We arrived about an hour after sunrise and joined about about twenty other birders looking for the bird. Within a half hour of our arrival, someone spotted the bird perched in a tree along Lily Pond Avenue off Fortunes Rocks Road and I got my first looks at a young Great Black Hawk. When it flew from its mostly obscured perch, its heavy molt was really obvious.
It landed in the open in a bare tree, giving excellent looks.
From there, it flew to a bush next to a pond. Note the many missing tail feathers.
It then flew to a perch right along Fortunes Rocks Road.
Next, it flew to a larger deciduous tree, revealing the barring on its very long legs.
In that tree, it found an American Goldfinch nest and ate all five eggs out of it.
Thrilled with the views and photo opportunities, we walked across the road to check out the ocean. A group of Common Eiders were offshore as were several Common Loons and Common Terns. Two Bonaparte's Gulls were closer to the shore.
Along the shoreline were a group of Ruddy Turnstones.
Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers were also there along with this Semipalmated Plover.
We then drove a litte farther north to Scarborough Marsh where after some searching, Jason spotted the Little Egret that had been reported there. It was across from the Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center with several Snowy Egrets. I took some long-range digiscoped photos of the bird through Jason's scope with my phone.
We stopped for lunch and then headed back home, returning around 8:00 PM. Later, we learned just how lucky we were when we found out that the bird was last seen flying out to sea early that afternoon.
If accepted, the Great Black Hawk would represent an extremely rare record for the United States!
More photos from the day can be found in my Maine Adventures Album.
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