#bird-column

A Bird's Tale

This evening grosbeak was photographed in northern Minnesota. Note the large bill and bright yellow body. Photo courtesy of Lauri Shaull, wikimedia commons

A Bird’s Tale

#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #wiscasset newspaper, #penbay pilot, #birds, #maine, #weskeag marsh, #snowy egret, #great blue heron, #great egret

Another gorgeous September weekend day here in Maine and we were drawn to a peninsula that we haven’t visited much in recent years. We headed over to Thomaston and then drove south past the big…

A Bird’s Tale

Maine Coast Mudflats on a Fall Day in Freeport

#bird-column, #shorebirds, #Wolfe’s Neck Center, #Freeport, #Maine, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds

It’s a cool, early-September evening on the Maine coast. On the point across the water from where we’re standing, tall white pine trees create a light green curtain against the impossibly blue sky…

A Bird’s Tale

The Hidden Life that Drives the World

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison Wells, #maine, #cornell, #archie ammons, #mushrooms

Life forms that live all around us but that we never (or almost never) detect may be kind of freaky to think about. Viruses, bacteria, prions—those microscopic living (or maybe not really living,…

A Bird’s Tale

Migration or Something Else?

#bird-column, #bird migration, #migration, #birds, #boothbay register, #penbay pilot, #wiscasset newspaper, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #american white pelican

We wrote last week about our luck visiting Wharton Point in Brunswick as the tide turned and shorebirds of various kinds made themselves visible on the expanding mudflats. Well, someone else was…

A Bird’s Tale

We Were Lucky

#bird-column, #birds, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #boothbay register, #black-bellied plover, #wharton point

A few weeks ago, in early August, we were lucky.

Without having glanced at a tide chart, we happened to stop by Wharton Point in Brunswick just as the tide was receding from its high point…

A Bird’s Tale

Long Goodbyes and Short Hellos

#bird-column, #maine, #bird, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #gray catbird

On cooler, early evenings these August days, we have been out sitting comfortably on our porch, our little black dog happily beside us sniffing the air. We haven’t been using our noses but instead…

A Bird’s Tale

Winter in Summer

#bird-column, #birds, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #maine, #winter wren

On one of the oppressively hot and humid summer days we have been experiencing lately, we had the good fortune to be at the cool, shady camp of brother Andy and sister-in-law Nina on the shore of…

The Weirdness Continues

#bird-column, #birds, #cicada, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #maine, #anhinga

Over the weekend we decided to join in the birding fun that we wrote about in…

A Bird’s Tale

A Tropical Visitor Enjoys a Maine Summer

#bird-column, #tropical kingbird, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds

We might be far from the tropics, but the temperature sure has felt downright tropical here in Maine (and across much of the nation) over the last few weeks. Maine and much of the country also got…

A Bird’s Tale

No Apologies for a Swift Response

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #maine, #chimney swifts, #bald eagles

We may have a recent preoccupation with swifts. They seem to have been finding their way into these columns a disproportionate number of times lately as compared to other birds. But we make no…

A Bird’s Tale

Summer Sex and Other Surprises

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #chimney swifts, #maine, #birds, #northern cardinal

June in Maine is when the miracle of new life abounds in birds. Most of the birds that breed in Maine—build nests, lay eggs, nurture their young—do so in June. This year, we have been happy to see…

A Bird’s Tale

Have You Seen These Lately?

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #indigo bunting

There are two birds in particular that are so striking, so tropical-looking, that most people think they’re rare here in Maine.

But they aren’t.

In fact they’re quite widespread and…

A Bird’s Tale

Drawn to the Marsh by an Unknown Force

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #least bittern

It may have been an unconscious reaction to last week’s excessive heat, but over the weekend we were drawn to local lakes and marshes to look for birds. It is hard for us to believe, but some of…

A Bird’s Tale

A Good Season For Owls

Fledgling northern saw-whet owls look quite different from their parents with chocolate faces, a striking white "t" over the bill and orangey underparts. Photo by Kameron Perensovich, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Sister-in-law Nina called, breathless, a few weeks ago. While walking the dogs along a quiet road in Georgetown, she was astonished to find a tiny, newly fledged saw-whet owl sitting on the back…

A Bird’s Tale

A Maine Island Like No Other

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #maine, #hog island, #osprey

Imagine a place on the Maine coast where your dinner conversation might range from talking with an Indigenous Guardian about the experience of living and working in a remote First Nation in…

A Bird’s Tale

A Rare Visitor from Far North

There is no doubt that the sight of an all-white, chicken-sized bird with feathered feet walking around on the ground somewhere here on the coast of Maine in spring would make just about anyone…

A Bird’s Tale

One Good Tern

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine, #black tern

Over the weekend, we were out doing some errands in Augusta when it occurred to us that we could easily add one more “errand” into our itinerary. Only a few minutes farther north from the…

A Bird’s Tale

A New Place For Birding Awaits You

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #perham stream birding trail, #natural resources council of maine, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #maine, #high peaks alliance, #birders

Looking for a new place to go birding? We’ve got just the place for you. It’s called the Perham Stream Birding Trail, and it’s located in Madrid, Maine.

