[Maine-birds] Disappointment turns to pleasure

Joan Mills and I drove to Sanford Waste Treatment Monday, only to find that Patriot's Day is celebrated amongst the sewage set.  So what to do?

We birded our way home, making a day of it.  Highlights:

6 kestrels hover hunting on McGuire Road, Kennebunk Plains.  Also cooperatively teeing up for long scope views.

A total of 4 horned grebes in transitional plumage (Parsons Beach and Goldthwaites Hills Beach.)

A palm warbler (yellow) and eastern blue birds on route 9 just below the clock farm coming out of Cape Porpoise

A Northern Harrier, 2 osprey, 4 greater yellow legs and 14 glossy ibis at Dunstan's Landing, Scarborough Marsh.

Just as we were leaving, thinking that the day's total of 42 species was not bad work, the ibis and yellow legs took to the sky as one.  A peregrine falcon, so fast, I didn't see it coming until it was right in front of me, muckled on to a slightly tardy glossy ibis in mid air(the birds are of comparable size), hitting it hard and repeatedly.  What an acrobat!  It several times had it in its grasp, flying with it in it's talons 40 feet in the air.  The show ended with the wounded and dazed glossy crashing into the woods to the left, with the peregrine in pursuit.  I am still saying wow, oh wow!

Nancy Houlihan

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