Dropping Like Flies

From our original ten tour travelers, we have lost 5: 3 tested positive for Covid, 1 sprained her ankle badly enough to have to quit, fortunately after seeing puffins, her main reason for coming, and 1 had a sister die, not unexpectedly, but he needed to leave before we got too far from Portland and its airport. We remaining five are determined to keep healthy.

We parked our truck at the Courtyard Inn near Portland’s airport and caught a shuttle over to meet everyone else at the airport. We had lunched at a Sea Dog Ale House. The others went to Subway for a sandwich. I liked our plan much better. After a couple hours of birding, we drove up to quaint Camden and stayed at the River House Inn to be ready for an 8:00 AM boat trip out to Seal Island. 

Two doses of Bonine and lots of warm clothes made the 1 1/2 boat ride aboard the Periwinkle mostly bearable. Captain Dominick was a great boat driver; the seas were almost calm. But just sitting on a wooden bench, bouncing away, is boring. Nothing to do, water and more water to see. Eventually, there was enough spray accumulation to get us wet, even with ponchos and rain jackets. 

It was all worth it when we saw our first puffins: a pair bobbing in the water about 5 minutes out from the island, like a welcoming committee. Then a few flew by. As we got closer, more and more puffins. Puffins in the water, puffins flying by, puffins on shore, hundreds of puffins. There were also razorbills, guillemots, greater cormorants, and gulls (herring, greater black back, and laughing, none of which are desirable there because they eat puffin chicks). One greater Shearwater, which was the first Maine spotting for our guide Alex. We made a complete circumnavigation of Seal Island, popping into a little cove at the beginning and end for closer looks at puffins. No getting off the boat because the whole island is protected and a research area.

Another long boat ride back with the wind picking up just as we reached the harbor  Dinner at the Camden Sea Dog Ale House. Same food as the one we had eaten at, but different decore and more touristy atmosphere.

Picture by Alan Kneidel 

The next day, we headed south to Scarborough marsh, which I had visited with Peg and Bets 4 years ago. We were looking for salt marsh and Nelson’s sparrows, which we found. More exciting was the snowy/little egret hybrid which had some gray patches indicating probably some tricolor heron mixed in. A magnificent bird feeding back and forth in the marsh.

Since then, the days in the forests of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont have begun to blur together. Get up early, grab breakfast (mostly at Dunkin’ Doughnut since the north woods don’t seem to have many local restaurants open yet), drive, get out of cars, walk a ways, be amazed at the birds guides Alex and Alan call in AND can tell me where to look, get in the cars, and repeat. Blackburnian, yellow, chestnut-sided warblers; winter wren singing; red breasted nuthatches taking granola from Alex’s hand; a yellow crowned kinglet which I only saw in silhouette so no yellow, next time.

We are up to 141 species and have days to go. I’m tired and all the walking has aggravated my hamstring strains. Grant carries my bag to keep as much weight off my legs as possible.Thank goodness we get to sleep in a little tomorrow, only because the drive up Mount Washington doesn’t open until 9:00 AM. A tad of grousing by Alex since the birds get up earlier. I’m not worried. He’ll find lots for us to see.

Note: all the good bird and animal pictures were taken by others. I just take snapshots.