ML612444610

Observation details

While scoping the southern-most end of Damariscotta Lake from Pond Road, Jeff saw something fly in and land on the lake and asked me to take a look through his scope. We both agreed that the bird was likely a Dovekie, but thought we'd get a better look from the beach across from Mill Pond Inn back at the Mills. We hurried over and relocated the bird. What happened next was really unusual. The Dovekie that was initially in the middle of the lake started swimming towards us. I don't mean that it swam in our general direction; I mean that it headed directly towards where I was standing on the edge of the lake while making direct eye contact with me. It got within a few feet of me before turning and swimming away back to the open water of the lake. It then summoned up enough energy to take off and flew to the south end of the lake where we were initially standing when it came in. At that point, Heather and some others showed up to see if they could capture it to take it to rehab or back to the ocean, but it flew off and out of sight before they could get to it.