I rose earlier than usual this morning so my friend  Kristen and I could take a trip to Southern Maine in search of harlequin ducks. A medium-sized diving species with fanciful plumage, harlequins nest along rapid, far-northern forest streams and in winter seek out the churning surf off Maine’s rocky shores. They like rough, antic water.

While making breakfast at about sunup, I watched the waning crescent moon get caught in the bare oak branches. Flitting around in a maple, I saw seven chickadees.

Before even leaving town, we saw a crow fly by and noticed a flock of buffleheads floating out in Clam Cove. Within a few miles, we’d also spotted a few mourning doves in flight and Canada geese in the St. George River. On Route 1 in Warren, we pulled over and counted more than thirty bald eagles decorating the trees out back of Mainely Poultry—a notorious hangout for this handsome bird. Also a red-tailed hawk. A raven or two. Some starlings and a gang of noisy house sparrows in the dooryard.

Another red-tail appeared above Wiscasset, circling in the cloudless blue sky.

In late morning, we reached Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth. The sun blazing low in the southeastern sky did nothing for the wind chill; it’s a good thing we had scarves and hoods and gloves. I’ve never been to Two Lights at any other season, but I can attest to Dyer Point’s spectacularly rugged winter beauty—at least at low tide. Right away we counted rafts of eiders, a few red-breasted mergansers and common goldeneyes, and little collections of long-tailed ducks. Herring gulls bobbed here and there in the surging waves, and black ducks zipped by on fast wings. It took longer to pick out a harlequin: oddly, a solitary male, diving alone. (A lifer, for me.) I also spotted what Kristen helped me identify as a cluster of black scoters on the wing.

On the climb back up the icy rocks, I couldn’t help but snap a few photos of the bottoms of some tidal pools, whose colors I thought artistic and astounding.

Next we drove over to the park proper and scanned the surf there. More eiders, mergansers, long-tailed ducks—and far to our left a tight-knit flotilla of what looked to be harlequins just off a rocky promontory. As we headed along the icy trail in that direction to get a better look, I caught sight of a swift, dark, low-flying bird that I recognized at once as a raptor. A peregrine falcon, in fact. Good look, nice bird. And we were right about the harlequins.

Although we’d already compiled an impressive list, we figured we’d swing by the vast icy expanse of Scarborough Marsh, just to see waddup. A short, brisk walk rewarded us with a common loon, a scaup of indeterminate species, and  what was likely a great cormorant, though we couldn’t make a definitive ID. Also in Scarborough we listed ring-billed and greater black-backed gulls and watched a white-tailed doe bound across the road—then attempt to vanish in the leafless roadside trees.

On the way back to the Midcoast, we made a stop at Freeport, where I bought my first-ever pair of snowshoes. I expect to put ’em to good use before too long.

Tonight, under the watchful eye of Orion, the temperature dipped into the low double-digit (F) degrees.

Today’s List

1. Black-capped chickadee (Rockport, a.m.)
2. American crow (Rockport, a.m.)
3. Bufflehead (Rockport, a.m.)
4. Mourning dove (Rockland, a.m.)
5. Canada goose (Thomaston, a.m.)
6. Bald eagle (Warren, a.m.)
7. Red-tailed hawk (Warren, a.m.)
8. Common raven (Warren, a.m.)
9. European starling (Warren, a.m.)
10. House sparrow (Warren, a.m.)
11. Rock pigeon (Portland, a.m.)
12. Common eider (Cape Elizabeth, a.m.)
13. Red-breasted merganser (Cape Elizabeth, a.m.)
13. Common goldeneye (Cape Elizabeth, a.m.)
14. Long-tailed duck (Cape Elizabeth, a.m.)
15. Harlequin duck (Cape Elizabeth, a.m.)
16. Peregrine falcon (Cape Elizabeth, a.m.)
17. Black scoter (Cape Elizabeth, a.m.)
18. Black duck (Cape Elizabeth, a.m.)
19. Common loon (Scarborough, p.m.)
20. Ring-billed gull (Scarborough, p.m.)
21. Greater black-backed gull (Scarborough, p.m.)
22. Cormorant (sp?) (Scarborough, p.m.)
23. Scaup (sp?) (Scarborough, p.m.)

Also notable: white-tailed deer (Scarborough, p.m.).

2010 List (30 spp. so far)