Hooded mergansers (?).

A tufted titmouse was playing the flute again in the trees out back when I awoke this morning. The temperature was much cooler than yesterday—right about freezing—and the sky mostly overcast. A couple of crows foraged for whatever food they could dig up in the brown yard across the road. About mid-morning, I looked out to see a few snowflakes flitting like flies in the air, but soon after the clouds dispersed and the day became partly sunny.

Hooded mergansers (?).

In early afternoon my friend Kristen picked me up to drive us around to a few birding spots between here and Port Clyde. We figured we’d visit some shores.

First stop: the Weskeag. Loads of geese, as yesterday, along with some mallards, black ducks, and gulls. As we were leaving, I caught just a flash of brown floating in the little waterway at the Buttermilk Lane bridge. I was ready just to keep going, but Kristen turned around. Cool that she did, too, because what I spotted on our way back by were six ducks—three black ducks and three female hooded mergansers.

I love hooded mergansers. They used to stop by my quarry pond in Rockland nearly every year. The little hoodeds—smallest of our area’s three merganser species—are so neat and prim and clean-looking. The males’ striking plumage makes them seem a bit like dandies, but the heads and crests of the females are a such beautiful shade of brown. As we walked off into the spongy marsh, the black ducks took off, but I snapped off a series of photos of the mergansers. As I did, Kristen spotted an adult bald eagle soaring in the blue above what must’ve seemed a pretty fruitful hunting ground. Perhaps the eagle’s arrival is what spooked the little ducks, which took off on rapid wings.

We saw a raven en route down the St. George Peninsula, but not much else. The wind was high at Marshall Point Light—the view there of Monhegan Island made me nostalgic for last fall’s migration trip—but apparently no birds were crazy enough to be hanging round this wide, wild choppy chunk of bay.

Still, on our return trip, Kristen did notice a solitary red-breasted merganser (our common winter species) diving near the shore.

Adult bald eagle.

On a lark, we headed down Drift Inn Road. At a little turnout with a water view, we stopped and scanned the tide. Right away I noticed a pair of goldeneyes floating a couple hundred yards offshore. By this time the sun was bright, and I thought sure the female’s bill was orange, and the male’s telltale facial spot seemed particularly pronounced. I was ready to pronounce them Barrow’s goldeneyes, in fact, though Kristen disagreed. Then she pointed out another duck nearby, and (eager to make some sort of pronouncement) I pronounced this one a female common merganser. A long diving duck with a narrow bill and a lovely coppery head—what else could it be?

After consulting the field guide, we agreed that’s what this new duck was: a common merganser. But clearly the goldeneyes were also common and not the Barrow’ses I had wished for.

On the way back we saw a mourning dove and some buffleheads. But our three merganser species are what made the trip. Certainly a first for me.

Today’s List

Tufted titmouse
American crow
Black-capped chickadee
Herring gull
Ring-billed gull
Rock pigeon
Canada goose
Mallard
Black duck
Hooded merganser
Bald eagle
Common raven
Rock pigeon
Red-breasted merganser
Common loon
Common goldeneye
Common merganser
Mourning dove
Bufflehead

Monhegan Island from Marshall Point.