Ack! I've been so busy with Wild Birds Unlimited Vendormart, I found a few photos from Maine that I forgot to include:

Okay, black-backed gull, not that excited for some, but to a land locked Minnesotan, it was cool--cut me some slack you east coasters.

I think Wild Bird on the Fly talked about this a little bit already but I had a great birding moment in Maine at Acadia. We went looking for a king eider and I didn't pay attention and get proper directions and just didn't find the location where it was supposed to be. We ended up on a minimum maintenance road where we could not hear traffic and could hear a lone hermit thrushing singing--that was worth more than a king eider to me on any day. Oh, they sound so magical and not quite of this earth in the woods. I love them.

We also stepped out and must have been close to a junco nest, because a pair of them totally freaked out and started chipping at us. Without thinking I pished and that just made them worse.

Before I knew it, a red-breasted nuthatch got in on the scolding action. Amy had never seen or heard one before and she was really digging that excited nasally yank call. It it pretty darn cool. Although it is hard to take a bird making a sound like that seriously.

On a separate field trip I finally got to see a luna moth live and in person. I had only ever seen parts of wings on the forest floor or in nature centers before this. That was pretty darn nifty. It was sitting at a check in point at Reed's Beach. The bus was very excited and even though we were running late on that trip, we asked our guides if we could stop and take a few photos. They told us to be quick or we wouldn't get any piping plovers. We were and we got the moth and plovers. Sweet. Speaking of which, I just found a really cool luna moth necklace.