Maine Coast Birds

Last year I wrote about my solo camping trip to Baxter State Park and how much I enjoyed feeding the mosquitos and blackflies while photographing some cool Northwoods birds. This year I took a brief trip to visit my Maine friends who had signed us up for a boat trip to Seal Island for puffins and other seabirds.

I had hoped to add Little Egret to my life list of birds on my way north last summer, but extensive traffic jams in Massachusetts used up all my time on the way up and the bird chose to be absent on the day I was leaving.  By the way, Massachusetts traffic is nothing to be trifled with; poor drivers, bad construction management, and just plain volume make any trip through Mass a real s**tshow.  

Little Egrets are native to Europe, Asia, and Africa but they have been making inroads in the western hemisphere and wander to North America regularly but in very small numbers – a few each year. In fact, Connecticut just added its very first record of Little Egret last year.  They are presumed to be breeding along the South America coast.

So I thought I would try again when I saw reliable and relatively regular reports of a Little Egret at the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Cumberland Maine.  I hiked out about a half-mile to one of the two overlooks of mudflats and marshes that were the recommended sites.  Fortunately, I had lugged my spotting scope along because the only white egret in view was a half-mile away at the other recommended overlook.  But sure enough, that was the target bird, two long white aigrettes confirming the ID even from that distance.  A couple record photos and I lit out to the other site hoping for some real pictures. 

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Predictably enough, it was gone when I arrived 15 minutes later.  Still, a sought-after lifer and some posturing tom turkeys provided comic relief on the way.

Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)

Pressing on, I made it to my friends’ house in time for dinner and we made plans to head down to the coast next day, where we would be put up with some curling friends of theirs. (Yes, curling, that Olympic sport that is sweeping the nation - pun intended.)  Before we left in the morning, a wander around the yard turned up some warblers, including this Chestnut-sided Warbler, along with Red-breasted Nuthatches and other residents.

Chestnut-sided Warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica)

Sunday morning found us in a modern cabin on the shores of Greenlaw Cove on Deer Isle watching the tide come in and looking around for any birds. A sparrow under and on the feeders caught my eye as something not a Chipping or Song Sparrow, so I snapped a few photos and promptly forgot about it.  A few days later, while processing photos, I came across the sparrow and realized it was a Clay-colored Sparrow, an eBird rarity for this location.

Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida)

Wings, Waves, and Woods is a birding festival organized by the Island Heritage Trust (a private conservation land trust that acquires and protects islands throughout the Deer Isle and Stonington, Maine area) and local birding groups.  One of the Festival highlights is a ferry ride to Seal Island, nesting home of hundreds of Atlantic Puffins, Great and Double-crested Cormorants, Common Eiders, Razorbills, terns, and Black Guillemots, along with a few other less common species. Seal Island itself is a National Wildlife Preserve with restricted access.  

Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica)

Razorbill (Alca torda)

Common Murre (Uria aalge)

Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) - Juvenile

Although the weather was iffy – cold and damp – and threatening storms cut the boat trip a bit short, everyone had wonderful and close looks at the unique avifauna supported by this rock in the Atlantic and fed by the productive fisheries surrounding it. 

Common Eider (Somateria mollissima)

Razorbill (Alca torda)

Razorbill (Alca torda)

While certainly a successful and enjoyable birding trip, missed were the continuing rare Red-billed Tropicbird and a few of the other island specialties like Leaches Storm-petrel and Arctic Tern; reasons enough to plan a return visit ASAP.