Saturday 21 September 2013

[Maine-birds] Belated birds and follow up on Pine Point

First, Pine Point:

On the falling tide this afternoon I had a decent collection of shorebirds at Pine Point, the highlight being a (the?) Marbled Godwit on a sandbar in the river, close to Ferry Beach. Dunlin numbers are increasing, while number of peeps and plovers are falling. A single "western" Willet was present as well. A Lesser Black-backed Gull made a brief appearance, then headed downriver. A quick check of the sandbar at the mouth of the river from Pine Point Beach just before sunset yielded 5 adult Lesser Black-backed gulls, along with over 100 Bonaparte's Gulls and a few unidentified terns.

Also at Pine Point was the worlds sneakiest Merlin. I was trying to take some pictures of a dowitcher through my scope when I noticed the bird get a bit agitated. Thinking I was too close, I started to move my scope back, only to look up and see a Merlin that had appeared out of nowhere and grabbed a Semipalmated Sandpiper right off the beach before the birds even knew what to do. They never even flushed, it was over so fast!

Other highlights today included at least 1, maybe 2 of the continuing Wilson's Phalarope in the Eastern Trail pannes along with 2 American Wigeon, 2 Northern Pintail, at least 1 Blue-winged Teal and 3 Saltmarsh Sparrows.

And now the belated birds:
On Tuesday I had a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher at Fraser Point on the Schoodic Peninsula and on Wednesday I had an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull on Jordan Pond in Acadia NP.

Good Birding

David Rankin
Biddeford

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David Rankin
University of New England
Graduate Student

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