“Duck”-ing Maine’s Winter

Being birders, the two of us tend to incentivize chores and errands by working in a little birding when and where it makes sense. In winter, one of our favorite places to – can we say it? – “duck” in on is Gardiner Waterfront Park. Since we live in Gardiner, it’s conveniently located to any place we need to go to. In winter, when the Kennebec River is lined with ice fishing shacks, the park holds promise for waterfowl because it’s at the juncture where the fast-moving (and thus rarely frozen) Cobbosseecontee Stream pours into the Kennebec, resulting in a large enough area of open water to attract ducks.  

Usually when we stop down, we only see Mallards (sometimes there’s a Bald Eagle flying about hoping someone in the ice fishing shacks will throw some fish guts onto the ice for them to devour). This weekend, the Mallard flock had a special guest, a Northern Pintail! A nice surprise, because most pintails mostly winter in the southern U.S.  

The pintail, and even the Mallards, are reminders of how fortunate we are here in Maine that winter brings an abundance of waterfowl, including some species that can’t be seen in many other states. Common Eiders make their downy nests on the ground on islands along our coast; during winter, these birds are joined by Common Eiders from farther north. It’s during these winter months that a few of the much more northernly King Eiders may show up along our rocky coast. The male King Eider is quite a sight to behold, with his powder blue head, orange face shield, and pink bill.   

The eiders, squawking and bobbing in the surf, are joined by other sea ducks, like the three scoter species—Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, and Black Scoter. Spend a little time at any rocky headland and you’ll almost certainly see all three of these striking species. Male Surf Scoter have slick black bodies that contrast with white patches on the back of the head and forehead and a yellow-orange bill. Needn’t wonder why they were sometimes called “skunk heads” by early waterfowl hunters. White-winged Scoter males also have the yellow-orange color in the bill and are all black, but in their case, it’s punctuated by a white patch near the eye and a white patch in the wing. Male Black Scoter are a velvety black with a shining orange bill. All three of these species nest in the Boreal Forest region of Canada and Alaska but brighten our coasts all winter.  

Another very special sea duck that winters here in Maine is one of our favorites, the aptly named Harlequin Duck. They are an extraordinarily beautiful and very specialized northern sea duck typically found at only a few favored spots along our coast—off Marginal Way in Ogunquit is one of the best places.  

Some birds that are easier to find are also pretty cool. Long-tailed Ducks, with their dramatic—you guessed it, long tails—and the punked out Red-breasted Mergansers are among the species that like the open ocean habitat, too. 

Other kinds of ducks prefer Maine’s more sheltered coves and bays in winter. Bufflehead, one of our tiniest winter waterfowl—jaunty birds in their black-and-white plumage—usually occur by the dozens in many of our coastal estuaries. We always marvel at the numbers we see in the Sheepscot River in Wiscasset and in the Damariscotta River in Damariscotta. Like the scoters, Bufflehead also nest in the Boreal Forest of Canada and Alaska.  

Common Goldeneyes likewise seem to prefer the more sheltered spots along our coast and also are found inland on larger rivers and lake outlets that remain unfrozen. Common Mergansers join them on the free-flowing rivers.  

One of Maine’s special wintering duck species is the Barrow’s Goldeneye. In North America, the eastern and western populations of Barrow’s Goldeneye are separated by more than a thousand miles. The eastern population has been estimated at only about four thousand individuals, and Maine has traditionally hosted small numbers at scattered locations at a few open spots on the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers and at locales along the coast. Lately the numbers have been pretty scant, with fewer than five in most spots, and often just single birds. That may be because waters to our north are remaining more open in winter, especially along the St. Lawrence where the bulk of the population winters. In fact, even this winter, eBird shows that there are flocks of 50-100 Barrow’s Goldeneyes at multiple places in Quebec—within 50-80 miles of Fort Kent in northern Maine. 

That’s just some of the bountiful, beautiful waterfowl you can see in Maine in winter, and with milder winters, there are more and more birds lingering here and there, sometimes in flocks with Mallards and American Black Ducks. If you add all of them together, there are about 25 different species of ducks that have been documented in Maine from December 1, 2024, through late January 2025. We hope you will get out and see some of them! 

—Jeff and Allison Wells