[Maine-birds] Hancock County so far this week

I love birding in January, if for no other reason than I get to restart my year-list and it is easy to add birds. That said, I managed to see some good birds this week.

New Year’s Day. While doing the Schoodic Christmas Bird Count (thanks to Seth Benz, our new coordinator for this count, taking over from Bill Townsend who did a great job for so many years) with Don and Kyle Lima:

• Harlequin Ducks. These stunning birds are always a joy to see, even if they are expected at certain locales. Cranberry Point Road in Corea is one of these places. Still, seeing 12 at close range in good lighting is a real treat.

• Lesser Scaup. A lone Lesser Scaup swimming in circles with its bill tucked under wing was the surprise of the day!

• Rough-legged Hawk. Two were flying about Schoodic Island, one light phase and one dark phase. This is a place where I tend to find them every winter.

• Razorbill. A lone flyby Razorbill seen poorly through the dense sea smoke at Schoodic Point was still unmistakable. And in my book, any day when I see a Razorbill is a good day.

• Black-legged Kittiwake. We saw ones and twos and threes of this true “sea” gull throughout the day, a seemingly fitting tribute to the cold and wind.

Driving home from the Schoodic CBC, I swung by Marlboro Beach in Lamoine to look for the previously reported Dunlin (alas, no Dunlin for me this day):

• Glaucous Gull. Tide was up and there were about 70 Herring Gulls hunkered down in the cold and wind. One lone creamy gull stood out. Eventually, I was able to determine that it was a Glaucous Gull.

02 January—Birding with Ed Hawkes, we drove to Lamoine to look for the previously reported Dunlin and then to Ocean Drive to look for the King Eider (alas, we dipped again on KIEI):

• Dunlin. We almost dipped on Dunlin, but as we were getting ready to leave Marlboro Beach, Ed noticed five of them hunkered down by the edge of high tide.

• Horned Lark. As previously reported by others, Horned Lark is expected at Marlboro Beach and we found two.

• Fox Sparrow. So intent were we on finding King Eider that we had quite forgotten about Craig Kesselheim’s FOSP the previous day. As we were about to leave the Acadia National Park Loop Road, a bird feeding on grit in the road was the Fox Sparrow!

03 January—My wife, Natalie Springuel, and I went to Ocean Drive for yet another search for the King Eider. 

• King Eider. Success! A lone male was swimming near Old Soaker. It is worth noting that if we had not had a spotting scope, we would not have seen this bird.

• Atlantic Puffin. This was a bonus! As we were watching the King Eider, a lone puffin quickly winged by offering short by good looks.

06 January—While walking the dog in our back woods:

• Red Crossbill. A flyby of a small flock of Red Crossbills was a nice addition to my yard-list.

Richard MacDonald

The Natural History Center

P.O. Box 6

Bar Harbor, Maine 04609

207/266-9461

Rich@TheNaturalHistoryCenter.com

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