Welcome back to Through the Lens with Nick Leadley, our continuing series on wildlife photography. Read the rest of the series here, and see more of his work at Touch The Wild. The leaves are down. Temperatures are slowly dropping. Perhaps a light dusting of snow is covering the yard. Winter …
Birds
Summer 2020 was Cuckoo
The summer of 2020 was cuckoo in more ways than one . . . both Black- and Yellow-billed! There are two species of cuckoos (Cuculidae) that nest in Maine, Black-billed Cuckoo (pictured above) being more wide-spread while Yellow-billed Cuckoo (pictured below) is scarce with only a few known nesting …
Set up your own Big Sit this weekend!
This year, Maine Audubon will not be able to have a team for the Big Sit, but you can do your own! I'll be setting up one at home and encourage you to do the same. What is a Big Sit? The event is "a semi-competitive birding event originated by the New Haven Bird Club in 1992." It's free and open …
Birds and Buildings, Part 1: The Problem
The nation is waking up to the incredible threat that buildings pose to flying birds. Buildings are not a natural part of the environment, and humans have disguised our buildings in a number of ways to make them more deceiving, and deadly, to birds. The result is that billions of North American …
“Birds of Maine” book coming in November
The first comprehensive overview of Maine's incredibly rich birdlife in more than seven decades, Birds of Maine is a detailed account of all 464 species recorded in the Pine Tree State. Written by the late Peter Vickery in cooperation with a team of leading ornithologists, this guide offers a …
Notes on the 2020 Loon Count!
This year marked the thirty-seventh straight year that Maine Audubon has engaged volunteers, early in the morning on the third Saturday of July, to count loons on lakes across the state. The 2020 Maine Annual Loon Count stands out in this long-running tradition for a few reasons. Falling this …
Great Black Hawk Statue unveiled in Portland
The Great Black Hawk which found its way during the winter of 2018-19 from Central America to Portland, and then into the hearts of thousands of admirers, is now a permanent resident. A bronze statue of the wayward raptor was unveiled in its favorite haunt, Deering Oaks Park, on Friday, July …
Family Fun Connections: A Bird Checklist for Young Birders
Just in time for summer vacation, we've added a new resource to our Birding in Maine page: The Maine Birds Checklist for Young Birders (pdf). This photographic checklist features forty common species and includes extra information about each bird's behavior and diet, making it a useful tool both as …
2020 Rangeley Birding Festival — The Presentations!
We were heartbroken to have to cancel the second annual Rangeley Birding Festival this year, but couldn't just let it go. So, the organizers decided to take things virtual. With only a few weeks to prepare, we assembled a great team with a simple goal: celebrate the incredible birds and birding in …