Somerset County (Maine) Big Day 2025

[Adopted from a post I sent to the Maine Birds listserv]

Every year a group of us tries to spend an intensive day of birding in a county outside our Cumberland County homes. This year we set our sights on Somerset County. Yesterday, Monday May 19, a group of us including Doug Hitchcox, Ed Jenkins, Brendan McKay, Michael Tucker and Franklin County guest star Tim Flight worked to find as many species as we could within Somerset County lines.

Somerset is an interesting county. It's the longest north-south county in the state--stretching from Fairfield all the way up above Baxter SP to meet Aroostook County--but offers very little east-west movement. That orientation makes a day's birding pretty straightforward: start in either the north or the south and head in the opposite direction. Our accommodations were at Sugarloaf (in Franklin Co.), so we started in the forests around Flagstaff Lake and worked our way to the extreme south of the county. 

Starting out just east of Stratton, ME

Being a bunch of dudes with jobs and families meant that we didn't have the luxury of choosing the "best" day to bird, and the weather was a constant annoyance. We didn't see a ray of sun all day, and were constantly plagued by drizzle, rain, and at times gusting winds. But things never got nearly bad enough to quit, or anything, and while the weather certainly contributed to some misses, there are so many damn birds in northern Maine right now that we couldn't miss. We had 10 species of warbler in the drizzle at our first stop of the morning on just over the Somerset line near Stratton, and songbirds were abundant at every stop as we made our way along Big Eddie Rd. up and over Flagstaff Lake towards Long Falls Dam. Despite dedicated effort, though, we were unable to connect to any of the boreal specialties -- Boreal Chickadee, Black-blacked Woodpecker, Canada Jay, or Spruce Grouse -- that we hoped to find up there. More scouting would have helped, but those birds are tough to find. Rising winds and the drizzle kept things pretty quiet around the lake, though we did have some nice surprises, including a flock of 22 White-winged Scoters migrating north, a pair of American Bitterns, and an American Herring Gull on the lake. We headed south, out of boreal habitat.

Great Moose Lake

We were invigorated by our next stop, an out-of-the-way boat launch at the north end of Great Moose Lake, near Hartland. That place was great, and featured about a dozen birds that we didn't see anywhere else in the county, including Black Terns, a majestic Sandhill Crane flyby, Northern Harrier, Pied-billed Grebe, and more. Any future Somerset County listers need to make sure this site is on their radar.

We kept moving south. A coffee break at a convenience store in Athens yielded a silent Black-billed Cuckoo in a tree across the street, reinforcing the truism that there are no bad birding spots in mid-May. We hit our first eBird hotspot of the day (and just one of three total) at 3:13pm, getting skunked in the rain at Lake George State Park. A steady diet of passerines and sharp-eyed pick-ups got us to the KVCC Alfond campus just north of Fairfield at 95 species, where we picked up Savannah Sparrow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, Wood Thrush, and our century-mark clinching Willow Flycatcher.

Celebrating 100 species at Kennebec Valley Community College

We got ice cream and celebrated with one last stop on Libbey Island in Fairfield. It was really birdy, though, and we ended up adding birds like Tufted Titmouse, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Tennessee Warbler, and Blackpoll Warbler. (Those last two brought our day's total to 22 warblers, missing only Prairie, Mourning, and Louisiana Waterthrush for Maine breeders.) We ended the day with 109 species in Somerset County.

We left a LOT of birds on the table -- Indigo Bunting, House Sparrow, House Finch, Great Blue Heron, etc. -- so another attempt with better weather and more efficient routing would certainly result in more birds. But we had a hell of a lot of fun, and saw a lot of beautiful places we'd never seen before. Until next year!

eBird Trip Report: https://ebird.org/tripreport/373865

Our checklists overlaid on a map of Somerset County. Courtesy Doug Hitchcox

Birding Arenal Observatory Lodge

Is Arenal Observatory Lodge the White Lotus for birders? 

Is that reference to a 2025 tv show going to stand the test of time? Who knows, but Arenal Observatory Lodge is a wonderful type of birding that I've never experienced before. It was great.

