There will not be a Saturday Morning Birdwalk on July 18th. We'll see you on the 25th!

Despite the heat, "fall" southbound shorebird migration is upon us, and with the morning high tide, we wanted to see what is happening at our local shorebird patch. Once at the pannes, we were pleasantly surprised to find enough water and a really nice assortment and tallies of shorebirds for the early date: 20+ LEAST SANDPIPERS, 21 LESSER YELLOWLEGS, 13 GREATER YELLOWLEGS, 4 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER, 3 KILLDEER, and our first two PECTORAL SANDPIPERS of the season (and year for

23 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 22 House Finch: 14 American Goldfinch: 12 House Sparrow: 10 Red -winged Blackbird: 10 European Starling: 6 Northern Cardinal: 6 Common Grackle: 6 Blue Jay: 4 Gray Catbird: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Eastern Bluebird: 4 Ruby-throated Hummingbird: 2 Hairy Woodpecker:2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 Mourning Dove: 2 American Crow: 2 Tufted Titmouse: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Purple Finch: 2 Baltimore Oriole: 2 Chipping Spar

25 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 22 House Finch: 14 American Goldfinch: 12 House Sparrow: 10 Red -winged Blackbird: 10 European Starling: 6 Northern Cardinal: 6 Common Grackle: 6 Blue Jay: 4 Gray Catbird: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Eastern Bluebird: 4 Ruby-throated Hummingbird: 2 Hairy Woodpecker:2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 Mourning Dove: 2 American Crow: 2 Tufted Titmouse: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Northern Mockingbird: 2 Purple Finch: 2 Baltimore

One of our favorite mid-summer birdwalk destinations, this unassuming town park just always produces a pleasant amount of birds, good numbers of some of our common summer denizens, and always a surprise or two. Today was no different, as the wide edges allow our fairly large groups opportunity to see and study birds. And as is often the case in mid-summer, it is the careful observation of bird behavior that can be the most rewarding. Two of the highlights today were related t

25 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 16 House Finch: 14 American Goldfinch: 12 House Sparrow: 10 Red -winged Blackbird: 10 European Starling: 6 Northern Cardinal: 6 Common Grackle: 6 Blue Jay: 4 Gray Catbird: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Eastern Bluebird: 4 Ruby-throated Hummingbird: 2 Hairy Woodpecker:2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 Mourning Dove: 2 American Crow: 2 Tufted Titmouse: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Northern Mockingbird: 2 Purple Finch: 2 Chipping

We enjoyed another exceptional Saturday morning birding stroll today at one of our favorite breeding season destinations. Of course, we began and ended with BOBOLINKS (20-30), including lots of great views of both males and females. But perhaps today they were a little upstaged. The highlight was a pair of rare ORCHARD ORIOLE, with the male in particular well seen for an extended period of time. The female appeared to carry off some food, confirming breeding in the vicinity f

25 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 16 American Goldfinch: 12 Red -winged Blackbird: 10 House Sparrow: 10 House Finch: 10 European Starling: 6 Blue Jay: 4 Gray Catbird: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Eastern Bluebird: 4 Northern Cardinal: 4 Common Grackle: 4 Hairy Woodpecker:2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 Mourning Dove: 2 American Crow: 2 Tufted Titmouse: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Northern Mockingbird: 2 Chipping Sparrow: 2 Song Sparrow: 2 Ruby-throated Humm

23 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 16 American Goldfinch: 12 Red -winged Blackbird: 10 House Sparrow: 10 House Finch: 10 European Starling: 6 Blue Jay: 4 Gray Catbird: 4 Chipping Sparrow: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Eastern Bluebird: 4 Northern Cardinal: 4 Common Grackle: 4 Hairy Woodpecker:2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 Mourning Dove: 2 American Crow: 2 Tufted Titmouse: 2 White-breasted Nuthatch: 2 Song Sparrow: 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbird: 1 Northern Mock

Nikon M5 and M7 binoculars are currently $40 and $50 off, respectively. Offer good through July 11th.

