Cape Ann - from Gloucester to Rockport

Jodrey Pier, Gloucester

A favorite birding destination in the winter is Cape Ann, from Gloucester to Rockport, Massachusetts. I found this link to a map of birding spots along the way, most of which we hit. Thanks to Bryan Pfeiffer for posting this!

Cape Ann hotspots

common eiders

We started at Gloucester Harbor, it was a brilliantly sunny day.

American herring gull

The most numerous birds were common eiders and herring and great black-backed gulls.

common loon

red-breasted merganser

surf scoter

great black-backed gull

purple sandpipers

The birds are plentiful but if the wind is blowing - it's brutal! If you go, dress warmly, bring lots of layers, even if the temperatures are above freezing as they were this day. 

purple sandpipers

harlequin ducks and a common eider

The harlequin ducks are fun to watch, they love to ride the waves and stay really close to the rocky shore.

harlequin ducks, a common eider and red-breasted merganser

redheads and mallards

We spent all day driving around the shoreline, finding lots of great birds. The worst part was getting there, we hit rush hour traffic coming and going! Still, it was a fabulous day of birding!

Portland Maine Coast - Part 2

the rocky coast of Maine!

Ron pointing something out!

 With the rolling waves along the coast, it wasn't hard to see a bird and then lose it behind a wave. Then it's a matter of pointing to something and saying "see that blue buoy, it's right of that" or "left of that raft of eiders" or "just beyond that furthest rock". A good way to hone your "where's that bird" skills!

Mill Creek, South Portland is a great place to find gulls! In this picture, there are Herring, Ring-billed, Glaucous, Iceland (Kumlien's) and Great Black-backed gulls.

The Iceland Gull or Kumlien's (American race) is one of the "white-winged" gulls we see in the east. It's bigger than a ring-billed gull but smaller than a herring gull and is said to have a "baby" face. 

Our other white-winged gull is the Glaucous Gull. It's too bad this one was snoozing, it would have been nice to show the bill compared to the Kumlien's. Glaucous are as big as the largest Herring gulls and rather "stern" looking.

common loon

We stopped at Bug Light in South Portland and found a few winter plumage Common Loons. Even though you think of loons as being on a golden pond, in winter they're common along the coast.

A red-breasted merganser was finding food! Is he having a "bad hair" day? No, they always look this way, it's a good field mark!

Crabs, Crabs, Crabs

Gerry went to Rhode Island to visit family and did some birding on his own. He came back with lots of pictures with birds eating crabs. Must be the food of choice!

This Herring gull dropped the crab and then flew down to enjoy the meal.

This is another herring gull enjoying his crab, one leg at a time.

The gulls weren't the only birds enjoying crabs, here's a common loon with one.

common loon (winter plumage)

And here's some other birds he photographed.

double-crested cormorant

common eiders

common eider

red-throated loon (winter plumage)

Casco Bay, Portland, Maine

looking back at Portland

We took the Casco Bay Lines "Mailboat Run" on our visit to Portland. The 3 hour long trip brings mail, passengers and freight to the islands; Little Diamond, Great Diamond, Long, Cliff and Chebeague.

common tern

There were lots of gulls and terns, fabulous scenery and great photo ops!

double-crested cormorant taking off, running, across the water

common terns

I don't envy this boat owner's clean-up job! Maybe the terns didn't care for the boat's name, "Osprey"!

laughing gull

laughing gull

common loon

lighthouse and a profile rock