There will not be a birdwalk on Saturday, January 10th as Jeannette and I will be away on (mostly!) business. The plan is to have a birdwalk on Saturday, January 17th, but that's assuming our return flight on the 16th isn't changed or severly delayed. Check back on the News page for an update. No news is good news. And apologies for the late Friday cancellation of our January 3rd birdwalk. I came down with the flu and it was not a mild case. I don't recommend "Subclade K" (p

20 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 45 House Sparrow: 24 House Finch: 14 American Goldfinch: 12 European Starling: 12 Eastern Bluebird: 8 Dark-eyed Junco: 8 Mourning Dove: 6 Northern Cardinal: 6 American Crow: 4 Blue Jay: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Tufted Titmouse: 3 Hairy Woodpecker: 2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 White-throated Sparrow: 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch: 1 Carolina Wren: 1 Song Sparrow: 1

20 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 45 House Sparrow: 24 House Finch: 14 American Goldfinch: 12 European Starling: 12 Eastern Bluebird: 8 Mourning Dove: 6 Northern Cardinal: 6 American Crow: 4 Blue Jay: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Tufted Titmouse: 3 Hairy Woodpecker: 2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 White-throated Sparrow: 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch: 1 Carolina Wren: 1 Song Sparrow: 1 Dark-eyed Junco: 1

Expecting much stronger winds than we encountered, we sought the shelter of the Town Landing Tour, traveling between Freeport and Falmouth, focusing on winter waterbirds. While we had some respectable tallies today, two moments really stood out. The first was a group of a dozen frisky LONG-TAILED DUCKS off of the Harraseeket Yacht Club that were displaying and establishing the pecking order right off the end of the pier. Long-tailed Ducks are often quite vocal, but this was a

A GREAT BLUE HERON was spotted traveling south over the store on 12/12. 22 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 45 House Sparrow: 24 House Finch: 14 American Goldfinch: 12 European Starling: 12 Mourning Dove: 6 Northern Cardinal: 6 Eastern Bluebird: 5 American Crow: 4 Blue Jay: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Tufted Titmouse: 3 White-throated Sparrow: 3 Hairy Woodpecker: 2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker: 1 Red-breasted

Winter is here, but we took advantage of the calm to enjoy waterbirds, visiting Broad Cove in Cumberland. Landbirds were fairly sparse, with 3 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS and 2 NORTHERN CARDINALS on the way down, a RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER both to and fro, but at the end of the point, a nice pocket of activity that included about 20 AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES, 8 BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, great looks at 2 BROWN CREEPERS, 2 DARK-EYED JUNCOS, 2 WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES, and 1 DOWNY WOODPECKER. Do

Our first AMERICAN TREE SPARROW of the season showed up on 12/5. 22 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 45 House Sparrow: 24 House Finch: 14 American Goldfinch: 12 European Starling: 12 Mourning Dove: 6 Eastern Bluebird: 5 American Crow: 4 Blue Jay: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Northern Cardinal: 4 Tufted Titmouse: 3 White-throated Sparrow: 3 Hairy Woodpecker: 2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker: 1 Red-breasted Nuthat

It's the first Saturday in December so as per two-decade tradition, Winslow Park was the destination for this morning's outing. It wasn't warm, light snow was falling, but the lack of wind made for a rather pleasant visit, and the birding was good, too! Winter waterbirds are building in, and our tallies showed it: 153 MALLARDS, ~150 BUFFLEHEAD, 55 AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS, 42 CANADA GEESE, 30 RING-BILLED GULLS, 21 LONG-TAILED DUCKS, 8 HERRING GULLS, 8 COMMON LOONS, 3 SURF SCOTERS

19 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 45 House Sparrow: 24 House Finch: 14 American Goldfinch: 12 European Starling: 12 Mourning Dove: 6 American Crow: 4 Blue Jay: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Northern Cardinal: 4 Tufted Titmouse: 3 Hairy Woodpecker: 2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Eastern Bluebird: 2 White-throated Sparrow: 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch: 1 Song Sparrow: 1 Dark-eyed Junco: 1

With the MacGillivray's Warbler still hanging around, it was impossible to resist another visit to Grist Mill Park. We worked the small area of trails, looking and listening. I thought I heard it in the distance, but I could not confirm it. So we looked around, and looked at everything else. And as usual, there were plenty of other birds to hear and see in this little pocket of habitat: a low adult BALD EAGLE, 2 TURKEY VULTURES, and a few HERRING GULLS overhead; 8 MALLARDS in

One EVENING GROSBEAK was heard flying over the yard on 11/21. 20 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 45 House Sparrow: 24 Red-winged Blackbird: 17 American Goldfinch: 16 House Finch: 10 European Starling: 10 Mourning Dove: 6 Blue Jay: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Common Grackle: 4 Northern Cardinal: 4 American Crow: 3 Tufted Titmouse: 3 Hairy Woodpecker: 2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Song Sparrow: 2 Red-breasted Nuthatch: 1 Carolina W

A productive and diverse visit to Wolfe's Neck Center really exemplified the rapidly changing season: fewer migrant landbirds and signficantly more waterbirds. As always, we began and ended at the cove, where the incoming tide brought more birds to us by the end of the walk. A single GREAT BLUE HERON stood guard the entire time, and at the end of the walk, we spotted a distant HORNED GREBE - the first of the season for many folks. In between, the growing number of waterbirds

19 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 42 House Sparrow: 24 House Finch: 10 European Starling: 10 Mourning Dove: 6 American Goldfinch: 6 Blue Jay: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Northern Cardinal: 4 American Crow: 3 Tufted Titmouse: 3 Hairy Woodpecker: 2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Song Sparrow: 2 White-throated Sparrow: 2 Carolina Wren: 1 Dark-eyed Junco: 1 Red-winged Blackbird: 1

Birders could have wagered on where we were going today in the midst of rarity season. And those betting it would be Grist Mill Park would have been right. Within minutes of our arrival, the MACGILLIVRAY'S WARBLER found here last Sunday and reported all week began to call! Listening carefully to where it was calling from, we moved in position and soon saw it right out at the edge of a dense thicket. It then flew across a clearing, within about 20 feet of us, and slowly worked

With a strong wind and a morning high tide, sheltered upper marshes were an appealing place to be to start our outing. And Walsh Preserve delivered once again with a rare LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER and a very late LESSER YELLOWLEGS. Two great birds for November! The 14-26 GREATER YELLOWLEGS were also a solid count for the date, thanks to the water-filled pannes. Two RED-TAILED HAWKS soared over the other side of the river, and a NORTHERN FLICKER called in the distance. We encounte

While we found surprisingly few migrants on the ground today, the visible migration overhead more than made up for it! What an interesting day it was. As usual, we began and ended at the cove, with the incoming tide beginning to cover the mudflats and concentrating birds before us. 6 GREATER YELLOWLEGS and a total of 3 GREAT BLUE HERONS worked the stream, while 4 GREEN-WINGED TEAL joined 32 AMERICAN BLACK DUCKS on the mudflat. A goodly late season tally of 52 LAUGHING GULLS

It felt like summer, and this unexpectedly lingering American Oystercatcher sure made it look like summer, too.   Our fall Birds of Casco...

Before we get to the unfortunate and frustrating news, we'll start with a celebration of a really enjoyable and productive fall morning...

Now in its 5 th  year, our “Birds of Casco Bay” tour with our partners Seacoast Tours of Freeport once again headed out on an August...

See Scott Weidensaul’s informative statement below concerning the un-elected Elon Musk’s DOGE assault on the venerable Bird Banding Lab...