With breeding season upon us, we set out to track down some local breeding species and practice our birding by ear. At Florida Lake, we finally got a look at one of the 5 CANADA WARBLERS on territory here, and had some really quality time with some low-foraging GREAT-CRESTED FLYCATCHERS, including one catching and consuming a large dragonfly. Two ALDER FLYCATCHERS were conspicuous today, as was one EASTERN KINGBIRD, 1 YELLOW WARBLER, and 1 BALTIMORE ORIOLE. Five RED CROSSBILL

The first clutch of EASTERN BLUEBIRDS in our yard had fledged as of 6/3. 23 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 24 American Goldfinch: 18 Red -winged Blackbird: 10 House Sparrow: 10 House Finch: 10 Blue Jay: 4 Gray Catbird: 4 European Starling: 6 Chipping Sparrow: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Northern Cardinal: 4 Common Grackle: 4 Hairy Woodpecker:2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 Mourning Dove: 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbird: 2 American Crow: 2 Tufted Titmouse: 2 Whi

Our trip report for last weekend's annual Spring Monhegan tour is posted here. Birding was slow by Monhegan standards, but we made up for it with some fantastic birds and great looks!

Well, that was fun! Rain remained to our south, and while it was stupid cold and windy, we found sheltered viewpoints and lots, and lots of birds. Beginning at Wharton Point, the last of the mudflats held a nice number of shorebirds: 41 BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS, 25 SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPERS, 4 spiffy breeding-plumaged DUNLIN, 1 SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER, and 1 GREATER YELLOWLEGS. 75 or so COMMON EIDERS were joined by a tardy flock of 36 WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, a nice count for the late

A male WILSON'S WARBLER was singing in the yard on 5/27. 21 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 24 American Goldfinch: 18 Red -winged Blackbird: 10 House Sparrow: 10 House Finch: 10 Blue Jay: 4 Gray Catbird: 4 European Starling: 4 Chipping Sparrow: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Northern Cardinal: 4 Common Grackle: 4 Hairy Woodpecker:2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 Mourning Dove: 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbird: 2 American Crow: 2 Tufted Titmouse: 2 White-breasted Nuth

A NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD showed up at the feeders on 5/16, our first of the year. 24 species visited the feeding station this week: Rock Pigeon: 24 American Goldfinch: 18 Red -winged Blackbird: 12 House Sparrow: 10 House Finch: 10 Blue Jay: 6 Gray Catbird: 6 European Starling: 6 Chipping Sparrow: 6 Mourning Dove: 4 Ruby-throated Hummingbird: 4 Black-capped Chickadee: 4 Northern Cardinal: 4 Common Grackle: 4 Hairy Woodpecker:2 Downy Woodpecker: 2 American Crow: 2 Tufted Titmouse

The 20th Bradbury Mountain Spring Hawkwatch came to a close (officially) on 5/15. Zane put in a few extra hours on 5/16 since the weather was looking promising. We definitely went out on a fizzle to cap off a well below average year. The cold wet spring and dearth of favorable winds just did not produce many good hawk flights for us. Starting off the season with our 6th ever Golden Eagle on day one was a highlight, as were the American Goshawks, Peregrine Falcons, and Norther

With such a big group and so much recent rain, we decided to head for the wide open trails and edges of Old Town House Park. There was a lot of water here, too, with The Royal River spilling over its banks, and there were definitely some wet feet, but no one needed to go for a swim to reach a trail! And the birding was fantastic, with great views of lots of bright colorful birds! A female ORCHARD ORIOLE - a life bird for some and year bird for many - was the most notable spec

First-of-years at the feeders this week included BALTIMORE ORIOLE and ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. Additional migrants in the yard were NASHVILLE WARBLER, YELLOW WARBLER, and BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER on 5/9 and LEAST FLYCATCHER and 5 species of warblers on 5/13. 28 species visited the feeding station this week: Red -winged Blackbird: 36 Rock Pigeon: 24 American Goldfinch: 18 House Sparrow: 12 House Finch: 8 Gray Catbird: 7 Blue Jay: 6 Chipping Sparrow: 6 Mourning Dove: 4 Black-capp

We got 2 good days of hawkwatching in at the beginning of this past week. The remainder of the week were days when you have to be up on the mountain looking at almost nothing. Our good flights were on west and southwest winds, but despite other seemingly favorable conditions, birds were just not to be seen from the summit. The likely culprits were rain shields that were setting up around us with the passage of weather fronts. Sharp-shinned Hawks numbers were increasing this w