Happy World Migratory Bird Day!

How did you spend your World Migratory Bird Day? Mine was on Ship Island, part of the Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge, where I am care-taking for a week. During the course of the day, I observed 23 species today: Canada Goose (ma and pa goose had their feathers ruffled with the appearance of a third goose today), Mallard, Common Eider, White-winged Scoter, Red-breasted Merganser, American Oystercatcher (these are rare in Downeast Maine but nest on Trumpet Island, a few hundred yards to the north), Ruddy Turnstone (one of my favorite shorebirds and one I have carved replicas from wood many times), Purple Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs (another of my favorites, in part because I once found a nest in Newfoundland), Lesser Yellowlegs, Black Guillemot, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Common Loon, Double-crested Cormorant (many flying with rockweed in their bill; to be used as nesting material), Bald Eagle (put all the gulls and cormorants on high alert when it flew over), American Crow, Common Raven, Ruby-crowned Kinglet (was hanging out in the small cherry copse behind the island’s research cabin, probably wondering where all the other songbirds are), Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and Wilson's Warbler (a cute little yellow warbler with a black topknot).