HI all,
-- I went back to see if I could find my mystery vireo again, after doing some research on how to separate "Solitary" Vireos. No luck, and I'm not confident I could tell a really dull HY Blue-headed from a bright Cassin's anyway.. Oh well, next time. Since I was out there, I figured I might as well do a little birding (or accidently spend all day birding. You know, it happens).
Warblers numbers were high, but species diversity was low (this being October, we've experienced the annual switch from birds that go zeet to birds that go chip). Clouds of yellow-rumps (another birder I ran into described it as parting a sea of yellow-rumps), with a single Tennessee and Chestnut-sided, 2 Black-throated Blues and a few each of Palm Warbler (both Eastern and Western), Common Yellowthroat and Blackpoll. More species of Sparrows than Warblers (the beginning of the end!), with Swamps and Savannahs becoming common and Juncos starting to trickle in.
Biddeford Pool continues to host a good collection of shorebirds, which largely defy ID at low tide, but can afford some decent looks roosting at high tide. I finally got a good look at the flock of Red Knots thats been hanging around, roosting on the southern jetty of the Saco River with the dowitchers, turnstones and Black-bellied Plovers. 26 total, and none banded. The other concentration of roosting shorebirds was at the end of Biddeford Pool Beach, viewed from Ocean Ave, where the Sanderlings, Dunlin and peeps hang out.
At least 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls were around today, one on Hills Beach and the other bathing in the the Great Pond. A good waterfowl movement took place off shore, with small flocks of all three scoters and Common Loons passing by all mourning and large flocks of Cormorants. Further proof that winter is coming came in the form of 13 Great Cormorants seen today off the East Point Sanctuary. The former Kentucky Warbler spot hosted a few sapsuckers and a Swainson's Thrush, but no new rarities, alas.
Also at Timber Point (in the afternoon) hosted the aforementioned Chestnut-sided and Black-throated Blues, in addition to a late Baltimore Oriole and a good collection of gulls, including two Laughing Gulls that dozens of digiscoped pictures revealed to be perfectly ordinary specimens, as well as a few dozen Bonaparte's that also defied my attempts to string the into something rare. A single immature White-crowned at Timber Point (which is technically closed, but no one seems to care) was also nice.
And on a final note, as hinted at (ok so I'm not good at hinting) in the title, the Snow Goose from West St appears to have switched flocks and was seen grazing on the lawn next to Sokokis Dorm on the UNE campus this afternoon.
All in all a good day of birding, with a total of 94 species! Now to lock myself in my room and get something productive done with the rest of the weekend...
David Rankin
Biddeford
David Rankin
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