Column: Not every bird is able to stay on course, especially during migration

MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM • November 22, 2020

Intentional flights, faulty navigation skills and storms can all take birds to unexpected places. Here are some that have only once occurred in Maine in our 200-year history. In November of 1979, a South American variegated flycatcher appeared at Biddeford Pool. How about these Maine records? A common ringed plover in Lubec, a European golden-plover in Scarborough, a bar-tailed godwit at Pine Point, a gray-tailed tattler flying past Matinicus Rock (all four Eurasian species), a surfbird (a Pacific coast species) in Biddeford Pool., and a great knot on Seal Island (from northeastern Russia). There’s more. ~ Herb Wilson