Maine Outdoor Journal

So, as you may have noticed, there have been a few changes to the Outdoors section here at Mainetoday.com. In terms of this blog, there are only a few changes. For one, you’ll want to bookmark the new page (http://maineoutdoorjournal.mainetoday.com/fieldnotes) to reach the blog directly. For now, the old link at outdoors.mainetoday.com, etc, works and will redirect you to this page. Also, you’ll need to sign up again for the instant notifications when this blog has been updated. Simply click on the button at the top of the page that says, "E-mail me.” If it says, "Do not e-mail me" you are on the list. Click on that "do not" button to un-subscribe.

Comments should be easier to post, as there’s no need for the “preview” field that used to cause problems in the old software. On my end, photos – especially a large gallery of photos – is now much easier to post, and therefore I should be able to post more photos, more often. There are a few features that no longer exist (for now, anyway), including the “Show all Entries” and monthly listing of past entries features that I have found useful, and are useful for folks who want to search for specific topics (such as locations), and for posts within specific time frames. New entries, however, will use “tags” which will allow for easy searching by topic or category. I know that I will have a bit of a learning curve to figure out all of the new features, and the pages will need a few tweaks here and there that Mainetoday.com is working on. If you have any questions, or are experiencing any problems, just shoot me a message and I’ll get on it.

The new photo-uploading tool should come in handy in about 10 days, when Jeannette and I return from our summer vacation. I’ve had a lot of great trips this year, but they have all been “working vacations” and/or tours. This is a real, bona-fide vacation! We’re leaving later today to visit Jeannette’s family in Norway – and I don’t mean Norway, Maine! Jeannette’s mother is from here, and we will be visiting many of her relatives. Her cousin, who came to Maine for our wedding, is getting married, so this is a perfect excuse to see the country and visit with more of the family.

We’ll be staying with family in Tjome, which is just south of Tonsberg, and about two hours south of Oslo (sorry, I don’t know how to type the various funky punctuation doo-dads in this blogging software!). But, we’ll be birding and exploring for a week before the wedding. I’m really looking forward to this trip, for obvious reasons, but from a birding perspective, a few things should be more than a little interesting. For one, the vast majority of the birds will be completely new to me – the only time that I have been out of the Western Hemisphere was a trip to London when I was too young to remember much, especially the birds! While we do share some species with Northern Europe, many of the birds that I have seen before were vagrants that wandered off course and found themselves on St. Paul Island in the middle of Bering Sea, where I worked for three seasons. I remember the celebration when we found our first Little Stint – now, I’ll be searching through flocks of shorebirds for something other than a Little Stint!

Meanwhile, some of the other species – like Green Sandpiper and Wood Warbler – are the species we only dreamed about in St. Paul. Some birds, like Common Ringed Plovers, I have been searching for in North America, and I look forward to the opportunity to study them on their home field. Lots of life birds, lots of great scenery, and lots of great family time – it should be a heckuva trip!

But, before we head out, I’ve been making a little time to do some birding in these last few hectic days of preparation (how is going on and coming back from vacation always so stressful?). On Thursday morning, I made my 6-mile loop around Pownal, beginning and ending at our house. It was a rather quiet stroll, bird-wise, as expected at the season, but I did have a few treats. In addition to a few individual Bobolinks migrating overhead, I had a flock of about 60 in a field on Merrill Rd. On the opposite side of the street, the still-flooded field yielded four juvenile Lesser Yellowlegs and two Solitary Sandpipers. A pair of Eastern Bluebirds was along Hodson Road, while a family group of 6 – including four juveniles – were perched on the wires on Verrill Road.

I then spent the early evening hours enjoying the shorebirds on the incoming tide at Pine Point down in Sprawlborough. The beach had few birds, due to the plethora of beachgoers, and an onshore wind that had reduced the amount of exposed sand. The mud- and sand- flats off of the lobster co-op were a much different story, however!

I spent an hour and a half scanning the flats, enjoying the sights and sounds of a plethora of shorebirds. 12 ½ species in all! The highlight was definitely the single Marbled Godwit that has been present for about a week now; this is only the second or third one of these elegant shorebirds that I have seen in Maine. A “Western” Willet was another goodie, as were the 4 American Oystercatchers (2/3 to ½ of the state’s population!).

Here’s the complete list:
3 Great Blue Herons
10 Great Egrets
30+ Snowy Egrets
2 Little Blue Herons
97 Black-bellied Plovers
634 Semipalmated Plovers (a great count)
4 American Oystercatchers
24 Greater Yellowlegs
4 Lesser Yellowlegs
13 “Eastern” Willets
1 “Western” Willet
10 Whimbrel (a good count)
1 Marbled Godwit
9 Ruddy Turnstones
364 Semipalmated Sandpipers
2 White-rumped Sandpipers
46 Short-billed Dowitchers

Friday morning was spent doing the things that need to be done before going away. While cleaning and filling feeders, a flock of 18 White-winged Crossbills passed overhead, calling as they headed southwest. A massive irruption of this species seems to be underway, so hopefully this is a sign of things to come. This was also our 103rd yard bird.

Meanwhile, at least three (but possibly as many as four or five) female and juvenile, plus one adult male, Ruby-throated Hummingbird continue to feast on flowers and sugar water in our yard. And, our first few Monarch caterpillars have appeared on our milkweed. They are really late this year – by this time last year, we already had over a dozen chrysalises in the yard.

Although we’ll only be gone for 10 days, quiet a bit will change here in Maine from a birding perspective. Many, if not most, adult shorebirds of most species will have departed. However, we should be seeing even greater quantities of individuals and species as hoards of juveniles begin their journey south. Passerines will be on the move, and Sandy Point will begin to heat up. I’ll have to spend some time in the evening listening for flight calls, and some time in the morning checking out the radar, as nocturnal songbird migration really begins to heat up. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll be out of this annoying weather pattern! (By the way, it’s currently forecasted to rain almost every day, with below normal temperatures, where we will be in Norway).

So, without any further ado, we’re off . . . see ya in 10 days!