The Boreal Forest and a case of the Maine Measles

Yesterday afternoon when the Puffin island voyage was over, I headed for the Down East Birding Festival HQ ASAP. From there I joined up with an afternoon hike at southern Edmunds division of Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. We traveled by van and when both vans arrived, we got out and a general slathering of various insect repellants began.  Now I've been to many places famous for  mosquitos, e.g., Alaska, Florida and Texas, but they have nothing over Maine for mosquitos and a new horror to me - Black Flies. Quickly I realized that as far as boreal insects are concerned, the insect repellant on my skin was a tasty condiment. My fellow birders stared at me in amazement as notable black clouds of insects hoovered over my head.

A kindly couple of birders gave me a sort of green mist net that covered my entire head. I could see through a verdant mist, and when I held binoculars to my eyes, I could see well enough, again, through a pea green haze.

A clearing in a Moosehorn Refuge forest

We walked along a dirt road, surrounded by bird afternoon bird song. Parula, Black-throated Green, Chestnut-sided and Bay-breasted Warblers noisily told us of their presence. A Northern Waterthrush - a fairly shy one - flew back and forth across the road, daring me to get a photo of it, which I managed - but only barely.

Super shy Northern Waterthrush, that hid itself well

Equally blocked view of a male American Redstart

at last, a bold male Bay-breasted Warbler in all his 'chocolate & cream' glory

The hike through the boreal forest of Moosehorn, was something of a death march for not only myself, but several other birders, though I must admit those birders had a good decade on me age wise. I have been working out for months in hopes of avoiding such major energy glitches, but sometimes distances walked and jet lag sustained win out. Ugh! Thought I was going to die, but I did make it through the day without dying and that's all I ask for in the long run.

Bright and early today, I got up driving north on a pleasant drive to East Port, Maine, where I was scheduled for another bird watching cruise aboard the Lobster boat, the "Lady H". On the way - it was about a two hour drive - I stopped often to enjoy the beautiful Maine scenery and of course the birds. I stopped at a beautiful meadow to admire several Bobolinks, with their pretty tawny hats. I can always recognize Bobolink song, because their song sounds like R2D2.

A male Bobolink singing his R2D2-like song

I got a kick watching this male Bobolink singing
as he did his fancy, 'show off his stuff' flight

When I arrived at Rockport I was early at the dock - the boat was to leave the dock at 1:30. So I took a little drive around the town. Afterwards, back at the pier I bought some fish & chips at a little kiosk. I was lollygaggin' around when I happened to notice my iPhone... it was 1:45 PM! It was a total out-of-body experience. I mean, I was suddenly missing an hour of time and I had no memory of where it went. Had I been abducted by aliens or was am I just getting senile?  How did I miss the freakn' boat! I was totally upset and sadly I headed back south, down to my room in Machias. I have never, ever missed a festival event before and I am completely flabberghasted that I somehow managed to miss this one. 

I should mention I am staying at Machias Motor Inn this week and I really like it.

My room faces the river, which is only a stone's throw from my patio door. There are lots of cormorants and ravens flying around by the river.

The view from my room in Machias

 Oh well! It is the end of my second day in Maine, and it certainly has been memorable - and you can take that as a good or a bad thing, your choice.

Maine Measles

Oh! One last thing... after the hoards of Black Flies finished with me today, I look like I have a case of the measles. Their tiny bites actually hurt and I smashed the stupid things as they bit me, but at least the bites aren't itchy or sore. Stupid, stupid flies! 

Maine-ly Birds

Little River Lighthouse, passed on the journey to Puffinland

A couple of months ago, while fiddling around on line, I discovered there are two Maine birding festivals that occur within a week of each other. I have always wanted to visit Maine so I thought, "Why the heck not?" So, with the sort of planning normally associated with a trip across time, a l-o-n-g cross country flight, & after stuffing all my luggage & birding gear into the rear of a spiffy new Prius in Portland, by the birds, here I am! 

The first of the pair is the Down East Birding Festival. The festival events are spread all over the coast, but my first event was not even on the mainland. I signed up to take a pelagic trip to Machias Seal Island so I could sit cheek to jowl with the cutest birds on earth - Atlantic Puffins.  Oh, and not to mention many others I've either never seen before or don't get to see very often. I'm getting ahead of myself - first I had to find the adorable tiny village of Cutler.
 

Our Captain and crew await

There at the Cutler Harbor, participants met our Captain Andy & crew.





 

Climbing aboard the shuttle skiff

 It took three trips to get all the participants across the harbor and into our main transport.







I was on the first load over to our 40 foot boat the Barbara Frost. Once on board I was so tickled! I immediately had a go a the boat's loo - better to go while the toilet wasn't a moving target, you know?

In a remarkably short time were on our way. The Little River Lighthouse was beautiful and we were told it can be rented out as a vacation home.

