Last year during my Maine Big Year, I made two trips to Aroostook County in northern Maine (9 hours round trip) trying to get a Greater White-fronted Goose. The bird was swimming with thousands of Canada Geese at an extreme distance. On the second trip, I finally found the bird after two hours of scoping. […]
Despite the cold weather as of late, this Lincoln’s Sparrow is still hanging around in Nobleboro, not far from the fish ladder. Never the easiest sparrow to find in Maine this species should be in North Carolina and parts south by now. He was hanging out in a forsythia bush near a bird feeder.
This afternoon I found this beautiful female Snowy Owl sitting on the shore of Biddeford Pool, Maine. The number of Snowy Owls we see on the coast of Maine fluctuates each winter depending upon the summer lemming population in the arctic. Prevelent lemmings, the Snowy’s favorite food source, will lead to more owlets being successfully […]
Today a Townsend’s Warbler showed up about 5 minutes away from our condominium in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. To see a warbler in January in Maine is really quite unusual (diet consists primarily on caterpillars). But to see a west coast warbler on the coldest day of the year (wind chill of minus 17) is even […]
The incredibly rare Steller’s Sea Eagle continues to be seen in mid-coast Maine close to our home. The last few days he’s been hanging out in Boothbay Harbor. This bird of the Russian ice is a brilliant winter tourist attractions as birders all over the United States continue to stream into the area for a […]
For the last month Ingrid and I have been hearing and occasionally seeing a Carolina Wren hanging out around our Wiscasset, Maine house. We live right at the northern most limit of the Wren’s northern range and we have never had one around the yard before. Today we had a heavy snow storm and the […]
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, […]
On the day after Christmas, a friend from college, Dave Bailey (we are friends no matter how much he tries to deny it), asked me: “Five days left….any more ”white whales” you hope to catch before the clock runs out?” I hadn’t had a new bird since December 3, didn’t have any real leads, and […]
Steller’s Sea-Eagle at a distance. Note the much smaller Bald Eagle The Steller’s Sea-Eagle is one of the world’s largest and rarest raptors. A glacial relict, it evolved over several ice ages . . . breeding along the east Russian coast and wintering in Korea, Japan and northern China. Occasionally one is seen over Alaska’s […]
My Alma Mater, Bates College in Lewiston, Maine did a write-up on my Maine Big Year . . . clearly a slow news day. A record-breaking Big Year for Maine birder Ethan Whitaker ’80
Christmas is coming and I really haven’t done much shopping, so this morning I committed to no birding and jumped in the car with the best of intentions . . . this year I’m not waiting till the last minute. Then a text came in from Ingrid: “Grey kingbird in Biddeford”. Ignoring her obvious spelling […]
In July of 2018, Ingrid and I took a non-birding (gasp) motorcoach tour of Scotland. One day we drove through the coastal town of Leith . . . only memorable for two reasons. It was the birth place of the Proclaimers (I would roll 500 miles) and the hundreds of Black-headed Gulls sitting on every […]
One of the frustration of a Big Year is looking for the same bird day after day after day. It takes on a Captain Ahab mentality where you hate the bird but become obsessed with finding it. Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s […]
The things one finds birding . . . This afternoon, Ingrid and I were out birding on Mackworth Island, a 40 acre, causeway accessible, wooded state park just north of Portland. In 1943, Maine Governor and Philanthropist Percival P. Baxter deeded the island to the state. The island is also home to the Governor Baxter […]
In October of 2020, three juvenile Tundra Swans landed on Little Ossipee Pond in south-central Maine. Tundra Swans are smaller cousins of the Mute Swans that are so iconic in the Northeast (think of the Boston Public Gardens). Tundra Swans, breed on . . . I bet you can guess . . . THE TUNDRA!!!! […]
“It’s right there.” “Where?” “Right there on the gravestone.” “Still not seeing it.” “It’s close to the fence by the church.” “I see it!!!!” So thats how I got Maine Big Year Bird #318 as fellow birder Leon Mooney helped me get my eyes on an Ash-throated Flycatcher. Ninety minutes earlier, I got my first […]
So I’m sitting in the stands looking out at the football field. Someone is shouting: “He’s at the 30”, “He’s at the 35”, “The 40”, “The 45”, “Across Mid-field”!!!! No, I didn’t give up birding for a day to go to a High School Football Game . . . I was watching a super rare […]
I think I saw my first Bald Eagle when I was about thirty. Back then, before the internet and indoor plumbing, DDT was prevalent in the environment making Eagles shells both thin and brittle . . . causing the eggs to shatter long before the eaglets were ready to hatch. After DDT was banned, the […]
One of the great things about a Big Year, and birding in general, you go places that you would never normally visit. Ingrid and I have travelled all over the country chasing birds and found amazing sights, interesting food and fascinating people. This week, I made two trips to Limestone, Maine trying to find a […]
Throughout the Maine Big Year, Ingrid and I have spent quite a bit of time on ferries and whale watch boats trying to get at many of the seabirds that prowl the oceans off our coast. Most of these birds live their entire lives at sea . . . only coming to land to breed […]
My year long quest to improve Exxon profitability took me to a wooded condo development in Kennebunk where a Red-headed Woodpecker, a Maine rarity, had been reported this morning. After few hours and no Red-headed Woodpecker, Ingrid texted wondering “perhaps they saw a ‘Red-bellied Woodpecker’ and were confusing the two birds.” And as a […]
A Big Year is 25% planning, 25% skill, 25% execution and 90% luck . . . I know the math doesn’t work but the events of yesterday made me realize how big a role luck is actually playing. I was in the field at dawn and spent about six hours looking for birds in Cape […]
In 2004, the birding community was rocked, when the American Ornithological Union (AOU) decided that the common everyday Canada Goose was actually two species: the large annoying bird that ruins golf courses and a smaller regional adaptation . . . the Cackling Goose. Basically, the Canada and Cackling Geese are almost identical . . . […]
In mid-August, there was a report of forty Hudsonian Godwits flying around Hill’s Beach in Biddeford. The Hudsonian Godwit is a bizarre looking shorebird . . . about 15″ tall, a rotund beer belly and a huge upturned bill. It shows up in Maine during fall migration . . . but sporadically and inconsistently. I […]
If you take a boat out into the ocean, beyond the sight to land, the emptiness is breathtaking. Yesterday, I was on a Bar Harbor whale watch and about two hours out the captain stopped the boat to look around. The hurricane that had stirred up the seas over the weekend was long gone and […]
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