Maine Outdoor Journal

A fairly small area of high pressure rapidly moving east resulted in Sunday’s northwesterly winds becoming north early in the night, followed by northeast well before dawn. Unfortunately, that put the kibosh on my hopes for a decent late-season morning flight at Sandy Point.

There were definitely birds on the move overnight, however, and - as is expected for the season - many more departing than arriving (as seen by the denser volume of echoes on the earlier images). Here are the 10pm, 12am, 2am, and 4am radar images:








Despite the NNE wind, I still started at the bridge at Sandy Point, hoping for a flight of late-season passerines, such as finches and Snow Buntings. But, the winds were northeasterly far too long last night, so there was little offshore come dawn, and even less reorienting inland through Sandy Point.

Here’s the miniscule tally, for what it’s worth:
6:14am – 6:55am. Light NNE, clear, cold.

9 American Robins
4 American Crows
4 Dark-eyed Juncos
3 Double-crested Cormorants
3 Song Sparrows
2 Golden-crowned Kinglets
2 Yellow-rumped Warblers
2 Snow Buntings
2 American Goldfinches
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Red-winged Blackbird

There was also a Red-bellied Woodpecker calling around the parking lot; the first that I have seen there this fall (although at least one bird has been resident on Cousin’s Island for at least three years now).

Originally, I was going to announce today as my last dawn at Sandy Point of the season, and my last blog entry with radar analysis. However, I am optimistic about a good flight on either Tuesday night or Wednesday, so we’ll have to see what happens.

Meanwhile, Rarity Season is now fully upon us (as I blogged about yesterday), and with that, I spend less time looking at radar images (just too few birds on the move on most nights this late in the season), and more time staring at upper-level wind maps. Here’s the mid-day map from today, showing a very zonal west to east flow, which is not as conducive to rarities as the trough-and-ridge southwest to northeast flow exemplified by Saturday’s map that I referenced on yesterday’s blog.


Speaking of Saturday’s map - which I commented looked really good for rarities in the Northeast – it is likely that southwesterly flow that produced a Cave Swallow in Cape May today, and a MacGillivray’s Warbler on Grand Manan yesterday.

So, with my “Rarity Fever” in full swing, I will be beating the bush hard in the next two to three weeks in search of vagrants. I began this quest today, in Portland, as I birded the southern half of the peninsula (in the lee of the day’s increasing northeasterly breeze). While I didn’t find any true vagrants, I did find a few goodies in the “late migrant” department. A Hermit Thrush and Northern Flicker were along West Commercial Street, while a Swamp Sparrow and a Baltimore Oriole – the second oriole I ran after in two days yet failed to string into a Bullock’s – were at Mercy Woods. I also heard, briefly, what was probably a Common Redpoll in flight overhead, but with the highway noise, I just didn’t get enough of it. Overall, the birding was rather quiet, but an oriole in November is always a treat.

Anyway, you all know how much I love Saltmarsh Sparrows, so you can imagine how concerned I was to read this article from the American Bird Conservancy.

And, don’t forget: David Sibley at the store, 4-6pm on Wednesday to give a brief talk, followed by signing of his new, remarkable and revolutionary, “Sibley Guide to Trees.” Hope to see you then!