Black Guillemot

Better yet, I heard Cap'n Andy call out "Black Guillemot!"  Not, not a Down East slang pointing me out, but a new bird for my life list. The Guillemot is a pigeon sized sea bird with a white epaulet on each shoulder. When they fly you can see their fetching, crayon red webbed feet.




The day was on the overcast side, but that's what one expects in these parts. Our target, Machias Seal Island was 7 miles as the Gull flies. Soon the island's lighthouse was looming in the distance. Captain Andy told us, interestingly enough, the ownership of the island is continuously in dispute. The United States claims the island, and so does Canada. From my perspective, as all the research and buildings on the island were put there by Canadians, I say, "Welcome to Canada!"

Machias Seal Island, New Brunswick, Canada

Once we were near the island's ramp, we were again, loaded onto a little boat and transported to the cement landing ramp.

I was on the second boatload to the island.
The first load of passengers wait for us at the top of the ramp.

AHA! It's not only me who believes the island is Canadian.

The island is used by many species of sea birds for breeding. The island is used by Canadian Biologists for research of the afore mentioned sea birds. Therefore there were lots of rules for us landlubbers to abide by, the number one rule being be quite, move quickly past the birds, not stopping to take pics on the ramp and be quiet! There are terns attempting to nest near the ramp and they haven't nested on the island much so they are of special concern.

Now! The cool part is there are bird blinds on the island, in the midst of where the various species are nesting among the boulders that rim the island.

Once we were all on the island by the lighthouse and researcher's quarters we were told the rules on occupying the bird blinds without freaking out the birds. 

Part of the island's wooden boardwalk

This view is from where we all sat, looking towards a few of the bird blinds, the two tiny boxes on the horizon. There are wooden boardwalks that help one to traverse the soft and delicate island turf.






Enough of the minute details! What about the birds! Ok, Ok! With two other birders, we were quietly escorted to a little birding blind. Inside, I lifted a little window and there they were - BIRDIES! They were so close we could have reached out and touched them - if we were nuts.

Puffins love to stretch their wings

Razorbills look sharp in their tuxedo-like plumage

I don't think I've ever seen anything as adorable as walking puffins

Shocking discovery: the inside of a Razorbill's mouth is mango yellow

Look at the aerodynamics of a Puffin's thick bill

Bit of a Puffin Jam

Puffins pattering around on the blind opposite the one I occupied with 2 other birders

The amount of photos taken by myself and the two others I shared the blind with, made us grateful for the age of digital cameras. Hate to think how much it would have cost in time, energy and development costs to take the zillions of photos we got.

Our hour in the blind was over in what seemed like a flash. We treked back to the lighthouse, made sure we signed the island guest book. We were ferried back to the good ship Barbara Frost. Captain Andy took us on little tour around the island before we headed back. There were Gray Seals lounging on the shores - a species I've never seen before. They were larger than Harbor Seals and had rather horsie shaped heads.

Lifer Mammal!  Gray Seals

Male Common Eider winging its way, like us, towards Cutler

Common Murres

When we made it back to shore in Cutler around 1 o'clock, there was no time to fool around, I had to race off to my next event for the day.

Post vacation Productions: A little bit about the Puffins and the Island

Missing pics and a Black Hawk

Arrggghh! I've misplaced the flash disk from my little point-n'-shoot camera. Have torn up my desk, where I put the flash disk to keep it 'safe', but cannot find the disk anywhere. Oh well. Am sure this isn't the first time this will happen, but it means no pictures of Montezuma's Castle National Monument, Montezuma's Well and worse - no photos of my first visit to Grand Canyon National Park. Yes, all quite disappointing - for me - but I can include one last video and a quick tale told in genuine false Claire Time. Here we go!

Ahem! "Yesterday" I left Tucson, and headed up to central Arizona with the goal of visiting a river or two, where I believed I might locate my next 'lifer' bird, the Common Black Hawk. As I drove along the highway I spotted a sign for Montezuma's Castle National Monument. It was the first adobe dwelling site I've ever visited and I loved it. While there I chanced to bug a ranger on where I could find a Common Black Hawk and the ranger told me he recently saw a Common Black Hawk at Montezuma's well, only one freeway exit north.

I visited Montezuma's Well where I found another ranger, a lady ranger who marched me right over to the active nest of a Common Black Hawk. HURRAH! The nest was far enough off I couldn't see the bird with my binoculars, so I had to get out my spotting scope. Below you can see the hawk in this digiscoped video I got with my iPhone.

The entire top of the nest is the hawk. If you wonder why I bother to include this video it is because, I at least, can see the hawk's head by noting the bird's yellow bill, which appears and disappears as the bird bobs its head about, just left of center. In the still shots there is no way to puzzle out what is the bird's head from its nest.