Hi all,
My small private birdwalk group and I had a frustrating "one that got away" at Old Townhouse Park in North Yarmouth this morning at about 8:15am. It was either a Rusty or Brewer's Blackbird (genus Euphagus) based on comparison of shape and size to nearby Common Grackles and Red-winged Blackbirds foraging together on the mowed playing field. Before we could get closer (observed only through binoculars), it flew off, with a female Red-winged Blackbird which it momentarily pursued, in perfect light and fanning its tail several times, before alighting on the distant treeline in the northwest corner of the first field. It did not linger long enough for me to get a scope, before disappearing over the treeline, heading north-northwest. It was feeding in short grass in the open, more like Brewer's, but it was holding a horizontal posture the whole time, more like Rusty. Bill length and size, overall size, and fully-developed black plumage with fully-developed Euphagus tail ruled out juvenile Common Grackles, of which we saw plenty of soon thereafter.
Rusty would be only a little less out of place than a Brewer's in a field on the coastal plain in mid-June. So, who knows? I post this as a "head's up" to those in the area to check foraging blackbirds and those already-forming small flocks.
-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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