1) For those interested, my birding column in the Bangor Daily News this weekend is about “birding by ear.” http://bangordailynews.com/2013/05/17/outdoors/birding-by-ear-is-a-learnable-skill/
2) The Wings, Waves & Woods Birding Festival concluded a short time ago. Typically, the festival doesn’t turn up many mega-rarities, but it’s a very pleasant outing just as the season is getting started. What I particularly enjoy about it is the presence of winter birds that have not yet departed. There were three major boat trips. I was not on the third, but the first two enjoyed good flocks of lingering Purple Sandpipers and all three scoters, among other nice birds.
3) The puffin trip to Seal Island yesterday was smooth, lovely, and very enjoyable. But I did want to note that this one was a little different than the previous years. There were many puffins present, but not as many in prior years. Either the puffins are a little late getting back, or we’re seeing some evidence of notable winter mortality. Since the Razorbill numbers seemed normal and only a handful of Common Terns were present, I’m hoping that the former is the case. Only one Northern Gannet was encountered along the way, and no early shearwaters, storm-petrels, or phalaropes turned up, so I consider those absences to be supporting evidence for a benign cause to the reduced puffin numbers. We’ll see how the season unfolds. On a positive note, there seemed to be a lot of Great Cormorants on Seal Island, so we’ll see how they do with the Bald Eagle raids this year.
Bob Duchesne
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