For me, a dirtbag, "birding hotel" means the first hotel by the highway interchange, the kind of place with a key on a brown plastic diamond and stains on the carpets. That's not what Arenal Observatory Lodge is.

my typical birding hotel key

The Arenal Observatory Lodge is high in the Caribbean foothills of Costa Rica, with a point-blank view of the famous Arenal Volcano. It's an all-inclusive property: 870 acres of primary and secondary rainforest, gardens and lodging, and pasture. The vast majority of that land is open for exploration, meaning birders and guides can wander around the look for birds and other wildlife to their heart's content, and still make it back to the restaurant for meals.

For a first-time Costa Rican birder like me, Arenal Observatory Lodge was paradise. It's completely self-contained, meaning I didn't have to worry about any of the things I may have to worry about if I were birding just out in the wide world: parking; language barriers; finding bathrooms; finding food; any of that stuff. Plus, it was also easy for my non-birding-but-wildlife-interested wife and son, who could safely wander the grounds at their own pace, hang out at the fruit feeders to see incredible, colorful birds up close, or take advantage of the other amenities.

Those other amenities are what made the place feel a bit like Birder White Lotus. There was a spa! There was a gorgeous pool and hot tub! There was a museum! This wasn't just a birding lodge, it's got something for everyone.

And, of course, the birding was incredible. I don't really know what to say. I hired a guide the first morning, Néstor Villalobos Rojas, and he was great. We didn't leave the central area for two and a half hours but got 66 species, most of them lifers. I regret not hiring him for the rest of the day, actually, because I would have gotten more birds but also learned a little bit more about where to focus on the other trails around the property. Alas.

On subsequent days and afternoons I explored almost all the other trails. Traveling out and around the pasture was lovely, and helped me get some species that aren't found near the main lodge like Chestnut-headed Oropendola, but to be honest I don't think birders need to leave the area of trails right below the restaurant and around the canopy tower. That's likely the best place to see some coveted mixed flocks and other goodies. The Waterfall Trail also goes through some great forest, though the water noise overwhelms birdsong once you get too close.

Alright so for the rest of this I am going to post some pictures with some other info or tips about birding at Arenal Observatory Lodge.

This is a Red-legged Honeycreeper at the famous fruit feeders. These contraptions are right off the big main deck by the restaurant -- accessible to all -- and feature some incredible and beautiful birds, including Bay-headed, Golden-hooded, and Emerald Tanagers, and many more.

This is also from the feeder deck - a Grau-headed Chachalaca with the peak of Arenal Volcano in the background.

SIGN UP FOR THE NIGHT TOUR. Do it. It's so cool, and you get to see a lot of creatures -- mostly amphibians and reptiles but also sleeping birds and monkeys -- that you don't see during the day. This is a world-famous Red-eyed Tree Frog and a crazy Eyelash Pitviper! Do the night tour!

There are hummingbirds all over the gardens, viewable from most of of the rooms. It's great. This is a White-necked Jacobin.

One of my best birds of the whole trip was this Sunbittern, the only member of its family and one of the most beautiful birds on earth. I really wanted to see one of these birds because I was planning a trip with friends to Costa Rica a few years ago but had to back out at the last second. They all still went and saw tons of birds - but missed Sunbittern. I lucked into this stunning bird at the river crossing just below the main gate to Arenal Observatory Lodge. It appears to be a reliable spot, though crossing paths with a bird during its route up and down the river isn't guaranteed, so multiple stops may be necessary.

The eye-blowingly bright Scarlet-rumped Tanager is one of the most common birds in the main area of the Lodge.

I spotted this Yellow-throated Toucan peeking its head out of its nest hole just below the Frog Pond. Just another of the amazing wildlife sightings available at Arenal Observatory Lodge!

General tips for traveling in Costa Rica:

• Get cash at the airport. Like many places, tipping culture is important here (especially for bird guides), but ATMs are really tough to come by. Make sure you stock up on small bills before you leave the airport.
• The roads are fine. With the caveat that I was there in April, at the end of the dry season, I'll say that the roads and the drivers were both easier to deal with than elsewhere I've traveled in the Caribbean / South America. 

