After last year’s northeast hurricane, there were a number of Black Skimmers noted on the NH and southern ME coasts as much as a week or more after the hurricane. I was able to get Skimmer on the NH coast during that time, but never went up to ME to pursue any of the ones spotted up there since they seemed to be just one day wonders (or even “one tide wonders”). I was kicking myself that I didn’t go after them, not knowing when my next opportunity might be for Skimmer in ME. So when several Skimmers were spotted after Irene’s passage, it really got my attention. Then there were posts of at least one at Pine Point several days in a row – finally one that might stick around. And just when I started to put plans together to head to Pine Point, a birder posted a group of 3 Buff-breasted Sandpipers nearby in South Portland at a playing field complex. Two statebirds to go after!
On Labor Day, David Deifik and I headed up to Maine to try both for the Skimmer and the Buff-breasteds. Since the Buffies were at a soccer field, we thought we should hit that spot first before the first group of the day’s soccer players flushed them off. Then we could go to Pine Point, where a high tide at dawn would be falling by early morning, and just starting to reveal some mudflats for the Skimmer to roost on. And we could hopefully still get away before I-95 was backed up with all the vacationers coming home.
We arrived at the field complex, and had perfect directions where the Buffies were yesterday. We hopped out of the car, and within seconds we could see at least 2 in the distance walking in the grass field among some Ring-billed Gulls. We walked a bit closer, and got great scope views of all 3 Buff-breasted Sandpipers. They aren’t usually that easy.
Then after a short drive we arrived at Pine Point. The tide was falling but still very high, and there was just a bit of exposed mudflat. I scoped the mud and found many gulls – Great Black-backed, Herring, and Bonaparte’s, a few Black-bellied Plovers, but not much else. On my second scan of the same flat I found the immature Black Skimmer. Another easy one! Two Maine statebirds in just an hour. Over the next 20 minutes or so, the Skimmer mostly just slept on the flats, but it did fly a couple times and even skimmed the surface once. Several other birders arrived in this time and we were able to get them on it. Now 8 days after Irene had passed and still there were birds on the coast displaced by the storm.
A Marbled Godwit had also been at Pine Point for the last couple weeks. Although I didn’t need that one for Maine, David did. We went over to the end of the pier to view the ever growing flats from there. And after a little scanning I was able to pick out the godwit. We stayed at Pine Point a little longer, picking out a broad array of the expected shorebirds along with 4 Red Knots – these are always special birds. Interestingly there were no terns of any species. Pine Point is one of my favorite Maine birding locations – and once again it lived up to its reputation.
By late morning we were heading south to beat the rush of tourists on the highway. But on a whim we decided to make a quick stop at Seabrook Harbor in NH to try for Black Tern (both of us needed it for NH). We had 80 Sterna terns including 10 Forster’s (a high number for NH), but alas no Black Tern.
Skimmer was my last Irene-related statebird. Over 8 days I added at least 6 statebirds in 4 states that were associated with Irene – Tropicbird and Sooty Tern in MA, Sanderling in VT, Brown Pelican and Sooty Tern in RI, and now Skimmer in ME.
The Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Black Skimmer give me 315 now in Maine. My statebird maps for these two species are quite different. Most of my states with Buff-breasteds are in the northeast instead of the central part of the country where they are more typically found. But in the northeast they are reasonably easy to chase even though they are in very low numbers. The states where I’ve seen Skimmer are much more similar to the Skimmer range map, though northern New England is certainly not in their typical range.
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