The experience begins at 2 PM in Bangor, Maine at the Bangor International Airport*. We’ll bird a local wetland near the airport before traveling to the Schoodic Institute campus in Acadia National Park. There will be ample time for check-in to your lodging and a visitor center stroll.  Group orientation and happy hour is scheduled for 5 PM.   Dinner (6-7 pm) will be followed by an evening presentation, which includes an overview of the history and ecology of the region and preparation for the next morning’s puffin cruise.

* If you are driving to Maine you can park your car for the duration of the tour at the airport, or at the Odlin Road Park & Ride (about one mile from the airport) where we will pick you up. For safety as well as auto restrictions in Acadia National Park we cannot allow car caravaning during this tour.

The priority is a morning 2 hour boat trip to Petit Manan Island to see Atlantic Puffin and other nesting birds: Razorbill, Black Guillemot, Common Eider, Arctic and Common Tern (and possibly, Roseate Tern). We’ll have our picnic lunch in Milbridge, Maine at a well-kept community garden that overlooks mudflats that often have migrating shorebirds by mid-July. After lunch we’ll travel a short distance eastward to the largest natural blueberry barrens in the eastern United States. Here we hope to find Upland Sandpiper and Vesper Sparrow and other breeding birds of the barrens. Depending upon time and tides, we may scope Pinkham Bay or Addison Marshlands for shorebirds, waders, and raptors.

The non-pelagic day, which could be Day 3 or 4, due to the weather, is a planned visit to a special sanctuary with a guest expert on Mount Desert Island’s nesting Common Loons. We may also visit Southwest Harbor’s Wendell Gilley Museum, a mecca for bird woodcarvers and artists, and still have time to bird a couple of the island’s western secret hotspots at Bass Harbor marsh. This day will be capped off with dinner at Beal’s Lobster Pier. All in all, a day designed to gain a deeper understanding of common loons and how to navigate Acadia National Park’s western side away from throngs of visitors!

Takes us offshore into the Gulf of Maine toward the mouth of the Bay of Fundy (Canadian waters) where whales and pelagic birds congregate, a 5 hour boat excursion. Humpback whales are usually seen and if lucky, Atlantic White-sided dolphins or basking shark or ocean sunfish may be observed. Wilson’s storm petrels are abundant, Leach’s storm petrel is possible, and shearwaters, especially Great, are encountered. By mid-July skuas and jeagers are often seen, as are phalaropes, both red and red-necked. The dock in Bar Harbor, which is a 1.5 hr. drive from Schoodic Institute, means the pelagic day is an early start day. You’ll have a packed breakfast to enjoy before our 6 am departure for the drive, or you can eat on the drive or wait until we arrive. We’ll be back to Bar Harbor for a late lunch at a birdy picnic area on Mount Desert Island. The remainder of the day will be determined by the groups’ energy level. If conditions, both human and weather, are conducive we’ll drive up to the top of Cadillac Mountain for a spectacular view of the Porcupine Islands and much more.

Day 5 is leader’s choice for where we will spend our last day together. Perhaps we may need to make up for time lost to inclement weather or try a different location for a certain species. In any case, after breakfast, we’ll take time to pack gear and check out from lodging. We may take an easy stroll along Schoodic Institute’s Sundew or Alder Trail or go around the auto loop one more time. We’ll take stock of what we’ve learned, review the bird checklist, figure out a good location for lunch afield and return to Bangor by 2 pm. (Flights out of Bangor should be scheduled no earlier than 4 pm.