Birding in Maine would be great, even if we didn’t have an ocean. But we do, and anyone who birds only on land is, ahem, missing the boat.
In fact, if you haven’t seen an Atlantic puffin yet, or enjoyed the marine mammals and seabirds on a whale watch, you’re missing a lot of boats.
There will be plenty of opportunities in 2024, routinely available whenever you want to go. But two of them will be special, one-time-only events. Coincidentally, tickets for both went on sale this week.
Oh, how I have missed the Harlequin Duck Cruise! Decades ago, the Penobscot Valley Chapter of Maine Audubon organized an annual late-March boat trip around Isle au Haut to see the biggest gathering of overwintering Harlequin ducks in the eastern United States.
Eventually, interest in the trip waned, as Harlequin duck numbers increased along the mainland shore and they could be seen more readily without a boat.
The trip was revived a few years ago, enthusiastically embraced by a boatload of adventurous birders who had discovered how many other great seabirds wintered in Penobscot Bay and along the Isle au Haut shoreline.
Several great voyages followed annually, followed by a three-year hiatus due to COVID after the 2020 trip.
The cruise is back. On March 23, the Isle au Haut Ferry will leave the Stonington dock at 11 a.m., bound for Isle au Haut, where hundreds of Harlequin ducks will be waiting.
Although Harlequins are scarce and designated as “threatened” on Maine’s endangered species list, their favorite place to forage in Maine is in the pounding surf along Isle au Haut’s southern shoreline.
Experts, myself included, will be on board to point out these absurdly colorful ducks, not to mention scoters, grebes, loons, buffleheads, long-tailed ducks, mergansers, guillemots, razorbills, great cormorants and purple sandpipers we may encounter along the way.
I doubt I have to mention this, but dress warmly.
Reservations for the $60 tickets may be made by calling Isle au Haut Boat Services directly at 207-367-6516. Although the trip is still three months away, don’t wait too long to make reservations.
There’s a limit of 35 people — only half the capacity of the boat — just to make sure participants are comfortable and uncrowded.
I’m equally excited about another boat trip. On July 20, Bar Harbor Whale Watch leaves the dock on an excursion that has never been done before.
For anyone wishing to visit a puffin island next summer, there are several boats to choose from along the Maine coast, all good. But this will be the only tour that visits two puffin islands on the same trip — Petit Manan and Machias Seal Island.
But wait, there’s more. This all-day offshore boat cruise will also visit Mount Desert Rock and Great Duck Island.
I can’t predict what may happen when we get there, but I went on their regular whale watch trips several times last summer, and most of the whales I saw were around Mount Desert Rock.
It’s been several years since I visited Great Duck, but I was surprised to see a few puffins around the southern shoreline. There’s been some curiosity about whether they might eventually try to nest there.
All four islands have famous lighthouses, making this a combined birding, sea mammal and lighthouse tour. It’s certain to be popular.
So who are the expert guides? I am one and Zack Klyver is the other. You already know me, and you might know Zack. He’s been a whale expert for so long, he’s on a first-name basis with most of them.
I think they exchange Christmas cards.
Between the two of us, we should be able to point out every living creature out there.
I’m expecting Atlantic puffins, black guillemots, razorbills, common murres, Arctic terns, common terns, northern gannets, shearwaters, Wilson’s storm-petrels and phalaropes.
Zack’s expecting harbor and gray seals, whales, porpoises, and maybe dolphins.
We’re taking the time to do it right. The cruise starts at 10:30 a.m. and returns to port by 5 p.m. Space is limited. Tickets went on sale last Monday, and they can be reserved through BarHarborWhales.com.
The moral of the story is that the Gulf of Maine is a lively place year-round. Its cold nutrient-rich waters, combined with strong tides and a rugged coastline, provide habitat for wildlife species that remain out of view for landlubbers.
Fortunately, Maine has boat tours, lots of them, with knowledgeable guides ready to share the adventure. It’s as simple as making a reservation.
Care to join me?
