Brown Thrasher
Bird-watching in Maine is popular and big business. The state is second only to Montana in terms of birding participation so you can be sure it has many superb locations for bird-watching and here are just a few.
Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve:
The first of the coastal bird-watching locations to explore sits in southern Maine east of Wells off busy Route 1, and is the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve. Here you’ll discover salt marshes, a boardwalk through a red maple swamp, the Little River, and beaches with dunes.
Take the Cart Path out to the Laird Norton Trail and to the wetlands behind the dunes. This is a great location for spotting the snowy egret, great blue heron, green-backed heron, whimbrel, lesser and great yellowlegs, and willet. Look for eastern towhees and brown thrashers in the fields and terns and gulls on the northern end of the beach.
The reserve can be found on Route 1 north from Exit 19 off the Maine Turnpike on Laudholm Farm Road about 1.5-miles after the exit.
Monhegan Island
Monhegan Island
Monhegan Island:
Monhegan Island is one of those small isolated island gems on the Atlantic Coastal flyway, and is particularly popular for bird-watching in spring and autumn with late September and early October being peak spotting time.
There are 17-miles of trails that crisscross this small island and while hiking you can spot blue-winged teal, yellow-billed cuckoo, red-bellied woodpecker, cedar waxwing, warblers, and osprey, American kestrel and peregrine falcon. The only way of reaching the island is ferry and there are daily boats from Port Clyde, New Harbor and Boothbay Harbor in the summer and reduced services in the fall.
Cadilac Mountain, Acadia National Park
Cadilac Mountain, Acadia National Park
Acadia National Park (Mount Desert Island):
New England’s only National Park, Acadia, is made up of a number of locations but the largest is Mount Desert Island which has a visitor center and loop road. Acadia National Park in fall is especially scenic and outstanding for wildlife viewing.
Popular bird-watching locations on Mount Desert include: Cadillac Mountain in the fall for hawks and eastern towhees and dark-eyed juncos in the summer, Jordan Pond carriage roads and trails for songbirds, and Seawall rock beach is great to spot sea ducks and purple sandpipers.
Mount Desert Island can be reached by taking Route 95 north to Augusta and then Route 3 to Ellsworth and then onto Mount Desert Island.
Baxter State Park
Baxter State Park
Baxter State Park:
The original gift of land to the state by former governor Percival Baxter required the state honor his request that it remain a wilderness and as a “sanctuary for wild birds and beasts.” This is music to the ears of bird watchers in the state as its undisturbed habitats of ponds and streams and boreal forest, provides excellent opportunities to spot pine and bay-breasted warblers, thrushes, least flycatchers, warblers, blackpolls, yellowbellied flycatchers, chickadees and black-backed woodpeckers.
The road through Baxter State Park has a 20-mph limit, slow-moving but great for spotting the wildlife. Destinations in the park for bird-watching include Togue Pond, Roaring Brook, and Kidney Pond, but there are so many more opportunities that you can take a week or two to cover just a fraction of the available forest trails.
The park has a north and south entrance, with the south being the most popular with mountain hikers. For south entrance take I-95 to Exit 244, turn west on Route 11/157 and follow through Millinocket along Route 157 to the park.
Male Spruce Grouse
Male Spruce Grouse
Grafton Notch State Park:
Located in the western Mountains region is Grafton Notch State Park. Nature lovers can find remote waterfalls and gorges providing nesting opportunities for Peregrine Falcons, and spruce forests containing boreal chickadees, black-backed woodpeckers and Bicknell’s thrushes.
If you’re not up to climbing then follow the walk along the Bear River which takes you to Screw Auger Falls, Mother Walker Falls and out to the deep flume of Moose Cave. Continue to the parking lot for the Table Rock Trail where you’ll have an opportunity to spot Philadelphia Vireos. The challenging and higher elevations of the Table Rock Trail offer the chance on the ascent to see gray jays, spruce grouse, yellow-bellied flycatchers, bay-breasted warblers and blackpolls. Grafton Notch State Park is located 8-miles north of Newry on Route 26.
For more details on these and other attractions to see during Maine Vacations and to pick up your free New England trip planner package go to Cliff’s New England Vacation Guide at: http://www.new-england-vacations-guide.com
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