Cats and Birds LTE from 1923

Cats are known to be the leading predator of birds in the U.S.A, killing somewhere between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds per year. It's a major problem.

And there's a sense that it's a new one. The Scott Loss paper cited about came out in 2013, and seems to have marked a turning point in the discourse. "Did you say billion?" A growing number of people talk about the problem, and potential solutions, and a growing number of people get upset and defensive about feral cats. 

But it's not true that our understanding of the impacts of feral cats on birds are new. We've known for a long time. A friend, Tim Flight, passed along this Letter to the Editor from 1923 -- 101 years ago -- about the cat predation problem and how the Maine Audubon Society apparently had a bill to do something about it. (I can't find anything more about the text of the bill, but am looking.) The letter was published in the Evening Express, a daily paper in Portland, Maine that printed between 1882 and 1991, and except for a few outdated turns-of-phrase could have been printed this week. Let's review some of the choice bits.

We have seen two robins in the City the past week, and sad to relate, a neighbor's cat killed one of them; and sadder still to know that there will be one less family of robins reared in our City this summer; for most birds are monogonamic and unmated do not breed.

OK good start here, relatable, if quite the run-on. (Plus is "monogonamic" a word?) 

Cats are not to blame for destroying birds, for it is their instinctive nature to do so. What blame there is attaches to the owners of the cats.

True! 

This leads to the purpose of this article--to answer the many interesting, curious, and sometimes impulsive articles that have appeared in our papers concerning the efforts of the Maine Audubon Society to regulate the cat.

All that is just the long way of saying "people are PISSED."

Section 1 of the bill provided that all owners of cats should have them registered and taxed. Section 2 provided for the collection of such tax. Section 3 provided for the humane disposition of unlicensed cats. Section 4 for the humane destruction of predatory cats, and Section 5 made it unlawful for people to willfully abandon cats when changing their residence, leaving them to a precarious existence often to perish from starvation or cold.

Wow. To be certain, no one at Maine Audubon has any recollection of this effort. Every conservationist recognizes the impact of cats, but no policy like this would seriously be proposed today in the U.S., and it's frankly too bad that the inclusion of the more extreme measures (destruction) would poison the possibility of some of the more logical ones (registering cats in the same way that dogs are). Bold, and unhelpful.

Those who oppose this bill have unwarrantedly concluded that we are unfriendly to the cats and want them all destroyed. We ... challenge anyone to cite either in this bill or in our writings, and statement that justifies any such assumptions.

I'd say it was that stuff about "humane destruction" you just talked about.

The point has been made that cats do not want to wear collars. We don't want to put license plates on our cars. Adam and Eve didn't want to wear clothes.

OK. Interesting argument. It does illustrate how ideas become normalized, like, you don't read a lot of LTEs complaining about license plates any more. Adam and Eve are still pissed, though, chafing against their undergarments.

 We have stated our belief that there are 200,00 cats in our State. ... New York city disposes of as many stray cats as that annually. 

There's some math here that's pretty back-of-the-napkin, but is still valid in terms of how today, in 2024, we don't really know how many cats we have in Maine. Various unscientific-sounding resources say that Maine ranks second in rate of cat ownership, with nearly 48% of households owning a cat. We've got 1.4 million people here (not exactly sure how many households that is), so, I dunno, there's some math. And wait, NYC kills that many every year? Damn. 

How many insectivorous and game birds do these cats destroy yearly? The smallest possible estimate, taking into account the nestlings that are lost, would be five birds to a cat, and that would mean 1,000,000.

We're still doing this kind of math, but it's backed up by a lot more science. The 2013 Scott Loss and Pete Marra study is one of the biggest ones, but its conclusions have been verified time and time again, around the globe. Also a quick note here is how important "eating insects" was to conservationists in the early 1900s. "Protect birds because they eat insects that eat your crops" was how a lot of things were justified, including the establishment of Maine's state bird in 1926.

Unless you too, make an equal effort with us for a more humane and rational treatment of the cat, we shall challenge your assumption that you are a better friend to pussy that we are.

Ending on a high note! What a finish! I'm ready for action! 

 

 

New Book! Dinosaurs to Chickens: How Evolution Works is out now!

