Black-Necked Stilt in Maine, June 2013

Black-Necked Stilt is quite a rarity for New England even though this species is prone to vagrancy.  So a mid-June sighting at Plum Island in MA was very notable – though I didn’t need Stilt for my MA list.  As most vagrant Stilts will do, this bird stayed at Plum Island for a number of days before moving on.  Then a couple days later came a post of a Stilt seen in Scarborough Marsh in Maine, undoubtedly the same bird.  Now that’s one I need for my state list.  I couldn’t break away to try for it for a few days, so I hoped it would stay at Scarborough Marsh for a while as well.  It was seen there for 3 days, and I planned to try for it on day #4.  But before I started my trip north that day I received early morning negative reports from Scarborough, and then amazingly it was reported that morning from nearby Stratton Island off-shore.  The island is not readily accessible, so it sounded like I had missed yet another possible New England statebird this year.  But then came the next chapter of this bird’s trek through New England – 2 days later it was refound in Scarborough Marsh in its original location.  So I was off to Scarborough!

I arrived at the Eastern Road parking area in early afternoon and started my walk along the trail.  The bird had been reported from various pans to the south of the trail, though it was not always visible.  The tide was very high, meaning it would be more difficult for it to hide in tidal channels, so I was pretty optimistic.  But the marsh is very large and there are many places that even a large showy shorebird like a Stilt could hide.  As I closed in on the right location I met a birder walking back from the spot – the bird was seen an hour earlier though she did not see it.  Hmm - I wasn’t sure if that was good news or bad news.  There were no other birders there when I arrived, so I started to scan through the pans.  No Stilt to be seen – just a couple Willets, and various waders (several distant dark Ibis, Great and Snowy Egrets, and an adult Little Blue).  [I called them “dark” Ibis because a White-faced was seen in the area earlier.]  I started to think about how long I could wait for the bird to hopefully appear – I gave myself 2 hours.

Then just 5 minutes later while scanning the marsh with my binoculars I spotted the Stilt flying low across the marsh.  I first saw it maybe ½ mile away, and continued to watch it as it flew closer and closer, eventually landing in a pan just about 100 yards away.  I got these marginal phone-scoped pictures of the bird as it fed and then slept in this nearby pan. 

Only 25 minutes later the Stilt took off and I watched it fly about a 100 yards, and drop into the marsh out of sight.  Boy was I lucky!

During this time I heard numerous Nelson’s Sparrows singing their buzzy songs, and a handful of Saltmarsh Sparrows giving their barely audible songs.  This marsh is an excellent location to study both of these sparrows, and even see hybrids.  I also likely heard a singing Seaside Sparrow that day, but it only sang twice, and since I was focusing on the Stilt at the time, I couldn’t be sure. 

The Black-Necked Stilt was number 326 for me in Maine.  I’ve now seen it throughout most of its expanding breeding range and also as a vagrant in ME, MA, MD, and WI.  Wonder if this bird will next show up in the NH marshes somewhere…