Maine Outdoor Journal

Rain began early Tuesday morning and continued through the early afternoon. With southerly winds overnight and the arrival of precipitation, few migrants were on the move. However, there were definitely some more sparrows around in the am – and sparrows will often move short-distances under cloudy skies and otherwise mildly-inclement weather. For example, the 11 White-throated Sparrows and 2 Dark-eyed Juncos at our feeders at home were double the previous day’s count, while a single White-crowned Sparrow and two Chipping Sparrows – the first in about 3 weeks – were also new arrivals. At least 10 Common Grackles are hanging out with us as well.

A wet walk with Sasha at Wolf Neck Woods State Park was wet and raw, with few birds, but 7 Red-breasted Mergansers were recent arrivals. 261 Canada Geese at Thornhurst Farm continue to be a fraction of the normal tally at this time of year, but I would expect the northwesterly winds of the last two days will bump this count up shortly.

. . . OK, I had LITERALLY just finished typing that when the phone first rang. A handful of calls and conversations later, and alas, we now have THREE PINK-FOOTED GEESE at Thornhurst! This may be an all-time high count for North America!!! No doubt I’ll have more on this soon . . .

Anyway, back to my morning. . . As the skies finally cleared by Tuesday night, birds took to the skies in large numbers on light to moderate northwesterly winds. Here are the 10pm, 12am, 2am, and 4am radar images, plus the 10pm velocity image showing the classic symmetrical pattern of a good, dense flight.










Temperaures plummeted overnight, reaching the freezing mark in many locations. At home, and at the store, we had our first frost of the year, and tonight, a freeze warning has been posted.

By 4:00am, the radar was not detecting nearly as many birds, but apparently, there were more than enough birds still in the skies to produce an extraordinary flight over and through Sandy Point! It was my second highest October tally, with new records for American Robin and Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a very nice total of seven species of warblers.

Here’s the scorecard:
6:52-8:37am. Light WNW becoming NNW. Clear. Cold.

American Robin: 735*
Yellow-rumped Warbler: 731
Dark-eyed Junco: 112
Unidentified: 93
White-throated Sparrow: 52
Palm Warbler: 48
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 44
Golden-crowned Kinglet: 34
Canada Goose: 28 (no Pink-footed, I checked)
Northern Flicker: 23
Song Sparrow: 14
Blue-headed Vireo: 8
Blue Jay: 5
Black-throated Blue Warbler: 5
Chipping Sparrow: 4
Unidentified kinglet: 3
Cedar Waxwing: 3
Unidentified shorebird: 2 (probably Dunlin)
Eastern Phoebe: 2
Black-capped Chickadee: 2 (8 false-starts before crossing)
Hermit Thrush: 2
Black-throated Green Warbler: 2
Blackpoll Warbler: 2
White-crowned Sparrow: 2
Unidentified accipiter: 1
American Kestrel: 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker: 1
Hairy Woodpecker: 1 (6 false-starts before crossing)
White-breasted Nuthatch: 1
YELLOW WARBLER: 1
Black-and-white Warbler: 1
Common Yellowthroat: 1
Red-winged Blackbird: 1
Rusty Blackbird: 1
Common Grackle: 1
American Goldfinch: 1

Total: 1,973 = second highest October tally.

I then took Sasha for a walk at Bayview Preserve. Despite the abundance of birds flying over Yarmouth this morning, there was – once again – not very much here. I still don’t understand why this patch does not seem to be nearly as productive as it used to – although I am willing to be that the proliferation of invasive plants is having at least something to do with it. 28 White-throated Sparrows, 9 Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a few of each kinglet, Dark-eyed Junco, Swamp, and Song Sparrows were present, along with a single Blackpoll Warbler and a Nelson’s Sparrow of undetermined subspecies in the marsh along the river.

So, Jeannette is out of town, which means a good bird will undoubtedly show up – last year it was the European Golden Plover! And sure enough, this morning, her first full day away, I get a call from Rob Spiers about three geese in Thornhurst Farm that “sure looked like the Pink-footed” from weeks ago. I called a few people, and Stella was the first on the seen. Just after Rob called back to confirm his earlier observations, Stella, and Trevor Persons, were both concurring with the call. I had asked Rob to try and snap a few pictures and send them along, which he did, and which certainly looked like Pink-footed Geese to me! They were distant and blurry, and didn’t show all of the salient features, but they were enough to confirm the identity for me.

After I got the word out, Stella graciously offered to cover the store – she worked for us for around 2 years at the old store, so this is not as irresponsible as it sounds! – while I ran down to attempt to get some better documentation shots.

I arrived at about 12:10, and the birds were now a bit farther out, and with high winds and heat shimmer, digiscoping was a challenge. I did manage to get these somewhat-useful shots:


















By about 12:30, they sat down in the grass and were virtually out of view, but in the short visit, I was able to see that the pale, pink legs were indeed free of bands, and that the feathers did not show any signs of captivity. The three birds all showed the dark brown head, bull-neck, and short-stubby bill with a pinkish band through it. One bird kindly stretched its wings to show that blue-gray color of the upperwing coverts that contrasted with the dark primaries and secondaries. I was not able to view the tail, however.

As far as I know at this time, this is the first record of more than 2 Pink-foots together in North America (outside of Greenland of course), so this is truly an exceptional find. And Thornhurst Farm continues to produce surprise after surprise.

In my brief visit, I tallied 501 Canada Geese – including one “runt” that superficially suggests a Cackling, almost double yesterday’s tally. Therefore, it’s safe to say new waves of geese have arrived, and hopefully, this time, the Pink-foots will stick around for a bit!