For those who may be a little rusty…

A Bird’s Tale

Secret Messages

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #maine, #pine siskin

A few weeks ago on a fine spring day, we were walking our little black dog around the neighborhood. Walking up the hill on one of our favorite routes, we stopped in our tracks to enjoy the…

A Bird’s Tale

Departures and Arrivals

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #migration, #ruby-crowned kinglet

We’ve been serenaded most mornings this week by a loud, whistled “Old Sam Peabody-Peabody-Peabody”—the sweet sound of a white-throated sparrow tuning up the song that he will soon be singing…

A Bird’s Tale

Will the Southern Masked Impaler Return?

#bird-column, #loggerhead shrike, #rare birds, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #penbay pilot, #birds

Reading the rare bird sightings here in Maine in the past week could make you think you were in the southern U.S.. Summer tanager at a Portland cemetery. Another in the same Cape Elizabeth park…

A Bird’s Tale

Something Fishy Going On

#bird-column, #birds, #maine, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #bates college, #bowdoin college, #fish crows, #rugby

The early April snowstorm left most surfaces, even a week later, with several inches of snow. But the rugby field on the Bowdoin College campus in Brunswick, where we went to watch our son play on…

A Bird’s Tale

What Grizzly Bear Birds and the Eclipse Tell Us about Our Place in the Universe

#bird-column, #birds, #boothbay register, #total eclipse, #solar eclipse, #jeff and allison wells, #bohemian waxwing, #maine

There is something elemental about a solar eclipse that, for many people, causes an emotional response—a reckoning, perhaps, with the knowledge that we are tiny parts of a vast universe. That a…

A Bird’s Tale

A Mellow Tu-Tu-Tu Can Only Mean One Thing

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #university of iowa, #caitlin clark, #greater yellowlegs

A mellow “tu-tu-tu” echoing across the mudflats at low tide. The smell of salt and fragrant pine and spruce in the air. The spring sun trying valiantly to warm the still nippy morning air.

…

A Bird’s Tale

Striking Gold, a Sure Sign of Spring

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds, #american goldfinch

What’s your favorite sign of spring? Is it that first crocus pushing up through the last of the melting snow? Maybe it’s the gradually but refreshingly longer days.

For us, one of the most…

A Bird’s Tale

A Robin for Every Yard

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #american robin, #robin, #spring

On this morning’s walk around the neighborhood with our little dog, Loki, it was as if spring had soared in overnight. From every single yard, we heard the “pip-pip-pip” calls or the sweet “…

A Bird’s Tale

A Flock or Not?

#bird-column, #birds, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #flocks, #shorebirds

Last week we saw the sleek, black form of our first common grackle of the year sitting by itself in the top of the tall, leafless maple tree across the street from our home. Its harsh “check”…

A Bird’s Tale

The Things We Take for Granted

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #evening grosbeak, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine

We were driving on a rural road a few days ago when a flock of 30 or so wild turkeys came ambling slowly across in front of us, stopping traffic in both directions. Suddenly, a male turkey, his…

A Bird’s Tale

The Bird Economy

#bird-column, #economy, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #eastern meadowlark

The economy is in the news every day as the countdown to the presidential election is underway for real. Inflation, interest rates, GDP, stock indices, bond returns – the numbers of ways…

‘Great’ Big Surprises

#bird-column, #great backyard bird count, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #boothbay register, bufflehead

As we write this, the 2024 Great Backyard Bird Count is on its final day. Incredibly, the number of bird sighting checklists that have been submitted is closing in on a quarter of a million coming…

A Bird’s Tale

The Birders’ Mardis Gras

#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #great backyard bird count, #mardis gras, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #american robin

The Birders’ Mardi Gras

The tradition of a February celebration has long been part of human history. A Carnival period, often in July, is a major tradition in many parts of the world, and…

A Bird’s Tale

Who to Follow?

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #snow buntings, #maine, #birds

Deciding on which leader to follow is certainly occupying much of the media airspace for us humans in the U.S. at the moment and will be for months to come until the Presidential election.