I'm really proud to announce that my new book, Dinosaurs to Chickens: How Evolution Works, is out now. 

This is a book that I would have devoured as a kid, as it makes critical connections between modern and prehistoric animals. Growing up it felt like we learned about two totally separate groups of animals: extinct dinosaurs and living everything else. The dinosaurs had their time, and now modern species had theirs.

But learning about animals that way left so many questions in my mind. Where did modern animals come from? What were they doing when dinosaurs were around? How are the two groups connected?

This book helps answer those connections, and helps kids understand how life is connected from across all ages of the earth's history. It celebrates the work of thousands of scientists working to piece together the stories of insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. 

What I did was take 30 modern animals and work backwards to understand how they got to be the way they are. How did evolution help some insects become bumblebees and other become butterflies? How did some amphibians become frogs and others cave salamanders? How did reptiles evolve from amphibians and then take over the world?

There are millions of questions to answer, and millions of stories to tell. Just taking one example at random: the Mexican Free-tailed Bat. Mammals have existed for hundreds of millions of years, but for most of that time we lived fairly hidden lives in the shadow of dinosaurs. Dinosaurs dined on early mammals, and so in response most early mammals evolved to keep out of sight: living underground and only coming out at night. Our senses of smell, sight, hearing, and touch improved to keep us safe and allow us to hunt in the dark.

Then, the asteroid came. Living underground and being able to hunt at night really helped us survive the impact and its aftermath, and mammals survived where dinosaurs did not. Mammals (and birds) evolved rapidly to fill the voids left by dinosaurs: without so many predators around mammals could safely grow bigger and stay out during the day, which in turn gave them freedom to develop in new ways.

Not all mammals did, of course. Being small and staying out of sight was still a lifestyle that worked, and many mammals kept on living that way after the dinosaurs disappeared. Many modern rodents live and look very much like ancient mammals.

But some did change. The ancestor of modern bats is believed to have been a shrew-like animals who lived in trees hunting insects. Maneuverability in the treetops was helpful for these creatures -- moving from tree to tree was safer than remaining on the ground, and the more acrobatic they were the better they could catch insects -- and the shrews born with adaptations that permitted them to jump, steer, and glide were successful. 

Gliding gave rise to flying over the course of millions of years. The oldest known bat, Icaronycteris, is dated to the Early Eocene, some 52 million years ago. But they weren't quite the modern bats we have today -- the retained a long, rodent-like tail and their wings didn't yet connect to their legs. There was more to come -- echolocation to help bats pinpoint prey in the dark; living in caves for safety. Scientists have traced all of these changes and more until we get to the modern Mexican Free-tailed Bat and all the other varieties of bats living around the world.

That's a lot, but it's so much fun. I learned so much while researching and writing this book, and I was consistently filled with gratitude for the scientists who work on these questions and, frankly, for the fact that I am lucky enough to live in this planet with so many incredible neighbors.

I hope you and your kids will like it, too. Buy it now!

Birds in Video Games: California Games and Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage (NES)

I am old enough that I plated the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) when it was new. It ruled. We had our own console and games, but we also partook in the time-honored and must-missed pastime of shlepping to the video store to rent games.

Renting was a great system, because back in those days you could beat an entire video game in a night or a weekend, rather than spending hundreds of hours tweaking the length your avatar's moustache handles or whatever games are like now. Plus, you didn't feel bad about playing a crappy game because you were only out the cost of the rental.

Two of those crappy games were California Games and Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage. 

I remember them specifically as rentals because each had its own eye-catching box art that was hard to miss on the shelves. California Games, from 1987, featured a babe in a yellow bikini. The cover of Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage, from '88, was an absolute mess of shit including a surfing gorilla, a giant yin-yang, and some guy in like a tribal mask? It looks like hell, but I remember it clearly.

Both games looked to cash in on the late-80s popularity of skateboarding, surfing, and other "alternative" sports. Town and Country Surf Designs, aka T&C Surf Designs, is actually a surf shop in Hawaii, which is, having been to plenty of skate/snow/surf stores in my day and meeting the owners, quite a goddamn coup if you ask me. 

