Maine Outdoor Journal

The strong northwesterly winds that rocked the boat, literally, on Saturday rapidly diminished overnight, and with clearing skies, a massive migration was underway. Here are the 10pm, 12am, 2am, and 4am radar images, plus the 10pm velocity image – showing a nice north to south “symmetrical” pattern.









Interestingly enough, my evening listening session produced little – only 7 birds, including one Swainson’s Thrush. With the magnitude of the flight, I would have expected much more. Therefore, I wonder is sparrows – which make up the bulk of the flight at this time of year either: 1) call less frequently, 2) are flying too high to hear, or 3) are calling at too high of a pitch for me to hear. Or, perhaps a combination of all three? As I look at my notes from the previous seasons, I notice my listening sessions are progressively less productive as October goes on and sparrows become a larger proportion of the night’s flight. Hmm . . .

Anyway, it will come as no surprise that I was at Sandy Point at dawn on Sunday morning. However, by daybreak, winds were light out of the southwest, which minimizes the morning flight here. Furthermore, most sparrows do not reorient inland at dawn.

Here’s the tally:
6:46 to 7:31. Mostly cloudy, lt-mod SW, cold (36F at home).

American Robin: 86
Dark-eyed Junco: 39
Yellow-rumped Warbler: 21
Unidentified: 18
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 11
White-throated Sparrow: 10 (including two observed crossing just before sunrise, one of my very few observations of this bird making the crossing).
Song Sparrow: 7
Swamp Sparrow: 7
Golden-crowned Kinglet: 6
Unidentified kinglet: 2
“Yellow” Palm Warbler: 2
American Goldfinch: 2
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: 1
American Pipit: 1
Blackpoll Warbler: 1
Common Yellowthroat: 1
White-crowned Sparrow: 1

After fearing that I would have to tear myself away kicking and screaming, I was actually quite relieved that the flight was so light, as I had little time to spend here this morning. Soon, it was time to head to Portland to lead a walk along the Eastern Prom for the Friends of the Eastern Promenade.

Last night’s sparrow flight was certainly in evidence, with goodly number of birds scattered about the scrubby hillside. A single Field Sparrow and two Merlins were probably the best birds of the outing, but the group - all 15 of us - was treated to very good looks at very good numbers of Song and White-throated Sparrows in particular, and we spent some time identifying and discussing native and invasive plants here.

Here’s the tally from this outing:
8:00-10:30am.

White-throated Sparrow: 100+
Song Sparrow: 75+
Swamp Sparrow: ~15
Yellow-rumped Warbler: ~10
Savannah Sparrow: 6+
Eastern Phoebe: 4
Merlin: 2
Northern Flicker: 2
Common Yellowthroat: 2
Chipping Sparrow: 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: 1
Gray Catbird: 1
Field Sparrow: 1
White-crowned Sparrow: 1

A quick check of the lot on Sheridan Street yielded a handful of White-throated and Song Sparrows, along with a single Hermit Thrush; this lot becomes more productive as the season progresses and birds seek the warmth of the sunny, urban hillside.

Meanwhile, back at the store, our feeder diversity is nicely picking up with the arrival of our first Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows of the season in the past couple of days, and a brief visit to the taller trees around the building by a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was already the 82nd species on our fledgling yard list!

By the middle of the afternoon, the winds shifted back to the west with the passage of a weak, and mostly dry, cold front. Winds remained westerly overnight, and with clearing skies I would have expected a decent movement of birds. However, virtually nothing showed up on the radar. Here are the 10pm and 4am images for example.




Huh. Perhaps they were just a little too strong aloft?

Anyway, I’m guessing I didn’t miss much at Sandy Point, which was a real concern of mine as light west winds were still present at dawn. But today, I was heading down to Sprawlborough to meet clients for a full-day of birding.

The primary goal was Saltmarsh Sparrow, so Dennis, Joanne, and I began at the Eastern Road Trail. It was dead calm, crystal clear, and refreshingly crisp as we walked down the trail. With 45 minutes were had crippling full-scope views of a Saltmarsh Sparrow that came out to a creek edge to sun itself.




We also had great views of a Nelson’s Sparrow for comparison. The salt pannes held quite a few shorebirds, with a single Stilt Sandpiper being the highlight, but the four Semipalmated Sandpipers roosting on rocks along the trail were also noteworthy at this late of a date. 18 Greater Yellowlegs, 5 Lesser Yellowlegs, 4 Pectoral Sandpipers, and 2 Semipalmated Plovers gave us 6 species of shorebirds for the day list.

With the main target of the day under our belt, the pressure was off, and we set out for some general birding, with a rough “sparrow big day” focus. The goal was not just a diversity of sparrows, but good, “quality time” with sparrows to study and learn. Therefore, I focused on a variety of sparrow-rific locales in Greater Portland, such as Dragon Field and the Eastern Promenade, and mixed in a few migrant traps such as various Portland lots and West Commercial Street.

Although we did not keep a complete day list, we kept count of various groups of birds. Failing to turn up a Chipping Sparrow, we finished with 9 species of sparrows: Saltmarsh, Nelsons, Savannah, Song, Swamp, White-throated, White-crowned, Lincoln’s (one at Dragon Field), and Dark-eyed Junco. 7 species of raptors was a treat: Northern Harrier, American Kestrel, Cooper’s Hawk, Osprey, Red-tailed Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and Merlin. We swept the regularly-occurring woodpeckers with Pileated, Hairy, Downy, Northern Flicker, and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

The only disappointment was the poor showing by warblers: plenty of Yellow-rumps, a few Common Yellowthroats here and there, and a single Blackpoll Warbler along West Commercial Street. Although a fleeting glimpse of a warbler at Dragon Field was probably a Nashville, I was downright shocked to not see a Palm Warbler all day! A few of the other birds of note included a very late Bobolink still at Dragon Field, a truant Blue-headed Vireo along the Eastern Prom, a singing (!) Carolina Wren at Joe’s Pond Park in South Portland, and two Red-winged Blackbirds at Maxwell’s Farm in Cape Elizabeth.

In addition to the gorgeous weather, we had a truly great day of birding! My only regret is that with all of the trashy, urban “wastelands” that we birded today, our guests – making their first visit to Maine – will be taking away a slightly different aesthetic opinion of what Maine has to offer. But, as Dennis said, “We want to go to where the birds are,” and at this time of year, weedy urban lots are prime. And, the diversity of species on the day exemplifies just what I love so much about October birding!

Oh, and by the way, Rutgers football has nicely taken care of business over the last few weeks, doing what they had to do against a very soft out-of-conference schedule, with two I-AA teams (Howard and Texas Southern) easily dispatched, a squeaker against Florida International, and most importantly a solid win against the ACC’s Maryland putting us at 4-1. Now, the “real” season begins, as we face Pitt on Friday night.