Hancock County, Maine, has a diversity of habitats that make the birding quite good for its latitude. In the Blueberry Barrens you can find Upland Sandpipers, Vesper Sparrows, and American Kestrels. In the fields you can find Bobolinks and Savannah Sparrows. The shrublands include Brown Thrashers, Gray Catbirds, Eastern Towhee, Prairie Warbler and Field Sparrows. Deciduous woodlands are beginning to occasionally have Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Red-shouldered Hawks, Carolina Wrens and Tufted Titmouse. Wetlandds can harbor American and Least Bitterns, Sora, Virginia Rails and Pied-billed Grebers. Saltmarshes contain Nelson's Sparrows. Mudflats contain a wide array for shorebirds if hit at the right tide in mid-May or between mid-August and the end of September, also a good time to hawk watch. 17 species of Warbler are not to hard to find here in Hancock County. Boreal spruce habitats can contain Spruce Grouse, Black-backed Woodpecker, Cape May warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay and Yellow-bellied Woodpecker. Coniferous forest have both Crossbills, Blackburnian Warbler, Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue-headed Vireo, and Red-breasted Nuthatches. Mixed Forest have Black-throated Blue Warblers, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo and Hermit Thrushes. Winter waters are loaded with eiders, scoters, grebes, Common and Red-throated Loons and some alcids. In the summer, a trip to off shore island can show you puffins, Razorbills, murres. gannets, shearwaters, petrels, skua and jaegers. Barren areas can have snow buntings, horned larks, pipits and snowy owls in the fall and/or winter. In irruptive years Bohemian Waxwings, Pine Grosbeaks, Evening Grosbeaks, redpolls, ans siskins can be abundant, even in town. Anyway, enjoy birding in our home. Below are some places we enjoy birding.