Anyway, California Games lets players choose between skateboarding, surfing, footbag, "flying disc," roller skating, and BMX. T&C Surf Designs has just surfing and skateboarding. Wikipedia tells me that California Games was a massive blockbuster, selling more than 500,000 copies. T&C Surf Designs was less of a blockbuster, and, in my experience as a player, sucked ass and was wicked hard.

But since they are both outdoor games they both have birds in them. Let's start with T&C Surf Designs.

Players, like this cat in a tuxedo (??), encounter a gull-like bird during the surfing stage. The bird flies in from stage left and tries to knock the player into the water. It's not a very well rendered bird. Logic would assume it's a gull, but there is nothing that black and white anywhere, and the bird is proportionally more like a goose with its big head. Frankly, I don't like it and don't want to talk about it any more.

There's a better-looking gull in California Games. 

This bird flies over the players head during the footbag stage, and the player can kick the sack up and cause the bird to flip out of control. It's a well-done gull! Gray wings with black tips and a yellow bill. The unmarked yellow bill makes this a pretty good fit for a Short-billed Gull (though the proportions and size are off), which can be found in the Bay Area in winter. The extremely revealing shorts that Alex is sporting in this screencap aren't maybe ideal for winter (though they are ideal for showing off those buns! Get it, Alex!), but there appears to be snow on the mountains in the background so who knows.

Birding the Azores in April

The first thing that made me want to visit the Azores was a computer game, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Indy and his friend visit the islands to try to track someone down or something ... I don't remember much except thinking "whoa that place looks pretty nice."

The second thing that made me want to visit the Azores was Google Street View Birding, where I'd digitally-explored the islands looking for the Azores Bullfinch. I never found the bird on Street View, but I found views beyond belief. Massive, verdant, rural hillsides leading down in every direction to glistening blue waters - what was this place?? 

The third thing was my family. I can't just "go on vacation" with my non-birding family in a place that has a bunch of new birds. I'd go insane. Every second taking selfies or touring the cheese factory or whatever while life birds flitted around outside, unseen, is pure panic. Can't do it. The Azores, with just a handful of endemics and just a couple dozen resident species, are a great compromise. I could do a little birding, but I wouldn't be worried about missing everything. 

Plus, a direct flight from Boston. We hit the road over my son's April vacation from school.

Island Background

The Azores are an archipelago of volcanic islands in the middle of the Atlantic. Culturally and politically the islands are Portuguese -- they are officially called the Autonomous Region of the Azores -- and the islands' villages showcase the narrow streets and white buildings of Portugal. It's really beautiful. There are nine main islands, and we traveled to the two most populous: Terceira and São Miguel.

Traveling around the Azores is very easy. We were able to rent an automatic car (I know, I know), and the roads are excellent around the island, though narrower than what's in the U.S. The islands we traveled to are very well set up for tourists, and most everyone speaks English. The currency is the Euro, but most everywhere (except for one or two places) takes debit cards. 

The food is so damn good, and relatively cheap (especially in grocery stores). Surprisingly, for its location, seafood plays second fiddle to locally-grown meat and cheese. Fine with me!

Bird Background

Centuries of human habitation have greatly changed the Azorean landscape. The majority of the islands have been cleared for agriculture -- much of it in the form of a, frankly, beautiful checkerboard of small cattle pastures bordered by walls of volcanic stone -- and very little native vegetation remains. What's left is mostly at high elevation or in inaccessible areas. There were likely multiple bird species endemic to the Azores before humans arrived -- here's evidence of at least one additional bullfinch -- but for now there are only three: the Azores Bullfinch, closely matching the plumage of a female Eurasian Bullfinch but limited to about 1,400 acres of native vegetation on the slopes of Pico de Vara mountain on São Miguel; the Azores Chaffinch, a widespread bird recently split from Common Chaffinch; and Monteiro's Storm-petrel, a close relative of the Band-rumped Storm-petrel that nests on a few islets off Graciosa island.

There are a host of subspecies on the islands as well, each with varying cases for full specieshood. Island subspecies include Azorean Common Buzzard; Yellow-legged Gull; several subspecies of Goldcrest; Blackcap; Quail; Blackbird; Starling; and more. 

