Jeannette and I just returned from a very brief 2-day “vacation” to Belfast. For one thing, we’ve wanted to go birding there for a while (I’ve never birded the area). Secondly, we wanted a brief break to recharge from the business issues of the past couple of weeks. And finally, the inside of our house is being painted, and we wanted to get away from the fumes and drywall dust (While I hate to pay someone to do something I COULD do, they have gotten more accomplished in the past three days than we would have done in three weeks. Plus, it looks a lot better. And, I flat out suck at mudding dry wall!)

So, on Tuesday morning we set out, despite the forecast for Wednesday. After breakfast in Damariscotta, our first stop was the Maine-ly Poultry farm in Warren that has been hosting a Black Vulture all winter. This was only the second “BV” that I have seen in Maine, and for this southerly species to be overwintering is truly a rare event indeed. But, more impressive, really, was the conglomeration of Bald Eagles that has built up here this winter – we tallied at least 29!

Our next stop was a snowshoe trek at the Beech Hill Preserve in Rockport (producing a Northern Shrike and a couple of large flocks of American Robins foraging on Staghorn Sumac). This was a really great park, despite the bitter cold wind today. And, the views were breathtaking – or was that just the bitter cold wind? Anyway, this was a great spot, and we’ll definitely visit here again – the birding potential looks enormous; just wish it was closer. Meanwhile, we spotted another shrike along Rte 1 in Northport, as we continued our way east.

We arrived at Belfast Harbor just after lunch, and quickly spotted the targets of the visit here: Barrow’s Goldeneye and gulls: lots and lots of gulls. Four hens and two drake Barrow’s were present – a rather low tally for the locale, no doubt due to the lack of ice along the coast this winter. About 2,000 gulls were present, roosting on piers and rooftops. While the number of birds was not shocking, what was most surprising was the fact that out of all of those gulls, every single one – except for one lone Ring-billed Gull – was a Herring Gull. Not a single white-winged gull to be found.

(Photos by Jeannette)

After a while studying gulls in the harbor, we set off on another snowshoe trek at Fort Point State Park in Stockton Springs. I decided it would be a good idea to carry my scope to scan the water at the point, so I toted my scope for about 1 ½ exhausting miles (each way). Such effort should have been rewarded, right? Uh, no. A single hen Common Goldeneye was the only waterbird to be spotted! Dinner and a couple of beers at Rollie’s in Belfast were well earned, I believe.

On Wednesday, we awoke to about 3 fresh inches of light, fluffy snow, and immediately took advantage of it with another snowshoeing outing (we snowshoed for a total of about 9-10 miles on this trip, a good workout indeed). A very rewarding stop for a cup of very good, organic coffee from Coastal Coffee in Searsport was a pleasant surprise. Because I believe that the economic power of birders is virtually untapped, I always make a point to let local businesses know that I am a birder spending my money locally. My casual comment in this regards today, led to a conversation with the owner – to make a long story short – that he is currently thinking about taking a job in Alaska’s Pribilofs, where I used to work! Small world, huh? From a coffee shop in a small Maine town to 300 miles into the Bering Sea!

But, I digress, back to the snowshoeing and birding. Today’s march on Sears Island (yes, the one that has been the subject of the LNG development, etc, schemes) was more productive than the one yesterday afternoon, and included yet another Northern Shrike, our third for the trip, and my 23rd for the winter in Maine – a new personal record for me (plus one in Ontario and one in New Mexico!).

Our timing worked out well, because the snow began to change to sleet just as we returned to the car. We were banking on the changeover from ice to rain to be quick in the region, so after a little rest at our motel, we were happy to see that precipitation had become nothing more than a steady rain, and the roads began to clear (in fact, we didn’t see any icing until we reached West Bath). In fact, our road-related problems on the trip today were mostly minor flooding related.

Back at Belfast Harbor, we took refuge under the sign kiosk at the pedestrian bridge, affording us shelter from the rain as we enjoyed close-up studies of Barrow’s Goldeneyes, and sorted through thousands of gulls. More than yesterday - we estimated 2,500+ plus today – the flock was 100% Herring Gulls. Although we enjoyed studying the variation in plumages of all age groups of Herring Gulls, we were definitely disappointed not to pick up at least one Iceland or Glaucous Gull. I guess white-winged gulls don’t like potatoes!

Can you identify all four age cycles of Herring Gull in this shot?

Our drive home was easy, just a little slushy at times, so our plan worked out well. We had aspirations of a little seawatching at Pemaquid Point, but we decided to skip that due to the steady rain and fog. We didn’t want to fight slushy side roads down to the point only to see a bank of fog. Besides, I just couldn’t wait to get home to get to work on the driveway!

And, upon our return to Pownal, our little vacation came to a crashing end as I spent over 2 hours battling 6 inches of slush on our driveway (it’s now a nice, smooth sheet of ice this morning – curling anyone?). And, just to make us want to still be away even more, just as I sat down and Jeannette got dinner started, we lost power (Well, at least 70,000+ other Mainers were in the same boat with us!). So, making the best of the situation, we hopped back into the car, drove to Freeport – which luckily had power – and enjoyed an early Valentine’s Day dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, the Mediterranean Grill.