Maine birds And MOAC mountainbiking

Sunday, 5 January 2025

[Maine-birds] Rough legged hawk in Rockland

Just saw a Rough legged hawk hovering in the fields behind the "Lonza" facility at 191 Thomaston Road.
Gave us great looks as it hovered often above us. (Must get a camera!)
Dumpsters at end of driveway made a great blind.
A Red tailed hawk glided far above, and came back for a look. The Rough-legged went low and the Red-tailed moved on.
Cathie Murray and Mike Waters
Sent from my iPhone

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Friday, 3 January 2025

[Maine-birds] This Week's Highlights and Annual Predictions Blog

Hi all,

My observations of note over the past seven days are included here, as is a link to my annual "Next Birds in Maine" predictions blog.

https://mebirdingfieldnotes.blog/2025/01/03/this-weeks-highlights-12-28-2024-to-1-3-2025/

-Derek

*****************************************

Derek and Jeannette Lovitch

Freeport Wild Bird Supply

541 Route One, Suite 10

Freeport, ME 04032

207-865-6000

www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com

****************************************

[Maine-birds] 12/14/24 Augusta CBC results

Here's a summary of this year's Christmas Bird Count for Augusta (7.5 mile radius from the State House dome):

Twenty-nine of us covered our fifteen sections of the 55^th Augusta Christmas Bird Count circle on Saturday, December 14^th, covering 38 miles on foot and 414 miles by car. Our count-day total of 62 species was one shy of the record total in 2004, and we didn't even have much for winter irruptive birds this year (no Bohemian Waxwings, Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Grosbeaks, or Pine Siskins). We also had a count week Wood Duck.

We continue to get higher numbers of more southerly wintering species; with record high counts of 12 Carolina Wrens (second record high in two years), 3 Northern Flickers (tie), 20 Red-bellied Woodpeckers (previous record of 12), and 1 Turkey Vulture (2^nd ever on count). There were high numbers of waterfowl with 53 American Black Ducks and record 150 Hooded Mergansers and 587 Mallards. We had our first Red-breasted Mergansers since 2011 (10 of them!) and the most since 1978. Interestingly, there were multiple years of double digit Red-breasted Mergansers in the 1970s.

We had a very low count of 5 Red-breasted Nuthatches (10-year average of 46) and low counts of 178 European Starlings and 87 Herring Gulls. The latter is likely related to our limited access at Hatch Hill landfill for the count.

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Wednesday, 1 January 2025

[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bluebirds, Carolina Wren

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Albert Roehn <Unknown>
Date: Wednesday, January 1, 2025 at 10:26:42 AM UTC-5
Subject: Bluebirds, Carolina Wren
To: Maine Birds List <Unknown>

4 eastern bluebirds,continuing Carolina wren here in West Newfield to start the new year!

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[Maine-birds] Bluebirds, Carolina Wren

4 eastern bluebirds,continuing Carolina wren here in West Newfield to start the new year!

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Tuesday, 31 December 2024

[Maine-birds] Thank you Maine Birders - Big(ish) Year 2024

This year was an amazing year of birding around the state of Maine, capped off by a last day, hail mary Canvasback at Mill Cove in South Portland this morning (thank you John L for finding one for, I think, the third time, and Alex L for getting the word out). For those who follow this sort of thing, Richard Garrigus, Marian Zimmerman, and Rob Speirs also had an amazing year, with all of us hitting 300 species in the state in 2024. Congrats to all, and a total class act group all around!

This would not have been possible without the Maine birding community. Thank you to all of those who shared the journey this year, and special thanks to the York County and Portland crews who always make birding fun and make us not take this stuff too seriously (you know who you are!), Louis for his incredible expertise and willingness to share knowledge with everyone, Doug for arranging landowner access and managing an occasionally unruly text group, and to everybody who found great birds, got the word out, and/or allowed crowds of birders onto their private property. Also thank you to the state and local law enforcement officers of Maine who didn't pull me over a single time, probably because I only drove below the speed limit and never looked at birds while driving.

For anybody thinking about pursuing 300 species in a single year in Maine, or trying to make a run at Ethan Whitakers's still miles ahead record, I put a few videos up on YouTube with what I wish I had known when I started. (*Note that these videos were recorded a while ago, and while I think I could have added a few more species, 10-15 more species now seems wildly unrealistic. although I'm sure somebody could do it.)

Tips on getting to 300 in Maine in a single year -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oERX8Fqmtz4

Calendar year planning for a getting to 300 in Maine in a single year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10bhIV3eOu0&t=32s

Good birding all. See you in the new year!

Magill

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