I got up early yesterday for a tour of (mostly) Penobscot County Wetlands, and it turns out that birding in the Bangor area is actually pretty interesting.
Corinna Marsh was awesome. The outing nearly ended before it began when I hit an underwater rock with my kayak at full speed and nearly flipped. But one of the first good birds of the day was a heard-only Common Gallinule, not a bad way to start! There were also at least three Virginia Rails, 30+ Marsh Wrens, a Sandhill Crane, lots of Ring Necked and Wood Ducks, a Blue Winged Teal at the boat launch, and a few Purple Martins foraging from the colony on St. Albans Road. The highlight, though, was a funny experience with a Pied-Billed Grebe. When I pulled around the corner, there was one right there just 10 feet away (they are so tiny up close!), which sank as soon as it caught sight of me. It froze, and with seemingly no effort sank straight down into the water, and disappeared. I think that I was almost as surprised as it was. I've been here before, but not so early in the season, and the kayaking and birding was much easier yesterday without so much dense vegetation as you'd find later in summer.
Next on the list was Essex Woods, which was okay, but the nearby highway and overwhelming road noise made the experience tough, especially during rush hour. I had at least one whinnying Sora, but could not find the recently reported Least Bittern.
Then I stopped at the Bangor City Forest, which is incredibly cool. I had never been here before, and the bog boardwalk has a weird combination of park styles. The parking lot was chock full and into overflow on a Tuesday morning--I can't imagine what it would be like on the weekend. Even though you've just pulled off Stillwater Ave, a disgustingly commercial city street, you start by walking down gravel roads with mixed disturbed forests much more reminiscent of the Allagash.
I expected to just mosey out into the Orono Bog Boardwalk in solitude, like any other bog trail I have been to, but at the beginning of the trail there was a woman answering questions, and selling books and Orono Bog Boardwalk T-Shirts (what?!!). There are designated hours for use, which don't include the early morning, there is a gate on the boardwalk, and a sign saying there were security cameras, although I couldn't imagine finding a security camera randomly stuck on the side of a black spruce in the middle of a wooded bog. It's treated almost as a tourist attraction, which is really weird considering that it's just a bog boardwalk, although I didn't have a problem with it. The information panel stations were actually really interesting, and spot-on with bird predictions even for the more uncommon species. I observed most species listed on the panel while reading the panel.
I was also amazed by the amount of species I observed on my short hike here, although diversity decreased markedly after entering the bog. I had 17 species of warblers, with generally northern species (Nashville, Palm, Magnolia, Blackburnian) being the most well represented (after Ovenbird) with over half a dozen individuals of each. It was a huge change from listening to the Yellow Warblers and Yellowthroats I am accustomed to in Southern Maine. For a late morning walk, on a day with no migration, in a forest habitat that isn't anything unique in and of itself, it was pretty spectacular. I definitely plan on making another visit here, hopefully with enough time to explore more of the city forest.
Attempting to scope Penjajawoc marsh from the Home Depot lot was a a failure, and a stop at the UMO cornfield yielded no rails, which makes perfect sense considering that it was hot and sunny and midday.
During the afternoon I drove around Sunkhaze Meadows NWR, starting on St. Regis Road and driving around to County Road and out. I walked Ash Landing Trail, Carter Meadows Trail, and part of Pit Road. I stopped to listen at most wetlands crossings on the road. I had a migrant Lincoln's Sparrow, an Olive-Sided Flycatcher (probably also a migrant), and two small groups of Pine Siskins. Viewing from the almost-collapsed Carter trail platform, the meadows at times seemed lifeless, although I was surprised to run into a male Bobolink perched and singing in the grasses. Sunkhaze is a neat place, but if you plan on leaving the roads and hiking through the woods at all, you'd better be saturated with bug spray or prepare to not be able to stop at all for the whole length of the trails because of the swarm of bugs following you. My unprepared self ended up with the second option.
Since I had a bit more time at the end of the day, I stopped by Messalonskee lake on my way home. As it turns out, kayaking with Black Terns is literally the coolest thing ever, especially in the evening light. If you own a kayak (and if your wallet is thick enough to pay for the gas prices...) you have to go do this.
Checklists can be found at https://ebird.org/tripreport/59097. Apparently I ended the day with 95 species!
Good birding,
-Matthew Gilbert
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