True excitement, though, may be the vagrants. Situated as they are right in the middle of the Atlantic, the islands are a magnet for wayward migrants moving along both the North / South America and Europe / Africa flyways. Though I didn't plan it this way, my trip at the early stages of peak migration meant that vagrants could show up anywhere, and they certainly did. More on that later. Let's get into some specific spots.

Terceira - Paul do Cabo da Praia

Well, I told my family that this wasn't a birding trip but I'll be damned if I wasn't out with the bins at this spot about 15 minutes after getting off the plane. It's a former quarry off an industrial area that is renowned for attracting shorebird species from both sides of the Atlantic. It didn't disappoint. There were a ton of birds here, including my lifer Kentish Plover and Common Greenshank, alongside Red Knots, Curlew Sandpipers, a ton of Sanderlings, a Dunlin, Common Ringed Plovers, and even a vagrant and very out-of-place-looking Long-tailed Duck at the back. There were also apparently Semipalmated Plover and Whimbrel around, though I wasn't able to find them. I was only about to spend a half hour here before my family got eager to get on with the trip, but it was unforgettable. Here's the list. 

lol this is us five minutes out of the airport on our “non birding trip” https://t.co/5WYkYR9i4n pic.twitter.com/quNxIIy08l

— The Birdist (@TheBirdist) April 16, 2024

And we weren't even done! My wife and son were playing on a nearby seawall while I birded, and I took a peak over into the water when I went to meet them before heading out. Immediately I saw something I knew I shouldn't: a diving bird swimming in the water. There aren't cormorants or sea ducks or alcids on the Azores, and so I knew this was something good. Thankfully, the dagger bill and body posture were immediately recognizable: it was a Common Loon! Vagrants abound!

Terceira - General

After the quarry the plan was to just circumnavigate the island to see the sights. It's only a few kilometers around, so it doesn't take long. We slowly made our way around, stopping at various viewpoints and tourist type places.

I was immediately impressed at how birdy everything was. Everywhere we went there were birds flying around - out of and into fields, off rock walls, overhead. Most of these birds were birds introduced from Europe -- House Sparrows, European Starling, Eurasian Collard-Doves; Common Wood-Pigeon, etc. -- but also plentiful Azores Chaffinch, Island Canary (endemic to just these and some other Atlantic islands), and welcome birds like Eurasian Blackcap, Eurasian Robin, and Eurasian Blackbird. It was nice.

One especially nice stop was Miradouro da Ponta do Queimado, a lighthouse and overlook on the far west side of the island. We were just there for the views, but I noticed some birds riding high on wind above the cliffs. First, Barn Swallows (from the European "White-bellied" subspecies), a not-unexpected vagrant to the islands and a pleasant surprise. Then, something better: a large, dark swift. The only bird I'd ever seen like it were some Black Swifts back in Colorado, but I knew that this weren't them: this was either a Common or a Pallid swift, a much less common vagrant from Europe. Yeah! I stopped the car in the middle of the road and jumped out with my camera but only managed a single terrible photo before the bird disappeared. Still, not at all a bad first day in the Azores.

 

On day two we climbed Monte Brasil, a major volcano peninsula dominating the landscape above the largest city on the island, Angra do Heroísmo. Climbing Monte Brasil is a primary goal for tourists during the summer high season, I'm told, but it wasn't very crowded at all for us. The birds were just OK -- there were plenty of the regular blackbirds, blackcaps, greenfinches, goldfinches, and others -- but the highlight was seeing some nice low-soaring individuals from the Azorean race of Common Buzzard at the caldera. Here's the eBird list.

Terceira - Pelagic

The Azores are famous for whale-watching, with dozens of different marine mammals seen. Some are residents, like Sperm Whales and a few dolphin species. The islands are also a hotspot for migrating whales, including my absolute dream species: the Blue Whale. I booked two different whale watches during our trip -- the middle of the high season for baleen whale migration -- in hopes of catching up to a Blue Whale. 

It wasn't meant to be. Strong storms for the week before we arrived were just dissipating, and our trip was the first our tour company, OceanEmotion, had been able to run in several days. We did not get lucky. For whatever reason, most of the whale watch folks we spoke to said that the baleen whales had moved past already, even though most sources say that the season runs through June. I guess March is really a better time if you want to see a Blue Whale. 

