one family group of Spotted Sandpipers, with three downy puffballs on toothpicks following closely behind the pair. There are lots of Willets breeding in the marsh here, and one lone Piping Plover incubated her eggs on a nest within a predator exclosure. Unfortunately, Piping Plovers are now pretty much dependant on our hands-on stewardship.

Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows thin out quickly as one moves east along the Maine coast, and I rarely see more than a few here among the masses of Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrows. In fact, I only saw 1 Saltie this morning.

For a change of scenery this morning, I took Sasha for a walk at Beaver Park in Lisbon. It was a fairly birdy morning, with 36 species recorded including 3 Canada Warblers and at least 5 singing Nashville Warblers. A short stroll in the cool, streamside shade at the nearby Papermill Trail was also productive, featuring a few Indigo Buntings and a lot of American Redstarts - including at least one family of fledglings.

On Tuesday, Jeannette and I headed farther afield to Newmarket, New Hampshire. On the way down, we visited Fort Foster. A lone adult Least Sandpiper on the beach there was my first southbound migrant of "fall." We then checked out nearby Legion Pond, home to the state's only - to the best of my knowledge - breeding pair of invasive and destructive (but, exceptionally beautiful) Mute Swans. Unfortunately, the pair had two young cygnets in tow. This is not a species we need to spread in our state, no matter how aesthetically pleasing they are.

Then, it was on to Newmarket, which has been put on the birding map this summer by nesting Mississippi Kites! As far as I know, the nearest breeding kites are in Virginia, yet somehow this pair - and one subadult "helper"- discovered this unassuming maple on this unassuming, but busy, suburban thoroughfare.

We quickly found the nest, thanks to excellent directions and descriptions posted online, and although very hard to see, an adult bird was present.

Can you find the nest in this shot? And, if you look hard enough, you'll see the face and part of the eye of the bird.

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.

So, this is what it feels like to be well rested. I forgot what it was like. On Independence Day, I finally “caught up” on sleep a bit. A late morning stroll with Jeannette and Sasha at Libby Hill Forest in Gray was productive, however, with quite a bit of activity from adults busy gathering food for youngsters, and quite a few fledglings of various species out and about. We had at least three Prairie Warblers, an Indigo Bunting, and a handful of other warblers to name a few. Meanwhile, the rest of the day was spent catching up on yard work and reacquainting myself with my recliner. Ahhh . . . rest . . .

Our leisurely Saturday morning birdwalk visited North Yarmouth’s Old Townhouse Park, where we were treated to lots of Bobolinks (40+) and some crippling views of a pair of Indigo Buntings, among other things of course.

And now, I will finally get to the promised photojournal from my Utah trip.

The view from my hotel window:

And some images from around the lodges at Snowbird during my first two days in the area:

Goodness, I am tired. A mere 26 hours after returning home from Utah, I was heading out the door for two whirlwind days of private guiding. Lynn, from Texas, hired me to find some Maine specialties for her as she is currently doing a “Big Year.”

A “Big Year” is an attempt to see as many birds as possible within one calendar year within the ABA area (the continental US and Canada). Despite having recently eclipsed 600 for the YEAR (good grief, I just eclipsed 600 in my life!), we were able to add 7 new species in two days here in Maine. I had met Lynn 7 or 8 years ago in the middle of the Bering Sea (St. Paul Island) and then Jeannette and I ran into her in South Texas a couple of years ago. Knowing that I now live – and guide – in Maine, Lynn contacted me earlier this year as she began her summer planning for the Big Year run.

As for as she knows, Lynn is the first woman to do a Big Year, and as far as she knows she now holds the record – eclipsing her previous record Big Year, set only within the borders of Texas a few years back. I was honored to play a small role in this pursuit. She had 5 main target birds: Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Roseate Tern, Bicknell’s Thrush, Spruce Grouse, and Atlantic Puffin. I then had her recite her “wantlist” to see if there were a few gaps in the checklist that could be filled in over the next two days.

We began in Sprawlborough Marsh early Tuesday morning, immediately getting great looks at Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow (#605, if I remember correctly). Roseate Tern soon followed, with good looks at Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrows, five lingering Black-bellied Plovers, and a single Greater Yellowlegs (coming or going!?) also being noted.

With such quick success with our first two targets, we diverted down to Biddeford’s Rotary Park for Blue-winged Warblers, a bird Lynn missed in Texas this spring. Although this is probably the only reliable place in this state for this species, I have seen them well here on my last two visits, so we took a shot.