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 […]
Gray-cheeked Thrush . . . for a non-birder that name hardly would inspire a trek through the wood in the rain. And to be honest, this brown/gray bird with spots is rather homely. But I’ve been stuck at 306 (my Maine Big Year count) for ten days . . . so any new bird is […]
Today, I was birding Laudholm Farm in Wells, over two thousand acres of shorefront, salt marsh, orchards, and hayfields. I covered and backtracked large areas of the preserve only to find Maine Big Year Bird #306 in the damn parking lot. I can’t tell you how often Ingrid and I will spend hours and hour […]
If you are a football fan and your quarterback makes an amazing touchdown pass . . . the crowd goes wild . . . then you notice a yellow flag on the field . . . holding. The touchdown is disallowed and you feel deflated. That happened to me today. This morning I was birding […]
SANDPIPER. The word brings forth an image of childhood with little birds running at the edge of the surf on a hot summer beach day. And that image is pretty accurate, as right now thousands of sandpipers and plovers are migrating through Maine, stopping to feed on coastal beaches. But there are other Sandpipers . […]
Birders come in all shapes, sizes and ages. There are old fogies (like myself), the academic ornithological types (“notice the rufous upper-wing coverts”), the matronly fanatics (made famous by Miss Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies) . . . and then there are the young turks!!! This later group is made up of some amazing “kids”. […]
Yesterday was Wednesday and for Ingrid and me . . . it was another whale watch . . . this time out of Boothbay Harbor. Once again we treated with the variety of sea birds moving around the boat and bored tourist (it can take several hours to get to the whales) peppering us with […]
Regular readers of my Maine Big Year Chronicles (Hi Uncle Bob and Aunt Avis), know how important sea birds are. I’m not talking about the gulls and ducks that prowl the coastline . . . I’m talking about the great ocean going birds that live their entire lives at sea, often migrating halfway around the […]
NOTE: THIS POST WAS WRITTEN ON AUGUST 1 BUT HELD UNTIL TODAY . . . READ ON TO FIND OUT WHY!!!! A couple days ago . . . Ingrid and I drove two and half hours north to Bar Harbor for a Whale Watch (excellent birding on Whale Watches) and it was canceled due to […]
Yesterday Ingrid and I came upon a flock of Black-legged Kittiwakes sitting on a rock outcrops off the Quoddy Head Lighthouse in Lubec. Lubec is the eastern most point in the United States and believe it or not, is the closer to Africa than Florida (I don’t understand that either but apparently its true). The […]
Back in January I stood with a group of birder in ankle deep snow trying to stay warm as we waited for a rare Black-headed Grosbeak to appear. A birder who set the Maine Big Year record back in 2011 was providing me helpful hints . . . when he came to the one […]
Most of us are familiar with bird migration, the annual travel of various species from their wintering grounds to their breeding territory. Generally this means they travel north in the spring and south in the fall. But a few perform counter-intuitive post-breeding migrations . . . traveling in a direction that is difficult to explain. […]
Yesterday’s adventure in pointless bird counting took Ingrid and I back out to sea to find Shearwaters. These long winged seabirds spend their entire lives on or over the world’s oceans except when they come to land to nest and raise their young. Shearwaters are some of the world’s longest migrants . . . traveling […]
What two verbs characterize a Big Year? Travel and Wait Travel and Wait Travel and Wait Last January I stood in the freezing cold for a cumulative 10 hours before a Black-headed Grosbeak showed up in a Portland park. In May I drove five hours to Lubec (the eastern most point in the USA) and […]
Yesterday, Ingrid and I visited Katahdin Woods and Waters . . . 87,000 acres of forestland in Northern Maine. In 2016, President Obama made it a US National Monument under the Antiquities Act (I have no idea what that is). What I do know: its declaration as a national monument was quite controversial, moving a […]
It’s the beginning July and we’re at the halfway point of my Maine Big Year . . . six months to go. Bird #1 was an hour before sunrise on New Years Day . . . a Great Horned Owl calling at the Grange Hall Parking Lot in Cape Elizabeth. Bird #286 was June […]
If you regularly pass a marsh, a pond or swamp along the U.S. coastline you’re probably are familiar with the Snowy Egret . . . a graceful two foot tall bird with black bill and legs, yellow feet, and beautiful white feathers. Large flocks are common and Snowy Egrets are not particularly afraid of humans. […]
This morning (to celebrate our anniversary) Ingrid and I took a boat out to Machias Seal Island to see . . . you guessed it . . . birds!!! Machias Seal Island is located 10 miles off the Maine Coast and 50 kilometers off the coast of Nova Scotia. For those of you that didn’t […]
In the spring of 2005, a Red-billed Tropicbird, a stunning white bird with a bright red bill and a long streaming tail was seen in the cold waters off the Maine coast. Thousands of miles off-course . . . this bird normally prowls the seas off the Lesser Antilles. It was seen off and on […]
With the pandemic winding down, date night has returned to America . . . dinner and a movie. For the Whitakers, last night was dinner . . . then a 90 minute drive . . . followed by a five mile hike, down a scary road, in pitch black, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded […]
I know, I know . . . you’re expecting a photo of a cute warbler . . . or a stunning raptor . . . or a rarity that has inexplicably appeared in Maine. Nope, today you’re getting a selfie of MOI!!!! The Bicknell’s Thrush holds a special place in the hearts of the Maine […]
When planning a Big Year . . . it’s easy to forget the deep sea birds . . . these are the most mysterious and the hardest to find. To have a shot at the Maine State Record (317), I’ll need to get almost all of of the deep sea birds . . . and […]
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