Northern Maine Birds: Eurasian Wigeon, Long-eared Owl, Red-headed Woodpecker, House Wren, Indigo Bunting

[Bill Sheehan]

The last couple weeks have offered up a steady parade of noteworthy birds here in northern Maine.  Breeding season is going full tilt with the first wave of juveniles crashing around and begging for food and adults working through the 16 hour days to keep them fed.  There seems to be an usual number and diversity of "southerners" up here lately.

This morning, Wayne Petersen and his Mass Audubon group found a handsome drake Eurasian Wigeon at Christina Reservoir in Fort Fairfield.  The bird was still in great looking breeding plumage with little sign of molt.  This could not be said of most of the 50+ American Wigeon with which it was keeping company.  They also had a singing Indigo Bunting at Trafton Lake in Limestone, a House Wren singing in down town Fort Fairfield and an Upland Sandpiper at the Presque Isle Airport.  Rare birds all, in northern Maine.

On June 22nd, Lovena West photographed a family of Long-eared Owls in Mars Hill.  Her photos were heartily "liked" by the Maine Birds Facebook group.  

Another Facebook star was an adult Red-headed Woodpecker photographed by Pat Palm in Presque Isle on the 17th.  The bird was a one day wonder and has not been reported again.  

Other birds on the northern edge of their range included a Red-shouldered Hawk seen circling over a woodlot in Limestone and an apparently-unpaired Pine Warbler singing from the four-and a-half white pines in the Caribou cemetery.  Both of these were found by Geoff LeBaron on the 17th.

In addition to a good selection of breeding warblers, a birding group from Midcoast (Maine) Audubon had long visits with an Olive-sided Flycatcher and a Lincoln's Sparrow on territory at Cross Lake Twp on the 16th.  

A delegation from Merrymeeting Audubon saw all the rare breeding waterfowl at Lake Josephine in Easton on the 25th and 26th.  Northern Shoveler, Blue-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Redhead and Ruddy Duck were seen here.  An apparent, recently-hatched brood of Ruddy Ducks were also observed here today.  Other special waterbirds reported from Lake Jo earlier in the month included a Green Heron and Common Gallinule found on the 7th 

Finally, there has been a spate of reports of Turkey Vultures and Northern Cardinals across the area in recent weeks.  Both of these species are becoming increasingly common across the area. A juvenile cardinal photographed in Presque Isle on the 25th provided rare documentation of the species breeding on the northern edge of its range.

Good Birding.

Bill

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Bill Sheehan
Woodland, Aroostook Co., Maine
http://northernmainebirds.blogspot.com/