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!

BFF birding at Reid State Park!

Super excitement this weekend as my BFF Gretchen and her gf Laura came to visit us! Somehow, everything now looks even more beautiful and magical around here because we're sharing it with friends. It's been lonely for just AB and me and the kittehs.

Today, we went birding all day! Our first outing was to Reid State Park, about 35 minutes from our house. On the way there, we saw a huge Snapping Turtle:

Very cool.

We got to Reid and immediately the good birds came:

Black-bellied Plovers

A Common Eider still in breeding plumage, catching a crab:

By now, he's ripped the legs off:

Now we're working on getting it down. Going:

going:

GONE!

The most exciting bird was a Black Guillemot, which I managed to get a (bad) photo of!

There he is! Lucky photo!

Lots of Savannah Sparrows too:

We also saw my first Maine loon:

to match my license plate:

We had a great time, and I got lifebird #364! Gretchen got that one and the Common Eider.

After that we had some seafood (okay, I ate chicken tenders; G ate a hot dog, Laura had a crabcake sandwich, and AB had lobster stew), and then we took the dogs to Wolf's Neck. No photos there, but the tide was higher than we'd ever seen it.

For dinner, we made pizza:

I slapped out the dough (sorta, a remnant of my Domino's days) and topped the left one (pepperoni, onion, green pepper, black olives, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts) and Laura topped the right one (crab meat, artichokes, a light pesto, cherry tomatoes and heirloom tomato slices, olive oil, scallions, crushed fresh garlic, and mushrooms). That's also my salad there. Delicious! AB also made my favorite pumpkin pie using OnePie (it's the BEST)!

It's been a wonderful weekend, and it's not even over!

Tomorrow: Scarborough Marsh!

At long last, birding!

I have finally gotten/made some time for a little birding, both last night and this morning. I hit two points quite close to home: Wharton Point (on Maquoit Bay) and Simmons Point (on Middle Bay). Here are my results:

Wharton Point, last night: The tide was in, unlike last time when the tide was out although it was about the same time of day but two weeks ago. I got lucky and found a flock of peeps huddling together and shivering in the cold:

 I counted the flock both there and in my photos, and I got 166 Semipalmated Sandpipers...

 What a cutie!

...and four Dunlins, including this juvenile:

Here's a shot of both species:

A view of the bay:

The wind chill must've been in the low 40s.

This morning, after seeing a report on eBird of a Red-necked Grebe at Simpson Point, I went there. Here's the boat launch:

and the shoreline:

and the bay with some small islands:

I got no photos here, as all the birds were way out on the water. Again, it was chilly and windy and overcast, so photos would've been ridiculous. Still, I got some nice birds:
Canada Goose  19
American Black Duck  9
Common Eider  13
Long-tailed Duck  1    
Double-crested Cormorant  19
Snowy Egret  1
Ring-billed Gull  54

There were more birds out there but I couldn't make any confident ID due to distance and conditions. My little Meade Condor scope was working as hard as it could, but I'm pretty sure that Gretchen's Vortex scope (a Razor, I think) would've performed better. Someday, maybe I'll spend the dough, but for now -- I just can't do it. I also saw a dark sparrow for a split second, but I couldn't ID it in that short a look.

I thought you might also want to see the house and the yard, so I took some pics. We'll start with the outside:

 We live in the left half, the front half. It's three bedrooms, two floors, a nice-sized kitchen and a bath (downstairs, while the beds are upstairs - unfortunately). Here's the big barn on the property:

 Wish I could say I have access to such a fabulous place, but it's off-limits. Our landlady runs her business out of it. It's part of a farm:

 And there is granite EVERYWHERE.

Here's the cool weathervane on top of the barn:

and there are five or six old-fashioned lightning rods:

complete with the glass globes. I love these!

The grounds are rather extensive:

 Back there right in the middle is where my veggie garden will go in the spring.

Part of the front yard, including the woods across the street in which I heard the Barred Owl:

And this is the side yard:

You can just make out our firepit and Adirondack chairs out there.

New yard, new yard birds - and a lifer!

I haven't had a ton of time to go birding here in Maine, as we've been unpacking and I've been getting up to speed on my new job (same as my old job, just with different everything but the title and the duties -- but it's all different here, and I'm still waiting to get sales turf, etc.). Still, I've put up the bird feeders and we've had some good action!

