With the Big Year over, I spent New Years weekend taking down Christmas decorations and watching football.

But by January 4 I was ready to go bird again . . . but without the sense of urgency of the previous year.

Of course birding in Maine in January is not for the faint of heart, it was cold!!!!

Highlights included Purple Sandpipers (above) on frosty wave swept rocks. And four seasonal rarities at Grondin Pond in Scarborough (American Coots, Ring-necked Ducks, Less Scaups and a Gadwall).

Fun to causally bird again.