we're not dorks, we're eccentric: maine trip part one

[This is part one of my travels to Maine in search of the Cape May Warbler.  Stay tuned for more.]


It all started with a conversation about dorks. By the end, after rolling into the park-and-ride in Mattapoisett, it was confirmed that we were not dorks, but eccentric. Birding hasn’t exactly gone viral, but today it is a more acceptable hobby and is in fact a money-making industry with everything from a simple bird book to excursions around the world to see birds. A few months ago a trip was set for the local bird club to drive up to Baxter State Park in Maine to try to see the Cape May Warbler and other boreal birds. The trip consisted of four adults: the leader, Mike; Cathy and Ed who are an older couple, and myself. It was three generations of birders. I wasn’t sure what to expect of the trip except that there would be birds – and lots of them.

We left for Maine about 10:00 AM to have plenty of time to make it up to the cabin in Millinocket, just south of Baxter State Park. Baxter State Park consists of the highest point in Maine, Mount Katahdin, the application trail, and apparently an elusive little wood warbler, the Cape May.  Although the park attracts people to it for those reasons and may others, you clearly leave civilization just a few miles north of Bangor.

On the way up the four of us talked about birding. We talked about the birds we wanted to see: the Cape May, the Boreal Chickadee, Three-toed Woodpecker, Black-Backed Woodpecker, Grey Jay, Northern Goshawk, and Spouse Grouse, among others. Then we began into birding stories. Cathy and Ed, who have traveled all around the world because of work, have been able to see some of the most beautiful birds around the world, including birds in Zimbabwe, Thailand, and Peru, and they have the stories to go with them. They talked about everything from painting flies about the tree lines in the mountains of Colorado, to feeding elephants in Africa, to sleeping under the stars on the Baja Peninsula. They’ve seen hundreds of birds, yet don’t have a life-list.

What’s a life-list? It’s what Mike, the leader, has been adding to for over 40 years of birding.  Although birders have different criteria for their life-list, it is basically the list of birds they have identified and seen. It usually consists of size, shape, flight-pattern, sound, habitat, color, behavior, etc.  Mike is someone who is seen as an obsessive birder. He lives and breathes birds. As the leader, he makes it fun. He also has a keen ear for bird sounds that makes it easier to find a bird. Although Mike has an extensive life-list, one bird that has eluded him throughout the years is the Cape May Warbler, a bird that nests and is seen frequently in the black spruce trees in Baxter State Park.

We decided to take a count as to how many birds we would see in Maine. The guesses ranged from 74 to 90. I guessed an optimistic 80, a number that far outreaches any number I have seen in a day or trip. Once we crossed the border we stared counting. The count started with common birds like the Crow and Grackle, and led into Tree and Barn Swallows. Even before we got to Millinocket we were building quite a list. Before we arrived at the cabin, we decided to stop by a rest area in East Millinocket. Next to a small lake we were hoping for something good.  We got out of the car and began to walk into the woods. Not much noise as we entered. One of the first things we would find, though, were Pileated Woodpecker holes, although throughout the trip the big bird would elude us at least two times.

We didn’t hear anything in the woods and began to make our way out to see if we could see anything near the lake. No luck there, either.  As we went to the car, Mike heared something. Hello, Cheerio. We walked slowly into the woods to locate what we were hearing. We tracked where the bird was coming from. It was a blue-headed vireo (formerly known as the Solitary Vireo), and a first for me. It’s a small beautiful songbird with, as its name says, a blue head. Next Mike spotted the sound of a black-and-white warbler, which gave us a nice show of its stripped black and white head. 

After getting our fix, we stopped by the local Hannaford’s, picked up some grub for the next few days and moved on to the cabin where we were staying for the night.  We followed our hosts for the weekend who insisted on leading us to the cabin instead of giving us directions to the place.  We found it odd, until we continued on un-marked dirt roads for the next half an hour.  After traveling for what seemed forever, we finally arrived.