So far, we have the following:
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Purple Finch
American Crow
Eastern Bluebird
Black-and-white Warbler (cool!)
Black-capped Chickadee (the state bird)
and, just the other night, BARRED OWL! Calling in the woods across the street! AB heard someone asking her "who cooks for you?" as she was arranging things in the dining room; she called me and we went outside and heard him! I did my fabulous imitation, and he responded several times! Lifer!

Not a bad haul. I've got some nice feeding stations set up, but mostly we get finches. Nothing exotic (yet), but I'm hopeful we'll get some good winter finches. I just set up some suet and a feeder under our pine outside the living room windows (where we got the Black-and-white Warbler yesterday), so I'm hoping to get some real action there.

I'm hoping to spend some time this weekend on the coast and in some of the local hotspots; we're like ten minutes from the coast, although I hesitate to call it the ocean, as we're really just near one of the fingers of water that cut into the coastline of Maine:

That arrow points to the dot showing where we live, about two miles outside of Brunswick. The circled area, Popham Beach State Park, is actually on the ocean, but I didn't even take my bins; we were just going to spend some time together walking in the sand and soaking up the late summer/early fall sun on Labor Day. The scale on this map is such that it's 26 miles from my house to Popham Beach (up and over and down).

You can see we live very near Maquoit Bay, and I'm hoping to get in some good birding there this weekend. There's also Mast Landing Bird Sanctuary about five minutes away from us.

I need to study so hard: pelagic birds can be seen from places like Popham Beach, and I wouldn't know a shearwater from a gull at this point. I've been able to avoid looking at any kind of pelagic birds for a long time in my birding life; now I've got to catch up.

Hope to have some good reports for you after the weekend.

I'm a Mainah!

It's official: we moved to Maine last Wednesday, I've had a bite of lobstah and a mussel, and soon I'll have Maine plates on my car. I'm a Mainah!

Actually, it's apparently very hard (hahd?) to become a true Mainer. Many generations must live here, work here, die here. So we're not really Mainers, but we are Maine residents and (as soon as I get back there from a work-related training thing in Chelmsford, Mass) will soon be registered voters and car owners and licensed drivers of Maine.

Here are some pics from Popham Beach, where I watched a Herring Gull steal a paper sack out of someone's unattended bag:

 

 Empty, dammit! Curse you, human!



So far, we've only had time to play around a little. A zillion thanks go to the in-laws who helped us unload the cubes last Friday. We're still unpacking boxes, but we did take some time to go to Wolf's Neck State Park (awesome!) and Popham Beach State Park. Birds seen were pretty expected: mostly Herring Gulls, some Canada Geese, a couple of Laughing Gulls, American Goldfinch and House Finch, and the like. I don't think I'd know a ranging pelagic bird if it bit me on the nose, so I have a lot of studying to do.

Now, as I mentioned, I'm stuck in Chelmsford until Thursday but then I can go back home. I can't wait for the weekend!

There aren't a lot of reports from my area on eBird, but I have seen a few hotspots in the area that I can try. I live pretty near to the coast and to a bird sanctuary, so I'm hoping to get some time this weekend to bird a little bit. I've signed up for the state listserv, and I'm on the lookout for other Maine birding resources. Any suggestions? I live in Brunswick, which is Mid-coast, but farther southwest than the bigger Mid-coast places like Camden and stuff (the cities mentioned on the Mid-coast Audubon Society page).

AB's mom gave me a couple of Maine birding books, so that's helped tremendously. Now it's just a matter of finding the time to get out there before the migration is over!

Yard bird #51!

Taking a break from (1) cleaning and (2) bringing down our last items for loading into the cars tonight to brag about the Eastern Phoebe who showed up yesterday in the yard while our mover guys were loading our ReloCubes!

Sigh. Today is gonna be another long day, but it'll be my last full day in Pennsylvania! Tomorrow, I will become a new Mainer -- which is to say that I'll be "from away." Apparently, one has to be in Maine for several generations before one is truly a Mainer and not "from away." Still, I'm happy to start the tradition, and Cornelius is definitely looking forward to it:

See? Total excitement.

RIP, Phyllis Diller

You were the first comedian I ever saw on TV, and you always made me laugh. Rest in peace, dear.

BIG TRIP 2012 Day I don't know what!!: The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone!

Somehow I skipped some days in my posting, so here's the two days we spent at Grand Tetons National Park and Yellowstone! The photos of the mountains didn't turn out all that well, given that the haze of the Idaho wildfires had arrived with us in the park. I was hoping for butane-blue skies and crisp white snow against stark black rocks, but this is the best I got.

Li'l Nib was brave the whole time, knowing I'd protect him from bears, bison, and bugs:

We camped at the Gros Ventre Campgrounds and, though it was a bit cold, we had a good night there.

