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Birding Southern Maine:
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When warbler season is peaking
in southern Maine, it's a good time to head for Evergreen
Cemetery in Portland. So a van load of northern Maine birders
did. Jim Zeman was the high bidder at a Maine Audubon auction,
entitling him to a van trip to anywhere in Maine for himself and
ten friends, led by Bob and Sandi Duchesne. The first stop was
Evergreen Cemetery. OK, the first stop was for coffee. 5:30am
comes early. Evergreen Cemetery is notorious as the state's
premier warbler fallout, attracting both birds and birders.
Maine Audubon leads daily trips in May, and you're likely to run
into the state's leading experts on any morning. Like all true fallout hot spots, a morning's action is dictated by weather the night before. A southerly breeze can bring in large flocks of mixed passerines. But in a morning fog, they may miss this urban oasis altogether. Alternatively, if the weather is too nice, the birds just may keep going. May 20th was an uneven morning. The van arrived from Bangor about an hour after most Audubon experts were already on the scene. As it happens, the Maine Audubon trustees were engaged in their own Big Day that day, and the property was overrun by experts. Unusual sightings included a Tennessee Warbler next to the pond and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher behind it. Both species eluded the Bangor team, but others filled their places. Birds that are tired and hungry ignore birders, and we enjoyed arm's length views of Magnolia, Wilson's, and Black-and-White Warblers, plus several close looks at American Redstarts. Good views of Chestnut-sided Warblers and Northern Parulas added to the count. Then it was off to Capisic Pond Park.. Capisic Pond Park is only five minutes away from the cemetery, but the open area park is infused with flowering trees. If you can't find a Baltimore Oriole or Yellow Warbler here, you're not trying very hard. We were given close looks at several pairs of orioles, including one female building her nest. But we missed the Orchard Orioles that had just located down the path because we got caught staring too long at a Green Heron among the cattails. Common Yellowthroats are abundant in the park and were still squabbling over territories, causing one pair of males to nearly collide with us during the chase. Catbirds and Northern Cardinals also added their songs to the din. Time to push on. Next stop: Kennebunk Plains. This large, sandy flatland is famous for many species uncommon to Maine. A cooperative Prairie Warbler was a lifer for several. Minutes later, a Vesper Sparrow became a lifer for several more. We strained and strained for good looks, but we shouldn't have bothered. As we continued the short hike, they began to appear everywhere. Because of the abundance, we almost overlooked a Field Sparrow in the crowd and several Savannah Sparrows later. We DID overlook the Grasshopper Sparrows, most of which had probably not yet returned. By the time we had covered one quarter of the reserve, it was well past lunch time and we gave up the search for Upland Sandpipers. We learned later that we had come quite close to where they had been seen frequently. Before climbing back into the van, we were surprised by a Red-shouldered and a Red-tailed Hawk sharing the same thermal - a great chance to compare the two at a distance. Lunch next to a racing stream in Kennebunk yielded two Black-crowned Night Herons very close to us. Then it was off to Scarborough Marsh, arguably the top spot in Maine for birding. Glossy Ibis were ubiquitous, but there were a fair number of Snowy Egrets and at least one Little Blue Heron. Normally, Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrows arrive before Nelson's, but neither had yet made an impression on the locals and we were probably a couple days early for the leading wave. Willets were common and we teased out a few Greater Yellow-legs and Black-bellied Plovers, too. At Pine Point, there was a feeding frenzy going on. Alewives are running strongly at this time, and many of Maine's rivers are seeing birds eating voraciously, though seldom with such an abundance of birds as here. In the tidal flow, Double-crested Cormorants crowded out the gulls. Common Terns were plentiful, but with skill and a powerful Zeiss spotting scope, several Least Terns and a Roseate were also noted in the crowd. |
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