Date: 8/25/26 4:40 am From: 'Geoff Niswander' via NHBirds <nhbirds...> Subject: [NHBirds] Just across the bridge, 2 rare ones
[image: untitled shoot-319.jpeg][image: untitled shoot-205.jpeg][image:
untitled shoot-272.jpeg]Greetings to all:
Extending beyond the NH/ME border just a little bit, there has been a
Crested caracara being seen pretty regularly in the Kittery-Eliot area of
Maine. It’s been located mostly around a working dairy farm just a 2 or 3
minute drive away from the Kittery Trading Post, actually up the road the
KTP sits along that intersects with Rte. 1. which is called Wilson Rd. Look
for a little parking lot on the right, at a cornfield, with a Purple Heart
sign. The bird has been seen out in that field quite a bit. I’ve been
looking for this bird, but have not managed to see it. However I do have a
couple of instances where I’ve been out looking for it, seen nothing, then
moved on to bird #2 here, only to have the Crested caracara show itself a
short time later 😀, Murphy’s law of birding nicely at work!
Secondly, hanging out along the Piscataqua in the area of the Shipyard, and
the Kittery side across from the Shipyard, there has been a Great white
heron being seen regularly. It’s likely an immature heron, a bird on my
personal bucket list for decades! So it was a thrill to see and photograph
it. Very generally, in the area of the Kittery town boat launch, it has
been moving/feeding. As a few of us watched and took photos, our hearts
went to our throats when it picked up a broken-off fishing lure and fishing
line several times, looking it over, apparently deciding wether or not to
swallow it. But in the end, its intelligence paid off, and it did not
thankfully. We raised our voices at it, while it was doing this, but
otherwise we were powerless to prevent such a tragedy. There was no way
even, to get to the water.
