Day 19.042: Fresh snow

The snow that fell in our large storm nearly a month ago is mostly still with us. We’ve had a few melting days and a few inches of fresh snow in the interim, but no widespread open ground. Last night we got a few more inches of snow and - as things stand - expect some more on Monday. 

Day 19.041: A quick stop at Pine Point

Our second stop on Monday was for a quick visit to the co-op pier at Pine Point near the mouth of the Nonesuch River. Here is some of what we saw there:

American Black Duck x Mallard hybrid

Common loon (we saw eight)

Red-breasted merganser

Greater scalp

Common eider

Long-tailed duck

American black ducks

Day 19.040: Four miles on the beach

As I mentioned, on Presidents Day, Exile #2 and I went for a walk on the beach at Old Orchard Beach. We ended up walking 4.2 miles which took us from south of the pier nearly to the Scarborough town line and back.

Here is some of what we saw along the way:

American herring gull

Rock pigeons on the pier

The largest gull in the world (great black-backed gull)

Clam for dinner

The pier was wearing ice shorts

Sanderling

Horned grebe

Common loon

Sanderlings

Sanderlings in flight

Wind vane

Some of the 31 sanderlings that we counted when several groups converged

Another clam bites the dust

Day 19.039: Saturday birding

Amazingly, I have yet to give my report on last Saturday's birding. We gathered at Biddeford Pool and had views from different positions of the Pool, the narrow entrance "the Gut", and out into the bay in two directions.

Horned grebe

Common loon

Common goldeneye

Bufflehead

Long-tailed duck

Bald eagle (on this distant flagpole on an island in the bay)

White-winged scoter

Distant scaup

Canada geese

American herring gull

Surf scoter

Surf scoters

American tree sparrow

Northern cardinal

White-throated sparrow

White-throated sparrow

Northern mockingbird

House finch

Surf scoters

Black scoters

Black scoters