Hi everyone:
I wanted to apologize for not getting the RBA done in May though I can offer up a summary of some highlights and observations from this spring. But rarity season isn't over yet, made obvious by the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that Ken Janes found in Wells today! There must be a Neotropic Cormorant out there somewhere, until then...
There were the obvious MEGAs this Spring: *Black-headed Grosbeak (14-15 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co.; ~8th state record), *Brewer's Sparrow (25-29 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co.; first state record), *Virginia's Warbler (29-30 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co.; 4th state record), *Swallow-tailed Kite (7 May in Brunswick & Pownal, Cumberland Co.; ~7th state record), *Mississippi Kite (15 May in Pownal, Cumberland Co.; ~8th state record) and Northern Wheatear (4 & 7-10 May in Scarborough, Cumberland Co.). I was starting this report as of 1 May but it seems silly to not mention Maine's most twitchable *Northern Lapwing (4-5 April in Cape Elizabeth, Cumberland Co.; 4th state record).
I find it interesting that many of these 'western' birds made it this far east this SPRING. Most records for Maine or elsewhere in the east of Black-headed Grosbeak, Western Tanager (16-20 May in Kennebunk, York Co.) or even 'Western' Palm Warbler (9 May in Hinckley, Somerset Co.) and 'Oregon' Dark-eyed Junco (30 May on Seal Island NWR, Knox Co.) are fall or winter birds. Who knows what could be the driving force here but it is easy to speculate about what impacts the drought out west could be having; compare the range of those species to this map: http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/home/regionaldroughtmonitor.aspx?west. White-winged Doves have almost become annual in spring and that held true this year (22 May on Seal Island NWR, Knox Co.). As previously reported, a/the *Red-billed Tropicbird has returned to Seal Island NWR for the 10th year with other highlights this spring including a Dickcissel (16 May) and Lark Sparrow (21 May).
Other notable spring over-shoots included two male Painted Buntings (12-14 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co. & 19 May on Appledore Island, York Co.) and the increasingly rare Golden-winged Warbler of which we had two reports (18 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co. & 19 May in Biddeford Pool, York Co.). Summer Tanagers are annual in spring with usually a few being reported in southern Maine but there have been at least 20 different reports from as far north as Orono this spring:
3 May in Waldoborough, Lincoln Co.
5-6 May in Georgetown, Sagadahoc Co.
6 May in Islesford, Hancock Co.
9-18 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co.
12 May in Orono, Penobscot Co.
12-18 May on Cliff Island, Cumberland Co.
13 May in Portland, Cumberland Co.
13-14 May in Saco, York Co.
14-20 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co.
15 May banded on Appledore Island, York Co.
19-21 on Appledore Island, York Co.
20 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co.
21-26 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co.
23 May on Monhegan Island, Lincoln Co.
24 May in Biddeford Pool, York Co.
25 May on Cushing Island, Cumberland Co.
28 May in Bar Harbor, Hancock Co.
29 May in Portland, Cumberland Co.
1 June in Bangor, Penobscot Co.
(dates are not 100% on these as it was difficult to track lingering birds where multiple where present. There were at least 6 on Monhegan alone.)
White-eyed Vireos showed up on Appledore Island (York Co.), in Eliot (York Co.), Kittery (York Co.), Vinalhaven (Knox Co.), and lingered in Portland (Cumberland Co.), Biddeford (York Co.) and Phippsburg (Sagadahoc Co.). The potential for breeding by this species in Maine should not be underestimated and disturbance should be kept to a minimum. I'm not trying to open a can of worms with a discussion on using playback, but it should be known that when a pair of White-eyed Vireos tried nesting in Biddeford about four years ago they were apparently taped out of their territory. The most surprising White-eyed Vireo news, to me, is that one was NOT seen on Monhegan this spring.
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were especially abundant this spring. Thanks to everyone using eBird.org we can actually see how the frequency, or percentage of total checklists reporting Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, has increased over the last couple years: in 2012 their frequency peaked at 2.44% (http://tinyurl.com/mtnzpdg), which increased to a peak of 2.82% in 2013 (http://tinyurl.com/k4nsmuj) and took a large jump to 3.8% this spring (http://tinyurl.com/nyzkxkw). This is a pretty good jump for a species on the northeastern edge of their breeding range.
I know I've missed a few great birds from this spring, *Tufted Duck (6 Apr in Bowdoinham, Sagadahoc Co.; ~7th state record) and American White Pelican (8 May in Falmouth, Cumberland Co.) just to name a few and I'm sorry if I left out others. My point here is that this has been an awesome spring. Keep on birding and sharing your great sightings!
*Please submit any details of these species to the Maine Bird Records Committee: https://sites.google.com/site/mainebirdrecordscommittee/rare-bird-report-form
Good birding,
Doug Hitchcox
Staff Naturalist
Maine Audubon
207-781-2330 x237
dhitchcox@maineaudubon.org
--
Maine birds mailing list
maine-birds@googlegroups.com
http://groups.google.com/group/maine-birds
https://sites.google.com/site/birding207
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Maine birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to maine-birds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
0 comments:
Post a Comment