Birding Wharton Point, Brunswick, ME (Part 1 of birding the Maine Coast)

     So in honor of Shorebird Day I finally finished the first part of this post.

I left the western mountains of Maine at 0 dark 30 in anticipation of some shore birding with my friend Kathie from Kathiesbirds - http://kathiesbirds.blogspot.com/

Albany Township Community building at sunrise (A mile from Songo Pond)

Lake Pennesseewassee/ Norway Lake at first light

Our first spot for the day was Wharton Point on Maquoit Bay. I know Kathie birds here and writes about it often. It was our most prolific spot as birds go. We kept trying to leave and move on but each time we saw another bird species. After almost 2 hours we'd seen about 30+ species.

Marsh around the bay

Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow (I think - what do others think?)

Bobolink

3 Lesser Yellowlegs (I think- as I remember we identified by their call of two notes)

A least sandpiper fresh from a bath

Least Sandpiper - they are the smallest of the sandpipers with yellowish-green legs.

The most surprising species was the Bobolinks. We both started hearing a tinkling  sound and at the same time we said "Bobolinks." We thought they would be long gone by now. In fact I had already seen some migrating Bobolinks in CT before I came up to Maine.

This picture is a Bobolink in CT (I thought I'd gotten pictures)

The birds we saw included:

1 American BL Duck                                                          1 Ring-Billed Gull
20 common eiders                                                              14 Herring Gulls
50 other duck species (too far away to id with accuracy)     10 other gull species
3 Double-crested Cormorants                                             1 Common Tern
2 Great Herons                                                                   10 Mourning Dove
2 Great Egret                                                                      3 Blue Jays
2 Snowy Egrets                                                                  3 American Crows
1 glossy Ibis                                                                       12 Tree Swallows
2 Osprey                                                                            1 Barn Swallow
1 Bald Eagle                                                                       3 Gray Catbirds
1 Greater Yellowlegs                                                          1 Cedar Waxwing
3 Lesser Yellowlegs                                                            4 Common Yellowthroats
5 Least Sandpipers                                                             2 Yellow Warblers
20 other peep species                                                         1 Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow
1 Bonaparte's Gull                                                              6 Song Sparrows
4 Bobolinks                                                                        1 sparrow species
5 House Finch                                                                    1 Black Bird species
1 Wild Turkey just before I got to Kathies place.                15 Goldfinch