Soon after I arrived at Portland International Jetport yesterday afternoon, just outside of Portland, Maine, my old high school buddy, Bob, picked me up and took me immediately to the Scarborough Marsh, were we saw mallards, willets, great egrets, double-crested cormorants, a belted kingfisher, and even a tricolored heron.
The marsh is huge, however, so plenty of the birds were content to keep their distance from the causeway were on, and those great distances, combined with the warmth of the afternoon sun made for some mediocre pictures, but this snowy egret, which we last saw in Dallas, showed me some pity and got to fishing close enough for a presentable image.
The willets, which we last saw on Caye Caulker in Belize, flew around a bit, and these two must have been distracted and also drifted close enough for a moment.
The action really started, though, when Bob took me to Ferry Beach, where the Scarborough River empties into Saco Bay. As soon as we stepped out onto the beach, we could see ducks out on the water, and I thought they looked like mallard hens, at first glance, but Bob casually mentioned that they were Common Eider (Somateria mollissima). When I took a closer look, all I could think was “common eider? They’re my very first eiders, and I don’t see anything common about them, especially that drake! Holy smokes!”
As we were watching them, and I was trying to get a picture, one came up from the bottom with a tasty treat, and a herring gull immediately flew over to see what it was.
As you can see, it turned out to be a crab, probably an Atlantic rock crab (Cancer irroratus). Mmm-mmm-mmm. Tasty indeed.
There were also small terns darting over the water, and as we walked around the bend of Chandler Point, we were able to get a closer look and discover that they were Least Terns (Sternula antillarum), another first for me. Several were nesting right on the beach, but I thought that this one showing off its short little legs made a more interesting sight.
Finally, the main attraction, and the reason Bob had dragged me to this beach in the first place, was this tiny Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus), even smaller than the semipalmated plover we just saw in Estabrook. I read that they are “an endangered shorebird protected by both State and Federal laws,” and “Scarborough works closely with partners from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Maine Audubon to protect the plovers on our beaches.” Cool.
Then it was time to get to Bob’s house, have some dinner, finish yesterday’s post, and hit the sack. Today, we drove over to Burlington, VT, on Lake Champlain to meet some more old friends and see if there’s any wildlife there. I’ll keep you posted.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 