Birding report for late December into January

In the last days of December around dusk, my wife, son and I were walking along the road down to the beach parking lot within Crescent Beach State Park when we accidently flushed a raft of 20 or so American Turkeys that had suddenly appeared out of the dense spruce understory. The sounds of the forest were filled with frantic heavy wing beating one moment then silent the next as the turkeys attempted to settle into the upper branches of trees. On more than one occasion we could hear branches snapping. A couple of days before Christmas my mother-in-law spotted a flock of Sanderlings moving at a good clip along the rocky coast of Two Lights State Park. If you see medium-sized shorebirds during the winter months in Cape Elizabeth they are most likely Sanderlings. These extreme long-distance migrants breed in the tundra of High Arctic Canadian islands and peninsulas but come winter can be found on sandy beaches across the world.

On Dec. 31 while exploring the fringes of a wintery Robinson Woods I had stopped to point out animal tracks to my son when suddenly I felt a superbly light dusting of snow tickle my face. In that same instant something caught my eye just above me in a dense conifer bough - a Golden-crowned kinglet!

On New Year’s Day both male and female Pileated Woodpeckers blessed us with their presence, seen together in a crab apple tree in our yard. These mighty, monogamous forest carpenters are the seventh largest woodpecker in the world (out of 220 species) and largest in North America - assuming the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is extinct of course.

Other noteworthy mentionings include on Jan. 2 two Barrow’s Goldeneye sea ducks off Trundy Point. From the diving duck bunch, Barrow’s have bright yellow eyes and a white crescent moon shape between their eye and bill. These wild birds of northwestern landscapes nest in tree cavities across the remote boreal and montane forests. On Jan. 3 six Brant geese were visible off of Kettle Cove. Since then I noticed the flock has grown to as many as 12 of these smallish geese from the Arctic tundra.

Saving the best for last, on Jan. 5 my wife and I were pulling out of the garage when a little bird appeared not but a few feet from the car. I just happened to have my binoculars sitting on the center console and I quickly got on the bird. Upon closer inspection this frigid fellow was a “Western” Palm Warbler! A tip off to this bird’s identity was the constant tail wag coupled with its tendency to run on the ground (versus hop or fly). In Cape during spring and fall migrations we typically see the eastern subspecies “Yellow” Palm Warbler (or simply Palm Warbler). Although it is very late in the season for this little songbird to still be so far north – stragglers do exist and this particular warbler is a hardy one, breeding further north than all but one other type of warbler and wintering predominantly in the Caribbean.

Lastly, on the rather warm, sunny and blustery day of Jan. 11 while walking along the Kettle Cove beach my wife spotted two American Pipits. These birds are a rarity in these parts at this time of year. Pipits are small, slender songbirds with grayish-brown above and varying yellowish underparts with streaking below. In general, these birds have no particularly conspicuous marking to speak of. These little wanderers’ nest in the far north on mountain tops and are of a select few American songbirds that nest in both Arctic tundra and alpine meadows.