[Maine-birds] Building shorebirds, etc, Scarborough Marsh, 7/27

Hi all,

With the rapidly approaching peak numbers of adults of several shorebird species, along with growing diversity, I spent the morning in Scarborough Marsh at the high tide today, mostly along the Eastern Road Trail. The omnipresent sparrow researchers kept the majority of the shorebirds close to the trail today, affording good studies of the multitudes...until a marauding Cooper's Hawk began to scatter them about:

- 400+ Semipalmated Sandpipers
- 205 Short-billed Dowitchers (including 1-2 ssp. HENDERSONII pending a review of the photos of the second bird).
- 100+ Least Sandpipers
- 22 Lesser Yellowlegs
- 21 Greater Yellowlegs
- 10 Semipalmated Plovers
- 3 Spotted Sandpipers
- 3 White-rumped Sandpipers
- 2 Killdeer
- 1 Solitary Sandpiper (first of fall)

A fly-over CASPIAN TERN in the fog early in the morning and the continuing TRICOLORED HERON x SNOWY EGRET HYBRID were two of the other highlights.

 -Derek

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Derek and Jeannette Lovitch
Freeport Wild Bird Supply
541 Route One, Suite 10
Freeport, ME 04032
207-865-6000
www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com

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