This mallard has been on our dock and in our front yard for the past few weeks. Sometimes birds are not as familiar and easy to identify, which is part of what makes it fun to share space with them. Yesterday my friend at work had a female scarlet tanager in her yard. She was able to identify the bird using Backyard Bird Identifier, a fun and easy to use search tool offered for free by National Geographic.
I remember spending at least one summer as a girl (ten or eleven years old, maybe) climbing onto our garage roof with my best friend to watch the bird at the neighbor’s feeder. I do not recall whether we had binoculars or bird books, and we certainly didn’t have mobile bird identifier apps, but we had one heck of a good time.
The Nature of Maine 