More beaches, more birds!

Weekend before last, continued! Gretchen and the girls and I went to Pine Point to see if a juvenile Hudsonian Godwit might still be hanging around. Sure enough:

Lifer!

Also present, a Black Skimmer in molt or a bad feather day or something:

Haven't seen one of these for a long time. Man, I LOVE living near the ocean!

Having hit our targets, we scooted up to Scarborough Marsh to see what might be hanging around:

Bald Eagle! Right over our heads.

We followed this guy around for a little while:

He had so much yellow, not only on his lores but on his whole head and throat and nape. I was trying to make it into some kind of seaside sparrow, but no go -- the color pattern on the back, the stubby tail -- Savannah Sparrow. Dangit!

Not much else happening at Scarborough, so we went to Dyer Point near Two Lights. What a great spot! It was cold and windy and rainy, but it was right on the ocean and we got some great views!

The lighthouse:

The lifers!

Northern Gannet! There were bunches of them, both close and far out, some of them (way out) doing their cool dives into the water! I had only seen them do that on The Life of Birds; it was so cool.

And a Great Cormorant! The white belly was the sure sign! He was waaaay out on a little point, so this is digiscoped on Baby G's Vortex with my camera:

So that was now THREE lifers for the day! 367! I LOVE Maine!

There were so many birds flying by, just offshore; having the scopes, both mine and Gretchen's, made it so great -- we just stood there and watched White-winged and Black Scoters, Northern Gannets, and more, all just flying by. I hadn't seen anything like that since Cape May. Here's a Black Scoter:

I even had some seafood -- fish -- at the famous Lobster Shack on Dyer Point. Nice!

On the way home, we went through Portland and over the Casco Bay bridge, which lifts for big boats:

The big boat:

Pretty great day.

Last week, on my way home from a work trip to Boston, I swung through Kennebunk, looking for a Northern Wheatear. I didn't expect to see him, as it was around 3 or so in the afternoon, but I tried -- and missed. Oh well. I haven't heard any more reports of him.

However, every week or so, I see a report of Evening Grosbeaks in the area. They're elusive; I'll keep you posted. I've got big hopes!