Nadine Wright

08/16/2026

Prairie Warbler, photographed at Ossipee Pine Barrens (The Nature Conservancy New Hampshire) — one of the best places in the state to find them on territory.

This species is a pine barrens specialist, nesting almost exclusively in scrubby pitch pine stands like this one. Males sing a buzzy, ascending trill from exposed perches at the tops of the pines, which is often the easiest way to locate one before you ever see it. The bold black facial mask and chestnut streaking on the flanks are the key ID marks that separate it from other yellow-plumaged warblers. Also watch for the near-constant tail-bobbing — almost as reliable a field mark as the plumage itself.

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📷 Nikon Z6III + 600mm f/6.3

08/14/2026

New video!

250 Species — Terns, Shearwaters & Phalaropes | Little Big Year

250 species for the Little Big Year as of this week, with three new...

08/11/2026

Common Loon mid shake-off, water flying in every direction as that head snaps upright. The checkerboard back and white necklace collar are diagnostic for breeding plumage — this time of year they’re unmistakable on a New Hampshire lake. That red eye isn’t just striking, it’s functional: loons rely on it for underwater vision while diving for fish, since it helps them see clearly in low light below the surface.

New Hampshire’s loons are a conservation success story still in progress. Lead fishing tackle remains their leading cause of death — ingested sinkers and jigs cause fatal lead poisoning — which is why the state banned lead sinkers and jigs under one ounce. Groups like the Loon Preservation Committee monitor nesting pairs and set up protective buoys around nest sites each spring to keep boat wakes and human traffic from flooding or disturbing eggs.

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📷 Nikon Z6III + 600mm


New Hampshire Audubon Loon Preservation Committee

08/07/2026

Atlantic Puffins working the air above Petit Manan Island, part of Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge and one of the restoration sites tied to Audubon's Project Puffin. This colony was rebuilt from near-zero breeding pairs starting in the 1970s using social attraction — decoys and mirrors to lure birds back to nest in old burrows.

Puffins have small wings built for underwater propulsion, so flight costs them more energy than it does most seabirds — hence the fast, low wingbeats. Watch for the feet-first braking approach coming in over the swells, and a tern muscling through with a fish (the two species often nest on the same islands and compete for the same baitfish).

Petit Manan Island, out of Steuben on the Acadia Puffin Cruise, May 28, during the Acadia Birding Festival. Acadia Birding Festival Acadia Puffin Cruise

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📷 Nikon Z6III + 180–600mm

08/07/2026

Watched them running through the full range of behaviors on this trip: the low fast wingbeats they use to stay airborne (puffins have small wings built for underwater propulsion, so flight costs them more energy than it does most seabirds), the feet-first braking approach coming in over the swells, and plenty of loafing on the rocks between fishing trips. One tern muscled through the frame with a fish, which tracks — terns and puffins often nest on the same islands and compete for the same baitfish.

Bills are at peak color right now, that stacked blue-grey, yellow, and orange plating built up for breeding season and shed later in the year.

Petit Manan Island, out of Steuben on the Acadia Puffin Cruise, May 28, during the Acadia Birding Festival. Acadia Puffin Cruise Acadia Birding Festival

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📷 Nikon Z6III + 180–600mm

08/07/2026

A Brown Creeper working a trunk in Maine, with a bonus shot of a nest site tucked behind loose bark!!

Creepers forage by spiraling up a tree trunk from the base, gleaning insects and larvae from bark crevices before dropping to the base of the next tree to start over. Their nests are distinctive among North American songbirds — built almost exclusively behind loose, sloughing bark on dead or dying trees, wedged into the gap as a hammock-shaped structure rather than in a typical cup or cavity.

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📷 Shot with Nikon Z6III + 180–600mm
📍 Acadia Birding Festival
Maine Audubon
Acadia National Park

08/06/2026

This week’s video is live!

Week 31 of the Essex County Little Big Year covers Parker River NWR...

08/06/2026

Today's Maine bird highlight: a female Black-and-white Warbler gathering nesting material.

It's an unusual habit for a warbler — the species nests on the ground, often tucked against a rock or log base, despite foraging the rest of the year like a nuthatch, working up and down trunks and along branches instead of gleaning in the canopy. That bark-creeping foraging style is close to unique among North American warblers.

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📷 Shot with Nikon Z6III + 180–600mm during the Acadia Birding Festival. Maine Audubon

08/04/2026

Black Guillemots working the rocks just off shore on Mount Desert Island during the Acadia Birding Festival — a dozen or more scattered along the water's edge. This one surfaced with a catch pinned crosswise in its bill, likely a rock gunnel, one of the small eel-like fish these birds hunt along the bottom in shallow water. That solid black plumage with the single white wing patch is breeding dress; by winter this bird molts into a mottled gray and white. Watch for the red gape lining flashing each time the bill opens.

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📷 Nikon Z6III + 180–600mm

Maine Audubon
Acadia Birding Festival

08/03/2026

Razorbills cutting low over the water off Petit Manan Island — this one banking hard, wingtips nearly brushing the swell. Petit Manan is one of the more reliable nesting colonies for Razorbills in the Gulf of Maine, alongside puffins and terns, thanks to its isolation and rocky ledges free of mammalian predators. That thick, deep bill with the fine white lines is diagnostic — closest relative to the extinct Great Auk, and the only surviving member of its genus.

These two are in full breeding plumage — crisp black-and-white, that clean line down the neck. Quite a contrast to the Razorbill I photographed in South Boston last week, a reminder of how far this species can range outside the breeding colonies.

Shot aboard the Acadia Puffin Cruise out of Steuben during the Acadia Birding Festival, one of the best ways to get eye-level with a seabird colony without setting foot on the island itself.

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📷 Nikon Z6III + 180–600mm