Summer Tanager

Two or three times a year rare birds show up on backyard feeders in Maine.  The protocol is to contact the owner and ask if you can visit, stand in their backyard and hope the bird arrives.  But that was before COVID-19.

The last few days a Summer Tanager has been visiting the feeders at a house on the other side of town.  Summer Tanagers are rarely seen north of New Jersey but this one seems to enjoy the oranges at Tracy Goupil’s house in Wiscasset. Tracy is a local birder who regularly reports owls and I always slow and check the trees when I drive past her house. 

Anyway after birding this morning with Ingrid (42 species in three hours), she convinced me to contact the Tracy, regardless of pandemic concerns.  

As so often happens with birders, Tracy invited me to park in her driveway and try my luck.

Ingrid and I have seen Summer Tanagers before, most recently in Arizona in 2018 but getting one in Maine would be cool.  Within a minute of arriving I saw the Tanager singing in the trees and was able to photograph him and be on my way in 5 minutes . . . almost too easy (almost).  Cool!!!

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