The birding was, frankly, not very exciting. Though one would expect that these waters would support all kinds of seabird species there was only one around this time of year: the Cory's Shearwater. We saw them by the hundreds, and they were visible any time I could get bins on the ocean. I had some good looks, but after a while hoped for something different, even if it were a Scopoli's Cory's Shearwater from the Mediterranean. There are storm-petrels around, apparently, but I didn't see any, and the endemic Monteiro's Storm-petrel does not breed near Terceira. Still I got a couple of decent photos.

Terceira - Paul da Praia da Vitória

Our final stop on the third day was Paul da Praia da Vitória, a park and small wetland lake near the airport. Lots of different vagrant birds had been reported here. I didn't have a whole lot of time, and didn't really walk in the right direction, I think, (should have crossed the bridge on the side away from town), but did manage to see some Western Cattle Egrets, a Great Egret, and a Bank Swallow. There was more there, I think, but I missed it. Next time.

São Miguel - Lagoa das Sete Cidades

We left Terceira and flew to São Miguel. The largest of the Azorean islands, and the most populated. But, similar in all ways, including its beauty. Our first stop was the Lagoa das Sete Cidades, a beautiful set of lakes set inside a dormant volcano on the west side of the island. The views are extremely Instagrammable, and the hikes above the lake were the most touristy things we did during the trip. I can't imagine how much busier it must be during the summer - though the crowds petered out a lot just a few feet away from the main parking lots.

There weren't many birds to speak of on the top, but things picked up a little bit down by the lakeshore. Again, as with any freshwater water body on the islands, any type of vagrant water bird would be possible. I didn't see anything particularly great, though there were apparently some good birds on other parts of the lake. Family time overruled birding time, but I was after some good stuff in the morning. 

São Miguel - Azores Bullfinch

Aside from the recently-recognized Azores Chaffinch, the Azores Bullfinch is the only endemic passerine on the islands. I wonder if there were more before the arrival of humans, like Hawaii, or if science will recognize island subspecies as full species in the future. For now, though, the bullfinch, called the Priolo, is the major birding draw on the island.

It's pretty amazing the bird is still with us. The island's native forests have been decimated by agriculture and the takeover of invasive plant species like Japanese cedar. Only small areas of its preferred habitat, mostly Macronesian Holly, remains on the steep slopes of Pico de Vara on the island's west end. It's believed that the bird's entire range is barely more than 1,400 acres. 

Restoration efforts have helped bring the bird back from the brink, thankfully, from just 30-40 pairs in the 1970s to more than 700 pairs today. Still, that's not very many, and the bird is somewhat notoriously difficult to find despite its limited range. My understanding was that weather was a major factor in a successful chase, with the mountain's frequent rain, wind, and fog often thwarting hopeful birders. 

I watched the eBird reports in the weeks leading up to my trip and saw that there are basically three areas most people find the bird: the southern slopes, the northern slopes, and the eastern slopes / Interpretation Center of Priolo. We were staying the night in Furnas, on the southwest side of the mountains, but eBird convinced me to try the roads along the northern end. A major help were some reports from Maine young birder extraordinaire, Matthew Gilbert, who happened to be vacationing with his family just a week before my arrival. Matthew kindly shared some good advice about where to look for the bird, but his eBird checklist comment -- "Finally!" -- wasn't reassuring. Apparently he looked three separate times for the birds, all in foul weather, before finally hearing them at this spot. I only had one morning to search, and would have to take whatever weather I was given. 

I was up at dawn and driving up out of the caldera and around towards the north side of the island. The mountaintops were shrouded in fog when I left our apartment, but I continued along the island ring road until turning off on M1033 and heading up. Things were looking calm and clear. Perfect birding weather. I was feeling good. 

But, no birds at the first stop, including down the little side road that Matthew had heard his birds. The roads here are dirt but are wide and of good quality. It's a little unclear whose property things are, though the first set of buildings I parked at appeared to be owned by the government. There was no one around, and I had the gorgeous tropical mountainside morning all to myself. 

