Monthly Archives: March 2022

Trumpeter Swan in Maine

For the first time in ten years, yesterday a Trumpeter Swan showed up in Maine. Once thought to be nearly extinct, the enormous Trumpeter was heavily hunted for food and  feathers.  In the early part of the last century, the population was thought to be down to 70 bird in a remote corner of Yellowstone […]

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Maine Big Year Zoom Presentation

Join me for a Zoom Presentation on my Maine Big Year this Wednesday, April 6 @ 7:00 pm-8:00 pm (edt). We’ll be showing video, audio and photos of some of the record 324 birds that I identified during my 2021 adventure.  You’ll enjoy hearing about the unexpected and absurd encounters one has while traveling 60,000 […]

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Yellow-crowned Night-Heron Suburban Rookery

This weekend Ingrid and I went to visit my sister Ellen and her husband Carlo at their University Park, Maryland home . . . just outside of Washington DC.  They live in a charming suburban neighborhood about at mile from the University of Maryland.  The homes are mostly brick, the streets treelined and kids sell […]

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Piping Plovers return to Maine

The endangered Piping Plovers have returned to Maine beaches as they do each spring. While most of the nesting beaches require dogs to be kept on a leash after April 1st, the Plovers are now returning to Maine in late March. Today I saw several dogs run through a group of Pipers foraging in the […]

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Dickcissel in Maine

During our winters,  the Dickcissel travels to South America and gathers into enormous flocks of thousands of birds.  Then during the summer this Sparrow-like bird returns to the North American grasslands to breed. Today I photographed a Dickcissel, loosely associating with a flock of House Sparrows in the Potts Point neighborhood at the very tip of […]

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Our first Leucistic Bird

If one follows bird sites on social media, you’ll occasionally nearly white birds.  Early on I was told these are not “albinos”, but leucistic birds. The difference: An albino individual is unable to produce melanin pigments. This leads to a good diagnostic feature with which to distinguish leucistic and albino individuals – the colour of […]

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Northern Lapwing

This morning I decided to take a break from CNN, consume a little $4.29 a gallon gasoline and head for Greenland, New Hampshire. A couple days ago, a Northern Lapwing had been seen in a Greenland cornfield.  The Lapwing is a common sight in Europe, browsing in meadows, mudflats and farmland.  Every couple years, one […]

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