We also saw a few birds! Lifer Western Wood-pewee!

 

I wasn't sure on this ID but just got an email confirming from some local guys, so WOW! Note the dusky sides, the lack of eyering. 

Also present at the campground: Mountain Bluebird!

Totally awesome! We would end up seeing so many of these that we started joking, "trash bird!"

There was also this little flycatcher:

 

Note the bi-colored bill, the two thin wingbars, the VERY faint yellow belly, and the white spectacles. Is this a Dusky Flycatcher? My sources say YES! LIFER!

In the morning of Day 9, we had breakfast and kept hearing a high-pitched trilling noise and seeing hummingbirds racing through the air. The trilling gave them away: Broad-tailed Hummingbirds! The bird Gretchen and I had waited and waited to see in Texas in February! Turns out they were hitting some feeders at Moose Junction at the Dornan's cabins office:

While I was busy snapping photos of this male, an unexpected visitor showed up to nibble (gobble) on the cottonwoods!

HOLY MOLY -- LIFER MOOSE! As it says in all the park literature, I sllooowwwwllyyy backed away, but by the time I noticed him he was like ten feet away! I was half-terrified and half-thrilled! Someone shouted, "that's not someone's pet!" like I was the one who'd gotten all up in the moose's grill! I said, "Hey, HE came to ME!" and kept backing up. He finally stripped all the low branches bare and moved on, giving way to this lovely Rufous Hummingbird:

Sweet! I wish my focus had been better on these hummer shots, but they were in the shade and I was still a little terrified from the moose encounter, I think. Read: shaking!

We visited the Chapel of the Transfiguration to get a photo for a friend:

 This little chapel has quite a view from the window behind the sacristy:

And he wanted a photo take from inside the chapel, looking out the window. I felt a little funny about it, but I walked up (after genuflecting -- Catholic habit!) and took another right at the window:

Here again, the photos are diminished a bit by the smoky haze that covered the mountains. Still, it was an amazing view.

We went up to the lakes and walked a little at Jenny Lake:

 which was really pretty, if a little hazy.

I found this interesting rock (a little larger than a softball) with this formation on it:

I don't think it's a fossil, but who knows? Maybe the entire rock was a giant prehistoric snail? I resisted the temptation to collect said rock and we moved on.

We headed north after that, out of the park, and toward Yellowstone. Not a lot of birding happened at Yellowstone, but I did get photos of a Violet-green Swallow -- LIFER!

This is a horrible photo, shot almost straight up into the air of a partly cloudy sky, but note the white extending from under the chin to over the eyes: Violet-green Swallow!

Of course we saw Old Faithful, which was kind enough to erupt within five minutes of our arrival:

I got video too, but it's sideways because I flipped my camera. Fail.

Here's Nib and I at the sign:

I really dig the arrowhead NPS symbol, but I couldn't help feeling like it was a direct reflection of the fact that most of our western national parks are built on lands we stole from Native Americans. I was conflicted the whole trip about this fact.

Once at Yellowstone, we took the lower loop and went west/northwest, arriving at the Midway Geyser Basin. In a word, BEAUTIFUL:

The super-blue water is made that way by the bacteria in the water. Blue means it's SUPER hot, hotter than the other colors.

The Grand Prismatic Pool:

It's tough to do justice to this pool without being up in the air, which is how most of the online/postcard photos are taken. Still, it's a huge deep-blue pool surrounded by cooler orange. It's odd to think that hotter=blue and cooler=orange; seems counterintuitive, no?

Just an amazing place; steamy and beautiful and mind-boggling. So much heat!

Then we went to the Great Fountain Geyser, which we waited on for an hour:

Nearby Fountain Paint Pot, which erupted in the distance three times while we waited for the above geyser.

The whole time, I was wanting to see bubbling mud pools and smell sulphur! My prayers were answered when we hit the Artists' Paint Pots area:

This area was like being in a prehistoric landscape: steamy bubbling springs and bubbling mud pots and crazy-colored areas everywhere.

Amazing! Check out this video of a mud pot:

This time I kept the camera right! The sounds were so loud, as the earth bubbled up. It's hard not to remember all those shows I've seen about how Yellowstone is really just a giant supervolcano, waiting to erupt and destroy the entire western United States! We were in the caldera!

After this geology and vulcanology lesson, we drove out of the east exit of the park. By now it was getting late in the afternoon, and certain mammals were getting really active!

This guy was just walking up the hill, putting one hoof in front of the other and heading for a bison meeting.