Got up before dawn to chase a few birds this morning . . . got one and missed the other. The success was a Northern Pintail in York Maine, a duck that the field guides say should not be in Maine this time of the year. The second bird was a Dickcissel in Wells, Maine […]
On a non-birding weekend get away on an around Sugarloaf Mountain, Ingrid and I were driving into the Cross Country Ski area, when I braked in the middle of the snow covered access road . . . as three Red Crossbills were feeding on salt in the roadway. I had heard of this behavior, but […]
While driving to Sugarloaf Mt. for a weekend of Cross Country Skiing, Ingrid and I noticed an aerial dogfight over the road. We pulled over and watched a Common Raven attacking two juvenile Bald Eagles over and over and over. I jumped out of the car hoping to get a few photos when a third […]
All bird guides, hard copy and digital have range maps . . . a great way to identify a bird. If I’m not sure about my ID, I check the range maps to see if my bird belongs where I saw it. None of that seems to work with the Red-bellied Woodpecker in Maine, as […]
Yesterday, Maine was recovering from a nasty ice storm where traveling became impossible and homes lost power and internet services. About noon Ingrid and I headed out to do a little birding, but fearing the ice would limit our mobility. We go out of the car at Pond Cove in Cape Elizabeth, a small beach […]
Got up before dawn determined to get a Dovekie. Dovkies are a pigeon sized Alcid, related to Puffins, Razorbills, and Murres. They are also a prized winter sighting along the Maine coast. So yesterday morning I stood in the cold scanning the ocean with my scope and binoculars . . . for […]
As one becomes a better birder, sound becomes a increasingly important factor in locating birds. Yesterday, I got out of the car at one of my favorite birding spots and heard a squeak wheel type song coming from a near by pond. When I got to the pond . . . the song was coming […]
Today’s expedition was to Nubble Light in York, Maine . . . a peninsula jutting into the ocean just short of a beautiful light house. The location attracts seabirds in great numbers and occasionally something really rare. Today’s rarity was a couple King Eiders visible with a scope (one may have been a Common/King […]
Yesterday a King Eider was reported at Fort Pemaquid . . . and naturally the local birders descended on the spot. The road into the fort was a muddy mess and I worried that I would get stuck but braved it anyway. I search for an hour and then ran into a couple other birders […]
For the second straight day I went looking for one bird and ended up getting another. This morning I went over to the neighboring towns of Tophsam and Brunswick looking for a couple Peregrine Falcons that have been terrorizing the pigeon community. I scanned the bridges, buildings and tree tops . . . […]
Does a gray, slushy, mid-40s day in January sound like a Netflix kinda day? Well for birders in Maine its a . . . “lets get outside” kinda day. Ingrid and I were up early and heading to Hermit Island, a campground on the end of ocean peninsula which reliably attracts birds . . . […]
A January warm spell in Maine isn’t really all that warm . . . it means getting up into the 40s . . . but for Maine natives it feels glorious!!! So I was outside moving around the birding hotspots of Cape Elizabeth soaking in the sun and looking for avian species enjoying the weather […]
A Barrow’s Goldeneye is an infrequent visitor to Maine. Males can be differentiated from their Common Goldeneye cousin by the tear drop white path on the face (Commons have oval spot). Got the Barrow’s Drake at Scarborough Marsh today in 15 degree weather. Had to take off my glove to use the camera and after […]
According to the field books, Northern Shrikes are not a particularly rare bird during a Maine winter . . . but you can’t prove that to Ingrid and me. We’ve seen only three of them ever, one each in 2017, 2019 and 2020 . . . and not for lack of trying. We are always […]
I was surprised that to find this Killdeer today, seemingly continuing to thrive on a beach in the middle of a Maine winter. One of the first shorebirds to arrive back in Maine in the spring (March) . . . this guy seems determined to winter over. Also picked up an Eastern Bluebird in the […]
Ingrid and I took a drive up to Rockland today and walked out the length of the Rockland Breakwater . . . two and a half mile round trip hike. There are days in a Maine winter, such a venture would have resulted in death or at the very least frostbite. But unseasonable 40 degrees […]
Ingrid and I try to spend each New Years Day birding from dusk to dawn and today was no exception. We spent three hours at home in Wiscasset watching our feeder birds. After that it was stops at a sewage treatment plan; the bird feeders at a bird feed store; lunch at a restaurant in […]
It’s always fun to see warm weather birds during a cold Maine winter. In the last few weeks I’ve seen a Kildeer and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Reports of a Baltimore Oriole and a Yellow-throated Warbler have come in from distant parts of the state. Yesterday when Ingrid and I were birding a Reid State Park […]
What do I do on a warm Christmas Eve morning? I drive an hour to the Hatch Hill Landfill in Augusta, Maine in search of a Juvenile Golden Eagle being seen there. The Augusta “Dump” is known for a large number of Bald Eagles that congregate during the winter but I was unprepared for […]
During a short lunch break I was scoping in a Horned Grebe swimming near some ocean front rocks when a some moving objects began distorting my view. I adjusted the the lens and low and behold eight Purple Sandpipers were moving around on the rocks. I had never seen Purples that close and near such […]
Another rain and wind storm hit the Maine Coast today causing massive flooding and power outages. Ingrid and I spent the morning working on various projects and by afternoon we both needed to get out . . . the perfect excuse to bird. We travelled to East Boothbay and did the Ocean Point loop hoping […]
Took a long lunch break . . . I’m so far behind on a programming project that it doesn’t matter . . . and visited Reid State Park the day after a two day winter storm. The surf was incredible and lots of birds had been driven closer to shore than usual . . . […]
Our son, Bradley and his fiancé Tanner live in Diamond Bar, California . . . a bedroom community 40 minutes southeast of Los Angeles. As seems to happen every time Ingrid and I travel somewhere warm . . . it was unseasonably cold . . . in the high 30s at night (snow in the […]
With the arrival of European Settlers and modern agriculture, the Colorado River was harnessed via levies and canals and the lake bed became dry with some winter melt runoff. Then in 1905 an irrigation canal broke and the Colorado River poured into the lake bed for two years creating the “Salton Sea”. In the […]
The Dickcissel is a bird typically found during the summer in Mid-Western States like Missouri and Nebraska before heading to the tropics in the Fall. Over the last month there have been a number of Dickcissel sightings in various locations in Maine. I have chased them but had not luck. This week one has […]
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