By Marion Sprague
On Saturday May 25th MYBC joined the L.L. Bean Birding Festival walk at Pettengill Farm in Freeport. The event was open to the public, so there were many familiar and many new faces to greet us. Doug Hitchcox, staff naturalist from Maine Audubon, welcomed the group and gave some quick safety and overview information. The group split into two smaller groups. One stayed with Doug and the other followed Laura Erikson for a walk around the property.
The MYBC had the pleasure of joining Laura Erikson, scientist, teacher, writer, wildlife rehabilitator, professional blogger, public speaker, photographer, former science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and contributing editor of BirdWatching magazine. She is the author of fourteen books on birds and a producer for the long-running “For the Birds” radio program and podcast.
Those that went with Laura observed many species including more Indigo Buntings (surprise!), a Yellow-rumped Warbler, a female Scarlet Tanager, and three Snowy Egrets down by the water, among other species. It was a great experience to get to meet some of the other young birders in the area!
The rest of the group stayed behind with Doug to learn about some of the bird mounts from Maine Audubon and delight in a very cooperative male Indigo Bunting singing his “Fire, Fire. Where, Where? Here, Here. See it, See it?” song from the nearby crabapple trees.
After the walk with Laura wrapped up the MYBC group continued our morning with a walk down the road to the parking area. We heard Ovenbirds singing “Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!” and Black-throated Green Warblers merrily singing “Zee zee zee zoo zee”. We had a male Hairy Woodpecker foraging for insects in a dead tree along the road. He put on a good show jumping from tree to tree.
We wrapped up the walk with a sighting of a lone Blackburnian Warbler high in the newly budding trees next to the gate entrance.
There were lots of activities to participate in throughout the rest of the day and weekend. MYBC was invited to have a booth at the L. L. Bean flagship store. We had lots of visitors come by to take information and ask about out club.
Thank you to Maine Audubon and L.L. Bean for inviting us to participate! Check out the trip list here:
Our June trip is going to be announced shortly so stay tuned.
