Merlin.
The day dawned overcast and much cooler than yesterday. Much cooler. So cool that I was wearing a long-sleeved undershirt, a heavy overshirt, and a hooded sweatshirt as the Elizabeth Ann pulled away from Port Clyde en route to Monhegan.
Dickcissel.
Out in Muscongus Bay, there were herring, black-backed, and laughing gulls, black guillemots, loons, cormorants, and eiders. Also, nearing the island, northern gannets. Saw no seals or whales or harbor porpoises, though. No bald eagles. A low blue cloud hung ominously off to the east.
Once arrived, I was soon walking the trails with my birding friends Kristen and Bill, watching merlin after merlin dart swiftly across the overcast. Above Manana Island, a pair of peregrines dipped and veered, alternately chasing gulls and ravens—and possibly diving after huge flocks of goldfinches. Everywhere we looked, in fact, there seemed to be flocks of goldfinches. Remarkable, for sure.
Red-eyed vireo.
But where else can you go on this earth and see merlins and peregrines and kestrels just about every time you scan the sky? Where else and when else? Oh, there probably are place-time combinations that’ll let you see these three species along with gyrfalcons gathering during fall migration. Still, this is the second time I’ve been here in late-September and seen some species of falcon pretty much any time I wanted to. They’re such expert and entertaining flyers. I can’t imagine tiring of this.
In the brush up beyond the lighthouse we saw sparrows and vireos and a dickcissel. White-throated, song, white-crowned, and clay-colored sparrows; red-eyed and Philadelphia vireos. And all this in only my first afternoon, and in less-than-idea weather.
Happy to be here.
White-crowned sparrow (juvenile).
Monhegan List
(Not in order of sighting.)
1. Wood duck
2. Mallard
3. Blue-winged teal
4. Double-crested cormorant
5. American kestrel
6. Merlin
7. Peregrine falcon
8. Herring gull
9. Greater black-backed gull
10. Mourning dove
11. Belted kingfisher
12. Downy woodpecker
13. Northern flicker
14. Philadelphia vireo
15. Red-eyed vireo
16. Blue jay
17. American crow
18. Common raven
19. Black-capped chickadee
20. Red-breasted nuthatch
21. White-breasted nuthatch
22. Hermit thrush
23. Brown thrasher
24. Cedar waxwing
25. Yellow-rumped warbler
26. Clay-colored sparrow
27. Song sparrow
28. White-throated sparrow
29. White-crowned sparrow
30. Dark-eyed junco
31. Dickcissel
32. American goldfinch
Elsewhere
33. Common eider
34. Common loon
35. Northern gannet
36. Great blue heron
37. Laughing gull
38. Black guillemot
39. American robin
Belted kingfisher.
