A Maine Big Year during migration season is chaotic as we rush from place to place looking for one rare bird at a time. I say we, because Ingrid is with me on many of my excursions (when she isn’t teaching her 4th grade cherubs). Most of the easy birds have been checked off but […]
It’s a hot summer day, there isn’t a breeze blowing and everything is still and oppressive . . . except for one bird that is singing over and over again . . . as many as 20,000 times in a day. We hear the Red-eyed Vireo sing so often, a whistling phrase “here-I-am, in-the-tree, look-up, […]
As Ingrid and I chase birds around the state of Maine trying to get to 318 . . . we are constantly shifting habitats. A bird that is very common on the beach . . . say a Piping Plover . . . is never found in woods, just a mile away. Next month I’ll […]
This is a Solitary Sandpiper . . . let’s call him Sam. Last winter he was hanging out in the Amazon basin, chowing down on frogs and insects without a care in the world. Then around March 15, a chemical reaction occurred in his brain . . . maybe triggered by the length of the […]
Back in April of 2017, Ingrid and I were in High Island, Texas and we saw a beautiful bird called a Blue-winged Warbler. Its stunning yellow body, sharp black bill and grayish blue wings were breathtaking. Four years later we finally saw another one . . . well . . . actually two. A couple […]
If I should die during my Maine Big Year . . . chances are it won’t be because I fell off a mountain or got mauled by a bear. Rather it will be my habit of driving slowly about around rural neighborhoods, early in the morning and scanning the yard and shrubbery with my binoculars. […]
Today I hit a Maine Big Year milestone . . . Bird #200 . . . a Chimney Swift. Basically a flying cigar, this bird spends most of its life in the air, only landing to roost in chimneys. They are incapable of perching in trees like other birds but have adapted to clinging to […]
The Glossy Ibis has become a regular summer visitor to the marshes of southern Maine. Feeding in huge flocks, their redish-black plumage gives off a shimmer in the sun. The flock in this photo had 197 birds in it. Here is where the fun starts . . . somewhere along the Maine coast, in […]
Each summer for the last six years, at least one Tricolored Heron has been seen in the marshes around Portland, Maine. This is unusual as this beautiful blue/gray/purple and white rarely nest north of New Jersey . . . but weird hybrid birds have been seen in the area in subsequent years . . . […]
Today a White-winged Dove showed up in a residential community in Gardiner, Maine . . . about 1800 miles north of it’s normal stomping grounds in Florida. It was a gray, cold, windy day and even snowed a bit and I really didn’t enjoy the two hours it took me to find the rarity . […]
Today Ingrid and I went searching for an American Bittern, a secretive bird of marshes and reeds. I had seen the bird flying at a distance last week but we really wanted an up close photo. For 45 minutes we scanned the marsh with our binoculars … getting closer every time it vocalized (a cartoonish croaking). Finally […]
Today, Ingrid and I observed a spectacular bird migration as we watched Broad-winged Hawks soaring on thermals as they moved north. Most raptors migrate as individuals, but Broad-wings move in small groups or even large flocks. A Golden Eagle, a very rare state visitor and a pièce de résistance for a Maine Big Year was […]
Photographed this Eastern Meadowlark today at Kennebunk Plains, a grassland preserve that is one of the rare places in Maine to reliably see this beautiful bird. My friend Kevin Tolan, a researcher, tells me that the population of Meadowlarks in the state is declining at a rate of 7.5% per year, and he doubts this […]
While looking for early migrants in “downtown” Biddeford Pool, I looked across the channel . . . at the stately homes just a few yards away as the crow flies (but 20 minutes away by car). There, sitting on the edge of a freshly mowed lawn and bunches of spring daffodils was a Snowy Owl. […]
If you ask birders in Maine what is their favorite family of bird . . . I’d wager on Warblers. These tiny, colorful, fast moving, bug eaters are often just a few feet away. Warblers are the highlight of spring migration, somedays the trees and bushes are just dripping with birds. On Thursday I saw […]
This morning I was driving north on I-95 heading for a reliable spot for early spring Warblers when Ingrid texted me . . . “a Cattle Egret has been seen in Newport, Maine”. Maine is a good 500 miles outside of the Cattle Egret’s range but each year several overshoot and are seen in the […]
This morning I promised Ingrid we could sleep late and have a leisurely breakfast, read the paper and just relax. Then as I took my first sip of coffee, I looked at my phone and saw the words “Maine Rare Bird Alert – Vesper Sparrow – Damariscotta”. Ingrid looked at me and sighed, “this is […]
This morning I was birding in South Portland when I got a text message from Ingrid . . . that a Green Heron was being reported in a residential area of . . . South Portland. Well that was convenient. Trout Brook Preserve is a small (maybe 200 yards long) wooded park in the middle […]
The Piping Plovers are back on the beaches of Maine. Yesterday on the north end of Wells Beach near the dunes . . . I watched a Bullmastiff playing chuckit catch with his master. The beach is 2 miles long and they decided to play where the endangered species nest each year. Being a coward […]
Very excited to see two Short-eared Owls patrolling the runways at the old Brunswick Naval Airstation at dusk this evening. I watched them for over an hour. I really hoped to get one of them to fly in front of the legendary “Fat Boy” Drive-In Sign . . . but the damn birds wouldn’t cooperate. […]
For at least 150 years, the Snipe Hunt has been a practical joke used by fraternities, summer camps and other organizations. Newcomers, overwhelmed by their new environments are sent into the woods to capture a non-existent animal called a snipe. When I started birding, I was surprised to learn there really is a family of […]
Turkey Vultures are a common three season sight in Maine and in the summer there always seems to one or two patrolling the skies. They are one of the first migrating birds to return each spring (actually late winter) and one of the last to leave as the weather gets cold. This past winter we […]
If one looks at Maine eBird checklists . . . you’ll find 47% of them have at least one American Crow . . . and I believe that it’s actually closer to 95% as folks tend to ignore this omnipresent bird. When I go out birding, I almost immediately hear American Crows “caw” sounds and […]
After two weeks without a new bird, my Maine Big Year is back on track as I’ve been picked up five new birds in the last four days. Today I got a Hermit Thrush and a Pine Warbler, bringing the count to 138. The state record is 317, so there is a long way to […]
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