On a recent ferry ride out to the Casco Bay Islands, I spotted hundreds of Common Loons on the ocean, many of them busy diving and foraging for their seasonal diet of saltwater prey. The majority had already traded in their striking black-and-white tuxedo worn during the breeding season in exchange for the duller, grayish-brown […]
Birds
Maine Audubon and the Next 50 Years of the Endangered Species Act
On Nov. 16, Maine Audubon’s Advocacy Team traveled to Harvard Law School as invitees to a conference called The Endangered Species Act: The Next 50 Years. The event was billed as a place to “bring together scholars, policymakers, and conservationists who will collaborate to assess lessons learned and propose innovative strategies for the next 50 […]
BirdSafe Maine – Fall 2024 Season Recap!
BirdSafe Maine‘s Fall 2024 migration season concluded on Oct. 31, our fifth fall on the streets. In that time we’ve made some amazing progress in that time—highlighted by a new bird safe architecture ordinance in Portland and a new law to create statewide guidelines—but this fall we enjoyed a very satisfying realization of the effectiveness […]
Using Native Plants for Cover at Your Bird Feeder
Want to attract more birds to your feeders this fall and winter? Try adding some cover with native plants. Birds need cover to hide from predators, and many species only forage near plants that they can quickly dart into. Cover is one of the most overlooked components of a bird feeding station, and native plants […]
Virtual Birding: Bird the World from the Comfort of Home
This Thursday, November 7, from 6:30 to 8 pm, we restart our Virtual Birding program online (over Zoom). Virtual Birding is a guided birdwatching session where, in each session, we’ll watch segments from bird feeder cameras together, identify the birds that we see, and discuss their behavior, much like our regular in-person bird walks. Virtual […]
Backyard Bird of the Month for November: Wild Turkey
Half a century ago, there were no Wild Turkeys in anyone’s backyard in Maine. A combination of deforestation (for agriculture) and unregulated hunting led to the extirpation of Wild Turkeys across much of the Northeast by the late 1800s. The birds you see today are the result of decades of successful reintroduction efforts across the […]
Keep those hummingbird feeders up
Every spring, Maine Audubon gets inundated with questions asking “when should we put our hummingbird feeders up?” and every fall, typically in September, we get asked “when can our feeders come down?” So, it is time for our semi-annual Public Service Announcement about hummingbird feeders! All summer long, Maine has been home to Ruby-throated Hummingbirds […]
Backyard Bird of the Month for October: Yellow-rumped Warbler
Let’s get the laugh out of the way first: yes, they are called Yellow-rumped Warblers, they do have yellow rumps, and sometimes we even call them “butter-butts”. This unique feature, present in all sexes and plumages, makes this species one of the easiest warblers to identify. Even in the fall, when most warblers are relatively […]
Plover Season Wrap-up: Breeding Pairs Down but Productivity Back on Track
Despite severe winter storm damage on the beaches, Piping Plovers arrived in Maine right on schedule, starting to arrive in mid March with many in time for the early April snowstorm and solar eclipse. Hardy little birds, the Piping Plovers weathered the storm and started staking out their nesting territories by mid April. Although some […]