When I first started getting interested in birds I was amazed that some birds start migrating south at the end of July. Here-to-fore I thought of fall migration as the V-shaped line of geese flying south on gloomy days in November. In actuality one can find migrating birds on the hot muggy dog days of summer.

The Maine coast is made up of a combination of rocky shorelines, sandy beaches, salt-water marshes and mudflats. This time of the years in all of these environments one can find shorebirds feeding as they lazily move south. Their northern migration in the spring is fast as they rush to their arctic breeding spots. But by late summer their young have fledged and the sandpipers, curlews, godwits and plovers take months to make their way back to their wintering grounds in Mexico and South America.