by Laurie Pocher
The Maine Young Birders Club did some winter birding in Cape Elizabeth on Saturday. It was very cold and windy near the water, but our efforts were rewarded with large numbers of ducks that congregate in Maine during the winter.
We started the morning at Kettle Cove, where we saw a small raft of 45-50 Common Eiders and Black Scoters, along with a couple of White-Winged Scoter, Surf Scoters, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, and Common Loons. Single Long-Tailed Duck, Red-Breasted Merganser rounded out our morning shorebird sightings, and when we returned later in the morning we added a Horned Grebe. We also saw a couple of American Crows and Black-Capped Chickadees away from the water’s edge.
Next stop was Dyer Point, where we saw much bigger rafts – too many to count! We estimated 100 Common Eider, 75 Black Scoters, and 25 White-Winged Scoters. We also saw a few Harlequin Ducks and Common Goldeneye.
On to Two Lights State Park, we were saw another huge raft of over 200 birds – our best guess is 125 Common Eider and 100 Black Scoters. About a dozen White-Winged Scoters, a few Long-Tailed and Harlequin Ducks, and a Red-Breasted Merganser were bobbing in the waves nearby. We also saw a Great Cormorant, which are not uncommon here in the winter.
Crescent Beach State Park was pretty quiet – about 20 Herring Gulls were hanging out at the water’s edge, and we could a Long-Tailed Duck, a Red-Breasted Merganser, and a couple of Bufflehead fishing near some distant rocks. We walked along the trail where we saw some House Finches, Blue Jays and a Song Sparrow.
At this point the tide was going out fast, so we left the shore and headed inland to Spurwink Marsh. We could see about 40 Canada Geese out on the marsh, with closer looks at American Black Ducks, Bufflehead, Red-Breasted Mergansers and a single female Hooded Merganser. Two Norther Harriers were hunting the marsh.
All tolled, we saw 22 species, with well over 500 individual birds. You can see our Trip Report on eBird: https://ebird.org/me/tripreport/200565
Keep your eye out for our March trip announcement coming soon! Happy Birding!
