Column: Rare birds keep turning up in Maine this summer

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 1, 2026

A bridled tern has been haunting the waters of southern Maine. A gull-billed tern was sighted several times in the Popham Beach area. A Forster’s tern has been spotted a few times in southern Maine. A royal tern wandered over to Matinicus Rock last Thursday. During an all-day voyage on Bar Harbor Whale Watch sharp-eyed birders picked out a tufted puffin among the thousands of Atlantic puffins nesting on Machias Seal Island. Tufted puffins nest exclusively in the northern Pacific. Does a tufted puffin seen near Machias Seal Island count as a bird seen in Maine? The island is claimed by both the United States and Canada. Two shorebirds are unexpected summer anomalies. A Baird’s sandpiper is at Kettle Cove, Cape Elizabeth. A long-billed dowitcher is in Scarborough Marsh. ~ Bob Duchesne