Backyard birding in Maine is... wow!

[AAS]

I relocated to Maine this month, from Chicago, after visiting an old friend in North Yarmouth for many years. One of the many lures was the action at her feeders. She's got an old farmhouse, fields and forest surround, sparrows in the barn, usual right? But she gets such great stuff routinely at her feeders! In two recent afternoons at her place I saw the following just off her back porch (plus a bunch of sparrows, doves, variety of blackbirds, etc.)...

- Downy and hairy peckers.

- Red breasted nuthatch

- White breasted nuthatch

- 2 pileated woodpeckers

- Cardinals

- Baltimore orioles

- Bluebirds

- Scarlet tanager

- Brown creeper

- Rose breasted grosbeak

- tufted titmouse

- Blue jays

- Chickadees

- Goldfinches

And last month I saw a bald eagle kill and eat (with a second eagle) a wild turkey in her yard. And later a turkey vulture cleaned up. I mean... pileated woodpeckers at a feeder?!! On any outing in the Chicago area I would be happy to have seen a few of those species, and one pileated every five years if lucky, but all of them in a couple afternoons? Back home, we would get excited each spring when an ovenbird returned to our suburban yard. For me, this is remarkable backyard birding.

[Sean Hatch]

Maine in the summer sure is swell!