Ingrid and I are closing out the second and final day of our visit to the Sax-Zim Bog by sitting in front of a warm fire at the Alesches’ Accommodations, a lovely lodge located within the Bog. There are a number of other birders here and all are talking about everyone’s most sought after bird, […]
Greetings from the legendary Sax-Zim Bog … a location for birders equivalent to Wrigley Field for baseball fans or the Augusta National for golfers. The bog is 300+ square miles of mixed spruce, aspen, tamarack and pine forest, diverse animal life (wolves, deer and moose) and of course birds. And it is cold. Damn cold. […]
A recap of the second week of our 48 State Big Year (2024)
Ingrid recorded this Short-eared Owl, right about sunset in Richmond, Maine today. Note how the bird flies like a moth . . . in one direction and then abruptly in another. We saw two Short-eared Owl this evening over this expansive agricultural field. We’ve observed that these birds tend to chase each other for a […]
Ingrid and I drove back to Maine from New Jersey today, a bit giddy after seeing a Red-flanked Bluetail yesterday. Instead of driving directly home, we made a couple detours hoping to see a few more birds. Our first stop was an industrial park pond where we had seen an unusual goose at sunset the […]
About a month ago a birding friend invited me to join a roadtrip to New Jersey to see a rare RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL. The Bluetail is an Eurasian bird that can be found from Great Britain over to Taiwan. Over the years, there have been a few reports in North America (Alaska and California) . […]
Last night Ingrid and I travelled to Newburyport, Massachusetts to celebrate the New Year (ok, we were asleep before 10:00 pm) and to pre-proposition ourselves for Day 1 of our USA Big Year. We had learned where a difficult to find Long-eared Owl was roosting in eastern Massachusetts, and we were eager to add that […]
Tanagers are some of the planet’s most beautiful birds . . . often a combination of bright reds and yellows. There are 386 species of Tanagers scattered across the world, but only four are found in North America. The most common of these is the Scarlet Tanager which nests throughout the northeast and into Canada. […]
The Dovekie is a tiny ocean bird, in the same family as our charismatic Atlantic Puffin. About the size of a pigeon, this black and white bird spends its entire life on the open ocean, only coming to shore to nest. Because of their deep sea habitat, Ingrid and I only see a few Dovekies […]
Today, Ingrid and I drove down to Kennebunk, Maine to visit a lovely beachfront community. Our mission was to find the Blue Grosbeak that has been seen moving through the landscaping in this eye-catching neighborhood. Imagine if you lived in one of these beautiful homes and looked out your front windows to see strangers […]
Ingrid and I are not doing a lot of birding right now. Most of our energy is going into planning of our 2024 Big Year across the Lower 48 States. This long anticipated, 366 day adventure (thank you Leap Year for one extra day!) to see as many species of birds as possible is only […]
Those of us of a certain age remember a 1970s sitcom called “The Odd Couple.” The show was based upon the hit 1965 hit Neil Simon movie of the same name. The show’s opening credits are still classic. Ingrid and I haven’t been doing a lot of birding recently as we plan for […]
November is an interesting time for birding in Maine. Virtually all of our summer birds have packed their bags and headed for points south. Some like the Red-winged Blackbird only retreat to Massachusetts while Arctic Terns fly over 9,000 miles to their winter home off Antartica. Meanwhile, our winter birds have arrived . . . […]
To quote from my favorite television show . . . “Winter is Coming!” In Maine – it has dropped into the teens at night, most leaves are off the trees and there is snow on the ground in some places. And our iconic lobsters have begun to migrate away from the coast into the deep […]
Last week Ingrid and I visited my baby sister and her husband at their vacation home in Delaware. It was a wonderful trip and including a Halloween costume parade and contest which we won!!! One of the highlights was a trip to the Maryland side of the Assateague Island National Seashore. Assateague Island is a […]
January 2011, my son Bradley and I took a trip to southern Florida and the Everglades. This was a couple years before Ingrid and birding entered my life . . . so Bradley and I were on the airboat to see alligators. While deep in the swamp, the airboat driver slowed to see a monster […]
Ingrid filmed a Dickcissel this afternoon near a community garden in Brunswick, Maine. This charming visitor from the Midwest United States is a rare sight in Maine. During the breeding season, Dickcissels are primarily found on the Great Plains and throughout the Midwest. Their preferred breeding habitat consists of grasslands, prairies, and open fields, where […]
Cashes Ledge is an underwater mountain range, about 70 miles off the Maine coast, roughly halfway between Bar Harbor and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Covering 550 square miles, it rises to just 24 feet below the surface. This dramatic climb from the Gulf of Maine’s ocean floor creates an upwelling of nutrients . . . attracting […]
Ingrid and I are approaching our 10th anniversary. Her youngest daughter just had a beautiful baby boy. Last month we spent two weeks in Europe and we are both comfortably retired. One would think everything is great . . . except today she photographed a rare Hudsonian Godwit as it paused to feed in Portland. […]
When most of us hear the term “Beach” we think of pristine sand . . . ideal for sun bathing and sand castles. Birders want none of that pristine sand!!! We want seaweed or a “wrack” running from the surf up onto the beach. Ideally the wrack should have started to decay and be full […]
Wedding Anniversaries come around once a year . . . thank God. Each year: I have to remember the Anniversary. Buy a card for the Anniversary. And buy a present for the Anniversary. For someone as scatter brained as I am . . . a Wedding Anniversary can be a real challenge. Most years I […]
Day 3 of our two week European Holiday did not disappoint. Today we visited the sights of London . . . Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Rose-Ringed Parakeets, West Minster Abbey, St. Paul . . . What??? Wait??? Rose-Ringed Parakeets??? In London???? This latest birding distraction began in front of Buckingham Place as we posed for […]
Ingrid and I are in Europe on a non-birding vacation (gasp). Our first stop was the Tower of London . . . old fortresses, the crown jewels and . . . RAVENS!!!! At least 6 Ravens (currently 9, including a non-captive breeding pair) live on the grounds of the Tower of London . . […]
Yesterday, Ingrid and I visited Morse Mt (Seawall Beach), a nature preserve owned and managed by Bates College . . . my beloved alma mater. When I was in college, a bunch of my friends were geology majors. While I was writing 100 page papers and arguing the finer points of Federalist #10 . . […]
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