Local birding report

Cape Elizabeth’s southernmost point of land is a storied island just off our coastline named Richmond Island. With permission, I spent the night of August 13 on this special island with childhood friends.

Although my stay was too brief, I managed to explore a good deal of the island and identify twenty-nine different species of birds. Debarking from Broad Cove on the eastern side of the island and walking along one of the rocky beaches wrack lines, I counted five Piping Plovers and eleven Semipalmated Sandpipers. Just offshore a raft of fifty or more Double-crested Cormorants gathered on Watts Ledge. On the southwest side of the island’s woods I came upon four Red-breasted Nuthatches and a Red-eyed Vireo travelling together. The perimeter path that travels around the island dips into an enchanting forest area where I yielded a pair of Red-tailed Hawks, two vocal Common Ravens and one adult Bald Eagle perched high atop a White Pine snag.

Beyond the perimeter of the island Bayberry thickets give way to rolling lowland meadows where congregating Tree and Barn Swallows acrobatically foraged for flying insects. While observing this August spectacle a fast-fly Peregrine Falcon screamed through and caused a bit of a scare.

The fragile grassland ecosystem of the island provides excellent breeding habitat for another bird that was in fine form, the Savannah Sparrow. This understated sparrow is not to be confused with its cousin the “Ipswich Savannah Sparrow” which only breeds on Sable Island in Nova Scotia, and is bigger and paler, or the Song Sparrow which looks similar but is also larger. The Savannah Sparrow gets its name from the broad grasslands of the southern seaboard where it migrates come wintertime. On Maine’s islands where they commonly breed, they spend most of their time on the ground and have an insect-like song. As it was mid-August, many young, just molted Savanna Sparrows were visible, in small family groups clinging to the tops of pasture shrubs and tall weeds, chattering softly as they gathered ripening seeds. Of note, during breeding season the male Savannah Sparrows engage in “running fights,” with more running than fighting. Interestingly, ornithologist Edward H. Forbush states of these birds “both bird and song are so inconspicuous that most people seldom notice either.”

Traveling further inland, a hidden pond bordered by marshland on one side and Spruce, Birch and Poplar Trees presents itself. Two Great-blue Herons were perched awkwardly in a tall white Pine Tree and a Great Egret flew in to join them for the night. The surrounding pond shrubbery at sunset was teaming with Common Yellowthroats and Yellow Warblers and also included Chestnut-sided Warblers, Gray Catbirds and Eastern Kingbirds. I was pleasantly surprised to spy two Blue-winged Teal on the pond. Before bed I went on an owl prowl but came up empty-handed. Great-horned Owls are reported on the island from time to time and during fall migration southbound Northern Saw-Whet Owls very likely use the island as a stopover. Of note, while I was listening for owls I was startled by what I believed to be the barking squawk of a Black-crowned Night Heron.

Writer Edward Rowe Snow once described Richmond Island from the air as looking like a “giant turkey scratching in the dirt.” While out walking on the island I had found what looked to be a turkey feather but mentally ruled out a turkey being on the island. After talking with the island’s super nice caretaker, I learned that there was in fact Wild Turkey(s) on the island and that it was only recently that she had seen them for the first time. Later that day I came across a single Wild Turkey, who, upon laying eyes on me, made a mad dash across an old rock wall and eventually ran out of sight. I also learned that Bald Eagles nest on Richmond annually; however, this year the nesting site appeared to have been relocated to the island’s wooded area.