The last weekend in
September is prime time for migration in New England, and perhaps the ultimate
location in the Northeast is on Monhegan Island. Those of you that have read my blog in the
past, know that Monhegan is located about ten miles off the coast of Maine. I
spent three days on the Island last weekend and experienced some nice movement
of birds during my stay. I ended my trip
with about 97 species and took about 1000 photos during the weekend.
In the past I’ve used my
standard 100-400mm Cannon zoom lens, this weekend I mainly used a rented 300mm
fixed lens with a 1x4 extender for all the bird shots. Overall I was pretty
happy with the results.
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| Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher- Only a couple during the weekend...this one loved the area around the Monhegan House. |
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| Let's hope this Nome brings the Red Sox good luck during the up coming playoffs. |
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| Northern Parula- Fairly numerous during the weekend. |
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| The Goat Family over on Manama |
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| Dickcissel- one of two. |
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| Yellow-rumped Warbler-Clearly the king of late September Warblers passing through Monhegan...hundreds & hundreds. |
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| Savannah Sparrow down at Lobster Cove. Not as many as pervious trips. The other Sparrow highlight was a Nelsen's Sparrow-a first for me on Monhegan. |
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| Swamp Sparrow |
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| Palm Warbler (Eastern/Yellow) not as common as the Yellow-rumps, but then what is. On another note-The vast majority of the Palms were of the Eastern Race, something I've also noticed locally here in Western Mass. |
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| Yellow Warbler |
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| Peregrine Falcon-Imm. Fall falcon migration on Monhegan can be spectular. |
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| Northern Harrier |
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| Magnolia Warbler |
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| Merlin-loads of fun to watch |
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| Yellow-bellied sapsucker- very common |
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| Y.B.Sapsucker |
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| Northern Flicker-another very common Woodpecker during late September. |
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| Looking North from Whitehead. |
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| Clay-colored Sparrow-almost expected on the Island this time of year. |
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| Monhegan Harbor |
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| Mallard |
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| Green-winged Teal- |
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| Rusty Blackbird- 6-9 birds seen throughout the weekend. |
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| Hermit Thrush-very few thrushes on the Island. The only other thrush I had was a Swainson's. |
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| Brown Thrasher-just love these birds! |
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| Lincoln's Sparrow |
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| Blackburnian Warbler |
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| Semipalmated Plover- |
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| Black-throated Green Warbler |
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| Black & White Warbler- Just before my arrival there was a huge fallout of this species. |
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| Red-eyed Vireo-a fair amount found around the Island. |
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| Wilson's Warbler |
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| Philadelphia Vireo- |
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| Certainly a surprise out on Monhegan this fall has been a small movement of Broad-winged Hawks. Typically they stay clear of open water. This was my first in 29 years going out to Monhegan. |
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| Cape May Warbler-fairy bright fall bird. |
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| Monarch Butterfly- only three seen on this trip. The numbers are way down this season for this butterfly. I would normally see hundreds. |
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| Brown Creeper |
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| Eastern Wood-Pewee |
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| Muskrat-apparently there is a large colony out on the Island. |
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| Island Inn- Final day on the Island was very foggy |
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| Fog on the Marsh |
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| Main road on the Island |
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| Sunset at the Trailing Yew |
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| Trailing Yew-Dining Room |
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| Monhegan |
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| Monhegan Lighthouse- Two weeks before I arrived the Lighthouse was hit by lighting! The lighthouse "light" was barely visable. They've made one attempt to fix it....but struck out. |
