Monday 14 October
One trip around Frenchman Bay and one trip around the south side of Mt. Desert I. up into Somes Sound and back along the Cranberry Isles.
Numbers of Common Eiders are increasing rapidly and flocks of 100 to 200 are gathering a many places around the Porcupine Islands.
Numbers of Common Loons also increasing daily. Up to 30-40 seen on each trip and in all stages of plumage.
White-winged, Black, and Surf Scoters are starting to arrive with a few of each seen today at several locations in the bay.
Spotted Sandpipers are still quite common on all of the Porcupine Islands.
Kingfishers numbers have dropped but they are still common.
A first-year Bald Eagle soaring high over Frenchman Bay this morning and gradually drifted off to the south and over Cadillac Mt. With Acadia closed there is no organized hawk watch on Cadillac although there are quite a few people walking up the mountain every day (3.6 miles on the road, 2.5 miles via the north ridge trail) but I don't know if any of them are hawk watching.
A large female Peregrine Falcon sitting on the Egg Rock lighthouse this morning.
A rather late Laughing Gull in mostly winter plumage at the mouth of Somes Sound this afternoon.
A very tame Black Guillemot is fishing around our boat dock at the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel. It will dive and swim under the dock and one can watch its entire underwater activity in the clear water. I am surprised an the number of sudden 90 degree turns it makes as it swims (flies?) along the bottom. I suppose it is darting after small prey such as amphipods or 7-Spined Shrimp. It only occasionally comes up with a fish, always a Blenny, but it seems to be in the process of swallowing something when it surfaces. It will surface and swim only 3-4 feet away from the dock even when someone is standing there watching it.
We regularly had Bald Eagles sitting on the old Bluenose ferry dock but there is heavy equipment nosily disassembling sections of the dock so no eagles this past week.
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Updated Oct. 5th, 2013.
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