Kettle Cove
“On Jan. 3 six Brant geese were visible off of Kettle Cove.”
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 22 passages, oldest first.
Overwintering Gray Catbirds were spied in Delano Park, Pond Cove, Kettle Cove and Prout’s Neck.
On Feb 25 there were close to 30 Brants in Kettle Cove.
On Jan. 3 six Brant geese were visible off of Kettle Cove.
The fourth and final “GHOW” heard was somewhere in the woods between Kettle Cove and Two Lights Road.
On December 6 Brant geese showed up in Kettle Cove.
On the morning of February 7, the following birds were seen along our coastline between Kettle Cove and the far fringes of Crescent Beach State park – a solitary Northern Mockingbird guarding his Winterberry throne, a Herring Gull pilfering a Common Eiders hard earned meal (a mussel), two diving Horned Grebes…
Additional mentionings include, on July 10, to our delight a Roseate Tern dove within close range as my son and I were taking a late afternoon dip in the ocean at Kettle Cove.
Despite the shorebird migration having already peaked across our parts, plovers and sandpipers were still quite common across the Spurwink Marsh and places like Kettle Cove, Dyer and Trundy Points.
…a Wilson’s Snipe in Kettle Cove and a Spotted Sandpiper on Dyer Point on September 25 and in Winnick Woods and Great Pond and Preserve on September 26 continuing Blackpoll Warblers and White-throated Sparrows and many first of season Yellow-Rumped Warblers, several Ruby crowned Kinglets and six Brown Creepers singing.
And on February 26 off Kettle Cove, I observed a raft of frisky Bufflehead ducks chasing each other.
Show all 22 passages
Additional mentionings from across town include a male Belted Kingfisher and many Cedar Waxwings sallying and gleaning over the Pond Cove brook corridor in Robinson Woods III, Seven Piping Plovers along Kettle Cove Beach on July 29 and an Artic Tern…
On December 10 while surveying the coastline along Kettle Cove my eye caught the brief flutter of a bird on the rocks just offshore.
On this same day within Kettle Cove a solitary Northern Mockingbird was guarding his Winterberry throne and as the sun was setting I spotted six Brants foraging on the falling tide for eelgrass and aquatic vegetation.
Other locations where these falcons have been spotted over the last two weeks include Kettle Cove, Two Lights State Park and Dyer Point.
On March 24 I spotted a lone American Tree Sparrow on the town green and on March 26 I finally caught up with the reported Brant geese foraging the choppy rising tide for eelgrass and auqatic vegetation in Kettle Cove.
Over the last two weeks another uncommon winter visitor has been regularly sighted along the Two Lights Road/ Kettle Cove area, a Snow Goose.
Additional observations include: on February 9 a Hermit Thrush in Kettle Cove and along Crescent Beach State Park, eight Long-tailed Ducks, six Buffleheads, four Red-breasted Mergansers and two Lesser Scaup ducks.
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 morning within Kettle Cove, I noted several Laughing Gulls, a plump of Brant sea geese, eleven Long-tailed Ducks and rafts of Black Scoters.
On May 20 I came across this secretive bird in Kettle Cove, singing from deep within an overgrown boggy thicket.
This skulker of western mountains has just four accepted Maine records, the last in Cape (Kettle Cove) in November 2015.
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.