I headed further up and parked off the side where a couple of roads diverged, then began slowly walking up the road. With the weather so nice, I knew it was now just a matter of getting lucky and bumping into some birds. I strolled around a tight corner and spied a pair of chunky white birds flying across a field and into a group of bushes. I knew immediately I had found my birds. Here is the exact point. 

The pair (there was a third further down) fed in the bushes for about twenty minutes while I watched. It was perfect: me, alone on a stunning morning on a mountainside in the middle of the Atlantic with a pair of birds who beat the odds to survive. They didn't make a sound the whole time, just fed until they were full then popped up into a cedar, and then headed out back across the field. A perfect morning, and I was back at home before my family had finished breakfast. Here's the final checklist. 

São Miguel - Lagoa de Furnas

Furnas is a lovely little town in the mountains famous for its hot springs. There is an impressive collection of fumaroles downtown, and a really fancy hotel and grounds, the Terra Nostra, with a geothermal pool open to the public. I recommend it. 

We also took the short trip down to the nearby lake, which is bordered on one end by a geothermally-active field where local restaurants bury pots of meat and vegetables to cook their famous stew known as cozido das Furnas. We strolled along the lake sipping freshly-made rum and pineapple drinks and, what do you know it, like every body of fresh water in the Azores, there were rare birds around. Specifically, a spotted vagrant American birds, a Pied-billed Grebe and a Glossy Ibis against the sure. I'm sure there could be other birds if I had spent more time and looked over more of the lake. A fun visit. 

São Miguel - Pelagic

My family was reluctant to take another pelagic after our bouncy ride on the rubber boat on Terciera, but I can be very convincing. This would be our last chance to see a Blue Whale! We signed with Terra Azul, leaving from the port in Ponta Delgada, and left on board a real, actual boat with a top deck and seats and everything. We had a much smoother ride this time (because the seas had calmed in the intervening days, mostly), but didn't fare any better with pelagic birds. Got a Ring-billed Gull for the trip (there is really good gulling in the Port), but otherwise just the now-standard truckload of Cory's Shearwaters. I'm not complaining, but hoped for some more diversity. Same on the marine mammals side. We had some nice looks at the resident Sperm Whales and more Common Dolphins, but nothing with baleen. I'll have to return.

São Miguel - Boca de Ribeira 

I wanted to swim at some point, but swimming isn't super easy in the Azores. Lots of the coastline is sheer cliff, and the ocean is rough, cold, and unforgiving. Some towns have built public pools right at the edge of the sea that constantly refill with seawater washing in from the waves. It's pretty gnarly, and we found our way to one such pool in the northeast corner of the island, pretty much the closest spot in the Azores to Europe.

After descending a crazily-steep road we parked at the pool. There were only a few others around, it was a really nice scene. I took a very quick dip into the icy water and was pretty pleased with myself. Things got even better when I glanced up towards the high cliffs above us and along the nearby ravine. A bunch of birds were foraging right at the top -- Barn Swallows, Western House-Martin, and ... large swifts! Looking closely, there were both all-dark Common Swifts and the white-bellied Alpine Swifts, both rare visitors from Europe. Alpine Swifts had just a few records in eBird for all of the Azores. What a treat! I highly recommend a visit to this pool, and bet that it's a regular vagrant trap despite it not even being a hotspot in eBird.

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Alright, that's what I've got. I had such a fun time with the family on the Azores. I didn't spend nearly as much time birding as I could in another part of the world, but it was thrilling to find so many vagrants and to see such a rare endemic. I highly recommend a visit to these beautiful islands.

Announcing my new book: Dinosaurs to Chickens - How Evolution Works

Really proud to announce a new book from Workman Publishing called Dinosaurs to Chickens: How Evolution Works. 

This is a book I would have loved to have read as a kid. How did modern species evolve to look the way they do? How did bees evolve their stingers? How did Poison Dart Frogs evolve their poison? How did Giraffes get their long necks? I explore these and dozens more examples, reaching back through the fossil record and the tree of life. It's really fun, and I hope readers (everyone 10+!) enjoy it too.

The book is out in August 2024, but it's available for preorders now. Preorder here!