three generations, one passion: maine trip part 3

[This is the third and final installment of my birding trip to Maine.  You can find the first two here and here.]


The next morning we relaxed and ate breakfast as we discussed where we should go to see a few more birds before making our way down the highway home.  A few places jumped out, but were too far out of the way to visit.  We decided to stop at Mattawamkeag Wilderness County Park, a campground and picnic area.  It wasn’t too far off the highway and still north enough to possibly see the Cape May.

Before we left the cabin for the weekend I would get the best singular view of a bird all weekend.  We decided to go for one more trip about the area of the cabin to see what we could get for the morning.  As we made our way up from the lake to the cabin following breakfast there was a flurry of activity from a group of Chickadees high up in the trees nearby.  Mike decided to see if he could phish them down to get a closer look, and see if any other birds would come to see the action too.  The Chickadees and Red-Breasted Nuthatches immediately began to come closer.  They made their way from the tops of the trees to 3/4^ths of the way down and began to make their way closer from 40 yards to only 20 yards away.  The Chickadees began making more racket: “chicka-dee-dee-dee, chicka-dee-dee-dee”.  The birds began to swarm around us to see who the invaders were.  They began to fly down to branches only slightly higher than our heads and only feet away.  A cluster of ten Chickadees and a half-dozen Red-Breasted Nuthatches swarmed us.  A Pine Warbler way off in the distance also began to make its way closer along with a Blackburnian Warbler, with it’s fiery orange and black face that was close enough to clearly see with the naked eye.  Out of the whole trip this was clearly my favorite part.  As the birds realized that a predator was not present or, at least, had flown off, they made their way back up into the tree-tops.  And we headed out to the road to see what could be found across the street. 

With that came the unmistakable double drum and quick flight into the woods of the Pileated Woodpecker.  We followed and drummed on the trees with a rock to see if it would come closer. After a few tries there was no response.  It had flown off.  Another bird however flew into sight – a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  It’s easily distinguished by its call and white-striped back that differentiate it from a Hairy Woodpecker.  After everyone got a good view of the bird and realized we were being eaten by mosquitoes we headed back to set out for the day.  

Finally on our way home we drove south toward the park.  Arriving at the park - like everywhere in Maine – when we got there we had to drive down an extensively windy dirt road to get to our destination.  After about fifteen minutes of driving (which we later realized was only about 1/3 of the way into the park) we decided to stop at the side of the road and meander into the woods to see what we could find.  What was the most random stop of the whole trip ended up being one of the best birding opportunities of the weekend.  We could hear birds everywhere.  Black-throated Green Warblers were singing in every direction, along with Ovenbirds.  We spotted our first and only Eastern Wood-Pewee of the trip.  (You know the bird that sounds like, “pee-ah-wee”.)  We tracked down a Nashville Warbler by sound, but were never able to grasp the bird in our binoculars.  It would elude us again further down the road.  Later actually in the park we would see a Scarlet Tanager.  It would only be a few minutes later after the Tanager that it began to rain.

The rain at first was drivable.  Then it began to fall harder and harder until I found myself looking from the backseat out the windshield unable to see anything.  We were looking for signs for I-95 and ended up missing our turn.  As we turned around I suggested that maybe we stop for a while until the rain slowed down.  Ed was determined to keep going.  We made our turn, and in front of us (or at least what we could see) was a bridge.  It’s not the scariest time I have ever driven over a bridge, but it was a close second and looking out the front I was unsure how Ed was able to see anything.  We thankfully crossed the bridge safely and decided it would be a good time to stop for awhile.  After the rain subsided we were on our way again in search of the highway headed south to Massachusetts. 

We stopped for lunch and realized that we had been away from civilization for the duration of our trip.  We were now entering civilization again.  Stores everywhere, people everywhere, stuff everywhere.  It was a wake-up call.

After lunch we moved south again.  For the weekend we were at around 65 different species found in Maine for our trip.  Our goal for the trip was 72.  We knew we could get a couple more before we hit the New Hampshire border, but we began to realize that if we didn’t stop at one more place we would not reach our goal.  And at this point - missing the Cape May - we all wanted to get to our goal.  We grabbed maps and begin to look for a place to stop before crossing the state border. 

Cathy noticed a small wildlife refuge in Wells just north of the New Hampshire border.  It’s near the ocean so we figured we might be able to see some shore birds to add to our list.  We pulled off the highway, drove a few miles, took a couple wrong turns, and eventually turned into the parking lot.  

At this point it’s getting late in the evening, so it turns into speed birding.  Spot. Go.  Spot.  Go.  Mike spotted a Willet and Tern from afar.  Then a Killdeer was spotted.  Then a White-breasted Nuthatch began to call.  What was a spot and go ended up being a real birding experience.  We spotted what we thought were two Snowy Egrets, but were not sure.  They flew out of view, so we frantically walked through the trail to another open area and got another view of them – we confirmed the Snowy Egrets.  Their bright yellow feet could be spotted from even far away.  Eventually we reached our goal and more.  As we were completing the last leg of the trail toward the car we observed a couple Eastern Phoebes learning their call, “phoe-be”.  We left Maine satisfied, but unfulfilled thanks to the Cape May.  The trip was a success.  It was three generations of birders from different walks of life all with one passion: birding.