August 10-17 2010, Acadia National Park, Mt. Desert Island, Maine

Common Loon











a view of Jordan's Pond








Maine, "The Vacation State" (or to me "The Bird State").

It was our first trip to Acadia, it was truly the most beautiful place I had ever seen. On the drive to Mt. Desert Island I spotted a stunning Bald Eagle feeding in a pine (it was only a hundred feet or so away from what I believe was a Black-Crowned Night-Heron who was standing on the rocky banks of a stream).

As we pulled into our campsite the rain clouds, which had been following us since we had entered Maine three hours ago, suddenly burst and we were stuck setting up our tent in the poring rain and dark! Our Grandparents had booked this trip for us all months before but sadly though they were not able to come due to a medical problem.

We had many beautiful and common neighbours like the handsome Dark-Eyed Juncos, the delightful Golden-Crowned Kinglets (the miniature kings of the forest), the smartly dressed Red-Breasted Nuthatches and lively Black-Capped Chickadees which could easily be found flitting through the Boreal forest (which happened to be only twenty feet away from our lot).

A quick walk would take us down to the ocean where Common Eiders drifted over the gently rolling waves. Gulls frolicked on the wind and Double-Crested Cormorants stood sullenly watching the unidentified black dots in the distants which we were pretty sure were Black Guillemots, a black and white Alcid species which we have never had the chance to set our eyes upon.

All in all it was a perfect place to spend a week long vacation at considering all the birds, the lovely forests, mushrooms, lichens, mountains, lakes streams, waterfalls and (one) ocean.

The highlights for the week included: Northern Parula, Bald Eagle, Wild Turkey, a Common Loon who was howling wildly while an Osprey soared gracefully overhead, Brown Creeper, Black Guillemots (lifer!), Magnolia Warbler, Black and White Warblers, Laughing Gull, a Semipalmated Plover walking on some FLOATING(!) seaweed, American Redstart, Spotted Sandpipers and a possible Common Raven. Other animals seen on the trip included Red and White Admirals, Harbor Seals, White-Tailed Deer, Red Squirrel, Gray Squirrel, Eastern Chipmunk and a Snapping Turtle. We had lots of fun hiking and biking through the lovely park of Acadia!

Special thanks to Richard MacDonald (the owner of "The Natural History Center" in downtown Bar Harbor. He was very helpful and gave us a bunch of nice walk locals of birding hot-spots to visit).

And thanks to my grandparents Therese and John Goodchild, we greatly missed you and I hope that you can come with us up to Maine next year!