BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 3, 2025
I customarily preach that bird identification is easier than it looks, and anybody can do it. Alas, that wisdom does not apply to shorebirds. Here are some tips, tricks and shortcuts to get you started. First, rather than trying to identify each bird, first sort them all into different piles. One pile is all the shorebirds listed in your field guide that are unlikely to be in Maine. Next to that pile is a pile of shorebirds that are findable in Maine, but not at the seashore. Next, sort by size. Most shorebirds on Maine’s mudflats are gradually migrating southward from their nesting territories in the subarctic. They’re trickling in now, and the trickle will become a torrent by mid-August. The wave will begin to subside after Labor Day. Now is the time to play in the mud. ~ Bob Duchesne