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Travelogue:
Historic Pittston Farm
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The highlight of the two-day tour came on the
second day - one of those zen moments when you have to pinch
yourself to see if you're dreaming. We had just pulled down an
obscure logging road to check out a secret wetland when we
noticed a bear feeding on wild strawberries along a side road.
Just as we pulled over to watch, out steps a moose, intently
peering at the bear, oblivious to the birders standing directly
behind him. We snapped lots of photos until the moose finally
became aware of the giggles and shutter noises behind him. He
looked at us...looked at the bear...looked at us...and finally
decided to step back into the woods. Suddenly aware, the bear stood up on his hind
legs, trying to get a better look at us, thus
giving us more great photos. Slowly, he ambled off and so did
we. This is the North Maine Woods, an
area that has more moose and black bears than any state east of
the Mississippi.
When you're this far into the Maine woods, you wouldn't expect comfort, great food, and modern conveniences like WIFI. You'd be wrong. Pittston Farm (left) was once the logging headquarters of Great Northern Paper Company. For the last few decades, it has been a popular lodging spot for summer adventurers and winter snowmobilers. The same features that made this an historic crossroads - first for explorers and later for lumberjacks - is what makes Historic Pittston Farm impressive today. It sits in the middle of the forest at the junction of the north and south branches of the Penobscot River on the very edge of undeveloped Seboomook Lake. The wetlands lure waterfowl and lots of noisy Wilson's Snipe (above right). Evening Grosbeaks (left) visit the bird feeder behind the inn. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (right) are just one of seven species of woodpecker to nest in the area, including the challenging Black-backed and American Three-toed Woodpeckers. The entry gate to the North Maine Woods Association lands lies just beyond the driveway. Northern species are commonplace. Gray Jays fledge their young in early June and the all-dark juveniles (left) are very inquisitive. Boreal Chickadees (right) forage in noisy family groups among the thickets of spruce found in the area. While Spruce Grouse are particular about their favorite habitats, Ruffed Grouse are so unparticular that they are often seen roadside in the late afternoon. This year's tour turned up new pockets of Lincoln's Sparrows, Olive-sided Flycatchers, and both species of crossbill, though the White-winged Crossbills greatly outnumbered the Red. Mixed flocks typically included Purple Finches and Pine Siskins, too. Though we heard a lot of them, it took awhile to get good views of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (lower left) that favors the bogs and mountaintops of Maine. State residents see Fox Sparrows (right) under feeders in migration, but only those birders who go into the north woods get to hear them singing on their nesting territories. Rusty Blackbirds have declined precipitously over the last couple of decades and can now be hard to find, so we were quite pleased when we picked up a bunch of them in the same area. Days like this led to one of the tour's greatest pleasures: sitting on the deck at the end of the day, totaling up the day's checklist over a glass of wine. As expected, the warblers were prolific. Magnolia Warblers (below left) and Nashville Warblers are abundant in the Maine forest. We had an uncommonly high number of Wilson's Warblers during the tour, padding the list with other difficult warblers such as Bay-breasted and Blackpoll (right). A lot of Maine's breeding warblers are seen throughout the southern U.S. while migrating, but to see and hear them on their nesting grounds is extraordinary. The dawn chorus is sometimes a little overwhelming. This year's tour was the first Historic Pittston Farm tour to be offered under the auspices of the Maine Birding Trail. We ate like kings, slept like babies, and birded like tireless youngsters. We'll be back! |
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