…

A Bird’s Tale

Eagles on Ice

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #Kennebec, #bald eagle

While it’s true that a certain Philadelphia-based football team is on ice after a recent playoff collapse against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the inspiration for this column comes from the real…

A Bird’s Tale

Ten Million Birds?

#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #boothbay register, #maine, #seal river watershed, #black scoter

A watershed in the Canadian province of Manitoba almost half the size of the entire state of Maine and estimated to support more than ten million breeding birds took a significant step…

A Bird’s Tale

Fifteen Years of Hoping Finally Pays Off

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #short-eared owl, #birds, #maine

For more than 15 years we’ve been hoping.

We had said the phrase, “This is the perfect place for a short-eared owl,” so many times that it had become a kind of inside joke.

Birders…

A Bird’s Tale

The Dilemma

#bird-column, #hepatic tanager, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #boothbay register, #birds

It was Saturday. Grocery shopping needed to be done. Prescriptions needed filling. The floors needed a vacuuming and the towels needed to be folded and put away.

A major snowstorm was…

A Bird’s Tale

West Meets East

#bird-column, #western birds, #Townsend’s warbler, #hepatic tanager, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds, #spotted towhee

Something unusual seems to be happening.

Here in Maine, it started off with the discovery of the western sibling species to our familiar eastern towhee, a spotted towhee, at Fort Foster in…

A Bird’s Tale

Mysterious Murmurations and Such

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay-register, #birds, #christmas bird count, #murmuration, #carolina wren

The Augusta area Christmas Bird Count took place Saturday, Dec. 16. It was a very mild day for mid-December, another in a series of rather mild days that increasingly have become the new normal as…

A Bird’s Tale

Does It Count?

#bird-column, #christmas bird count, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #boothbay register, #evening grosbeak

Most people find birds beautiful, fascinating, even entrancing. Some recognize only a few that they see in the backyard and neighborhood—chickadees, crows, cardinals, blue jays. These they may…

A Bird’s Tale

One for Staying, One for Going

#bird-column, #maine’s favorite birds, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds

We’ve all faced the dilemma: We want to show our love or appreciation for someone through a gift at the holidays but what is something that reflects who they are and what they enjoy in life?

…

A Bird’s Tale

Mysterious Visitors From Far Away Shores

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #wilson’s storm-petrel

It sometimes seems hard to believe that so many mysteries still remain within the natural world, including within the most well-known group of wild creatures: birds! But new discoveries of all…

A Bird’s Tale

The Twisted History of the Turkey’s Name

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds, #turkey, #thanksgiving

The two most well-known birds in the world would have to be—no, not Steller’s sea-eagles, albatrosses, or hummingbirds—but two species that have probably become rather mundane in most of our…

A Bird’s Tale

Good News From Warm Climes

#bird-column, #birds of aruba bonaire and curacao, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine, #boothbay register, #osprey

Many long-time readers of this column will remember that we have an abiding interest in the islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire—three islands off the Venezuelan coast that were historically once…

The Ultimate Halloween Costume

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #maine, #halloween, #purple gallinule

Imagine the ultimate Halloween costume. A disguise so incredibly integrated with you that it transforms your appearance completely and wears as easy as your most comfortable clothes. Now imagine…

A Bird’s Tale

They Don’t Get No Respect

#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #penbay pilot, #birds, #maine, #american pipit

It’s a bird that seems to pass through here in Maine quickly in spring. Though it is typically more widespread and abundant in fall migration, it prefers habitats that are often not heavily…

A Bird’s Tale

Monhegan Island: Maine’s Birding Capitol

#bird-column, #birds, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #monhegan island, #boothbay register

The Maine Coast is rich with iconic locations. Some are known for their striking austere beauty. Others, for a unique geological feature. Still others, for their historical significance.

…

A Bird’s Tale

Surrounded by Yellow Rumps

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #timber point, #yellow-rumps

A few nights ago, according to BirdCast, more than a billion birds were up in the air migrating south across the U.S. BirdCast (birdcast.info), for those that are not familiar with it, is a…

A Bird’s Tale

Unprecedented Invasion of American Migrants Arrives in Britain and Ireland

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine, #boothbay register, #blocker, #hurricane lee, #black and white warbler

In the days before Hurricane Lee made its way toward Maine and Nova Scotia, lots of migrating land birds were moving through our area.…

A Bird’s Tale

Lobsterman Sees Birds Falling from Sky

#bird-column, #hurricane-lee, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #lobsterman, #boothbay register

A reader sent us a link to an interesting TikTok video a few days before Hurricane Lee was expected to hit. In the video, a young Maine lobsterman in a red T-shirt and blue jeans standing at the…