February 6, 2019
Birding report for mid-January
“Seconds later there it was again, the evenly spaced, low pitched, deep but seemingly distant booming sound of a male Great Horned Owl.”
Read the columnE. Brooks Bornhofft · The Cape Courier · 2018–2026
“No matter the season, Cape Elizabeth is a treasure trove for birders.”
The opening line of his first column, March 14, 2018.
For eight and a half years, Brooks walked the woods, marshes and shorelines of Cape Elizabeth and wrote down what he saw and heard. Here are all of his columns, and the birds and places in them.
Great Horned Owlin 54 columns
Eastern Bluebirdin 41 columns
American Robinin 39 columns
Barred Owlin 39 columns
Carolina Wrenin 37 columns
155columns
255species
76places
99,900words
His year in birds
The twelve birds he wrote about most. Each dot is the number of columns that mentioned the bird in that month.
| Bird | JanJ | FebF | MarM | AprA | MayM | JunJ | JulJ | AugA | SepS | OctO | NovN | DecD | All |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great Horned Owl | 2 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 54 |
| Eastern Bluebird | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 41 |
| American Robin | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 39 |
| Barred Owl | 1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 39 |
| Carolina Wren | 5 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 37 |
| American Redstart | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 5 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 35 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 34 |
| Black-throated Green Warbler | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 33 |
| Common Yellowthroat | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 33 |
| Baltimore Oriole | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 31 |
| Pine Warbler | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 31 |
Where he walked
Places named most often in the columns. Robinson Woods appears in more than half of them.
See all 76 places on the mapFrom the columns
May 18, 2022
Local birding report
“Three years had passed since I heard this very song, yet there it was - the eerie refrain of the Eastern Whip-poor-will!”
Read the columnSeptember 30, 2026
Local birding report
“When I briefly shined my flashlight into the darkening sky, the bird darted through the beam, its white wing patches flashing like signals…”
Read the column