Townsend’s Solitaire, Florida Lake, Freeport, Maine, November 2014

The excitement of adding Pacific Loon to my ME list had barely faded when a report of a Townsend’s Solitaire in Freeport came across the listserve.  In fact, the Solitaire was first spotted the same day I saw the Loon, though the news didn’t get out till the next day.  I couldn’t get out for a couple days, but was hopeful the bird would stick around for a while as many New England Solitaires tend to do.  Then again, I should say that at least the MA and NH Solitaire’s tend to hang around.  By comparison, there have been many fewer Solitaires reported lately in the other New England states, and many have not been readily chaseable.  But luckily, this bird was still being reported 2 days after the initial sighting, and was being quite reliable. 

On my drive up to Freeport I wondered if the target bird would be difficult to find.  Solitaires can be challenging to find sometimes since they like to sit very still for extended periods of time.  I only had a few hours of free time to try for it, so I hoped that it would be cooperative.  I arrived at the Florida Lake parking lot, and started the short walk down the trail to head to the winterberry bushes which were the Solitaire’s preferred feeding area.  I hadn’t quite reached this key spot when I noticed a thrush-like bird flying up ahead which landed at the top of a maple tree just a short distance away.  Although my first thought was that it was a Robin, I quickly wondered if this was the Solitaire.  I put my binocs on it, and sure enough it was the Townsend’s Solitaire.  It was the first bird I saw after getting out of my car!  If only they were all this easy.  A bit later it flew lower down to the brush and afforded excellent views.  I was able to get these two pretty nice phone-scoped photos.

The Solitaire was my fourth New England statebird for November 2014.  Once again November has turned out to be the month for rarities here.  And it was #335 for me in ME, giving me 1,990 in New England – just 10 more to go!  Townsend’s Solitaire is known for its vagrancy, and not surprisingly I’ve seen it in 5 states as a vagrant (ME, NH, MA, NJ, IL) along with 12 states out west in its normal range.