Day 1: Arrival in Portland (Maine)

An airport shuttle will take you to our local Portland hotel, where the tour will start with a tour meeting on this evening. We will be based for the first two nights of the tour in Portland, Maine.

 

Day 2: Portland area (Maine)

The city of Portland offers excellent birding at this time of year. Close by areas offer coastal birds due to the city’s location on the Machigonne Peninsula, jutting into Casco Bay, as well as bird-filled marshes too for freshwater wetland species also. Part of the day’s focus will be to find birds only found in southern Maine, such as Fish Crow. While at  Scarborough Marsh we can search for Common Loons, Common Eiders, and Roseate and Least Terns around the open waters, and Nelson’s, Saltmarsh  and Seaside Sparrows within the vegetated edges. Another night will be spent in the same Portland hotel close by.

 

Day 3: Kennebunk Plains to The White Mountains (New Hampshire)

The so-called “Blueberry Plains” are comprised of sandplain grasslands close to the town of Kunnebunk in York County in the south of the state. These plains are considered one of Maine’s premier birding spots during this season, when the native forbs, shrubs and grasses vegetation provide important breeding habitat for Upland Sandpiper, Grasshopper, Field and Vesper Sparrows, Bobolink, Eastern Bluebird, Eastern Meadowlark and Prairie Warbler. After feasting on grassland species, we shall move west into the neighboring state of New Hampshire and up, into the White Mountains there, home to boreal forest birds, such as Black-backed Woodpecker, Red Crossbill, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and plentiful breeding warblers, such as Blackpoll, Blackburnian, Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green Warblers.

 

A single night will be spent within the White Mountains, in the town of Gorham in Coos County, New Hampshire. There will be an option to go out nightbirding in the local forest, on the trail of Barred and Northern Saw-whet Owls, if anyone is keen to do so.

 

Day 4: Mount Washington (New Hampshire)

On this morning our focus will remain within White Mountain National Forest, this time on the flanks of the highest peak in the northeast United States, Mount Washington. Access is by roads, so this is not taxing, as we bird boreal forests for northern specialties, like Boreal Chickadee, Spruce Grouse, and Canada Jay. Another major target for the morning will be the local and cryptic Bicknell’s Thrush, which are considerably easier to identify here, when on their breeding grounds in full song! At the open areas at summit of the peak-at an altitude of nearly 6300ft (just over 1900m), we might also find American Pipit. At the end of the day we will return to the state of Maine, spending a single night in Rangeley.

 

Day 5: Rangeley to Machias (Maine)

A long drive east to the coast, beckons today, although it should not without avian incident as we remain in montane forest for much of the first part. This will allow us to look for more mountain forest bird species, like Veery, Mourning and Canada Warblers and Olive-sided and Alder Flycatchers. Once we get to the coast, we will change focus, searching for wetland species at Messalonskee Lake, like Sandhill Crane, Wood Duck, Virginia Rail, Sora, American Bittern, Black Tern, and Swamp Sparrow. American Woodcock is also found in the area too. Time permitting, we may also bird the coastline late in the day also. A single night will be spent in Machias.

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Day 6: Machias Seal Island Boat Trip and Quoddy Head (Maine)

A half day boat trip will be taken out to Macias Seal Island, with pelagic wildlife on the agenda; as we cross to the island, we will be seeking Gray and Harbor Seals and perhaps a Humpback Whale, while at the island, we will be looking to observe and photograph charismatic seabirds, like Atlantic Puffin (from a specially built photo blind), Razorbill, Common Murre and Arctic Tern. Following this half day boat trip, we will return to mainland Maine, and visit Quoddy Head State Park in the afternoon, where 3 species of scoter and Common Eiders occur offshore, and the woods on land host a multitude of breeding warblers, as well as Boreal Chickadee. Two nights will be spent in the fishing village of Bar Harbor.

 

Day 7: Petit Manan Island Boat Trip and Mount Desert Island (Maine)

Another morning, another boat trip! This time though, the boat reaches Petit Manan Island, which sits within the Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge, a series of 64 islands that span across the entire length of the Maine coastline. Undoubtedly, we will be hoping to come across a Great Cormorant, a scarce and local marine species in North America. While we travel from Bar Harbor on the Maine mainland to Petit Manan Island, we will keep our eyes out for other pelagic birds too, like Leach’s Storm-Petrel (that breed in the refuge), Northern Fulmar, Great, Sooty and Manx Shearwaters, and Northern Gannet. Pelagic birds can often be found alongside giant pelagic animals too, and we will search the surfaces of the North Atlantic Ocean for signs of Minke and Fin Whales too. Comical Atlantic Puffins as well as Black Guillemots and Razorbills breed on the island itself. The islands in the refuge are also home to good numbers of nesting Bald Eagles. Our second isle of the day, Mount Desert Island (oddly, pronounced locally like the word “dessert”), will be visited in the afternoon, although this is accessible by road from the mainland. Mount Desert is the largest island in Maine, and the second largest along the entire coastline of the eastern seaboard of the United States. It is also home to the wonderful and much celebrated Acadia National Park, which will be visited the following day. On this afternoon, we will visit forested areas seeking breeding songbirds such as Winter Wren, Bay-breasted and Canada Warblers, Hermit Thrush, and Purple Finch, among others. After that, we will return to our Bar Harbor hotel for another night.

 

Note: Petit Manan Island is closed from public landings during this critical seabird breeding season, and so is only accessible by doing this wonderful boat trip.

 

Day 8: Acadia National Park to Portland (Maine)

The last day of the trip will certainly not be the least, as we visit the much-vaunted Acadia National Park, sometimes referred to as the “Crown Jewel of the North Atlantic Coast”, due to its dramatic landscapes within an area of outstanding natural beauty. Located largely on Mount Desert Island, it is home to tall and jagged rocky uprisings, not least Mount Cadillac, the highest peak on the Atlantic coast of the USA at 1530ft (466m). It is the location where famously the sun rises first in the United States, and also boasts an incredible, clean, night sky, being one of the best places in the region to view the Milky Way. Acadia NP also boasts a bird list topping out at nearly 300 species, due to an extraordinary diversity of habitats within its 47,000 acres, (over 19,000 hectares). Among the birds we will be seeking are, nesting Peregrine Falcons, Ruffed and Sprue Grouse, Blackburnian, Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green Warblers, Red and White-winged Crossbills, Veery, Wood Thrush. We will also have a final shot at Great Cormorant, if needed.

 

In the afternoon, we will return to Portland for a final night, a journey of some 170 miles or so. This will finish up an amazing tour, littered with awe-inspiring landscapes, beautiful breeding birds, specialty species, the odd pelagic mammal here and there, and a bi-state mosaic of fascinating wildlife habitats.

 

Day 9: Departure from Portland (Maine)

There is no birding on this final day, and you are free to depart when needed, via the hotel shuttle to the airport.