Fort Williams Park
“May 14 – A very pleasing morning in Fort Williams.”
Through the year
Columns that mention it, by the month they were published.
Year by year
Columns that mention it each year.
In his words
Ten of the 11 passages, oldest first.
Harlequin Ducks (Two Lights and Fort Williams, Common Eiders, at least one King Eider (Dyer Point), Black and White-winged Scoters (Crescent Beach), Pintails (Ferry Beach), Red-breasted Mergansers, Red-necked Grebes, and numerous Common Loons.
Speaking of ducks, fair numbers of Black and White-winged Scoters, Long-tailed, aka “Oldsquaw’s”, Common Loons and Eiders can still be seen without too much effort off Crescent Beach and rocky bluffs along Fort Williams State Park.
Three Brown Thrashers were spied along the edges of the Goddard Mansion tangles in Fort Williams; one sang its rich melodious double phrases for quite some time.
Other mentionables, Surf and White winged Scoter (ducks) have arrived for the winter already and are visible just offshore from Fort Williams.
In the last days of February off of Dyer Point, Trundy Point, Pond Cove and Fort Williams I saw the following - Common Loons, Common Eiders, Harlequin Ducks, Long-tailed Ducks, Common Goldeneyes, Black and Surf Scoters and Red-breasted Mergansers.
The autumn Yellow-rumped Warbler migration phenomenon along our coastline continued through October 10 with many hundreds of warblers both high and low across Gull Crest, Robinson Woods, Fort Williams, Crescent Beach State Park and the old White Oak Trees in my yard.
On January 7 along Fort Williams’ Cliff Walk I spotted a Peregrine Falcon, a Northern Mockingbird and a male Long-tailed Duck yodeling just off Portland Headlight.
May 14 – A very pleasing morning in Fort Williams.
In fact, 25% of the top twenty birding hotspots (define by both number species recorded and by submitted eBird checklists) are in our town including, Kettle Cove, Dyer Point, Trundy Point, Portland Headlight – Fort Williams Park and Two Lights State Park.
On this same day I spotted a Northern Harrier flying below the Cliff Walk in Fort Williams.
Show all 11 passages
Also appearing with some regularity off our shoreline over the last several weeks at Fort Williams, Dyer Point and Kettle Cove is the smallest of our Arctic waterfowl visitors, the Dovekie.