Birds from our New England tour September 2024.

 

Bald Eagle at Squam Lake

The tour we were leading for Naturetrek was entitled "Autumn Colours of New England" and as yet I've not posted a single "colour" image. That will change on my next blog but firstly I need to show some of the birds we photographed during our 2 weeks travelling in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire.

I admit I'm not good on the North American 'lbj's' but was fortunate that our other leader Martin Pitt was an expert and could hear and spot warblers at some distance, often buried in deep scrub or at the tops of trees so don't expect many to be included in this blog.

These are in no chronological order so I'll start with the big guys first. Bald Eagles were ever present throughout the tour and our visit to Monhegan Island in Maine saw one fly very close overhead whilst we had stunning views of 2 birds on Squam Lake in New Hampshire.

 

Bald Eagle at Monhegan Island 

Bald Eagle at Monhegan Island

Bald Eagle at Squam Lake

Common Loons were on a few peoples bucket list to see and they weren't disappointed. In the UK we call them Great Northern Divers but in the US they're Loons!

Once again Squam Lake provided our best views and for those of a certain age this is the lake where they filmed "On Golden Pond" a 1981 production featuring Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda and Katherine Hepburn. Anyone who remembers the film may remember the Loons calling in the background of many scenes.

Common Loon

Common Loon

Common Loon

Common Loon

 

 

As would be expected in a land of millions of trees Woodpeckers turned up on several occasions.

Our best sighting was of a huge Pileated Woodpecker knocking hell out of a rotten stump.... we watched it from the car whilst waiting for traffic lights to change so no photos from our vehicle but I do believe that Martin got a quick video on his phone.

Our most frequent was the Hairy Woodpecker and the Red-Bellied alongside several good views of Northern Flicker.

Red-bellied Wodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Another arboreal specialist was the Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

 

Cedar Waxwings turned up wherever there was a berry laden tree, often accompanied by American Robins. We had  views of them in Tenants Harbor on the coast and at Bethel inland near the NH border. Many of the Waxwings were juveniles.

Juvenile Cedar Waxwing

Cedar Waxwing

Juvenile & an adult Cedar Waxwing

 

American Robin

The coastal stretch from Kittery Point up through Maine to Acadia National Park provided many good estuarine and shoreline birds so here are a selection....

Mostly Double-crested Cormorants with a few Great Cormorants

Double-crested Cormorant

 

Great Blue Heron

Greater Yellowlegs at Scarborough Marsh

Belted Kingfisher at Weskeag Marsh

Great Egret at Scarborough Marsh

American Herring Gull

Black Guillemot at Monhegan Island

Eider Drake at Monhegan Island

Semi-palmated Plover at Acadia NP.

 Many of the other birds were snatch shots in passing as I was driving and leading so despite wanting to push to the front our responsibility was to get the clients up front to see the wildlife!

After passing numerous Wild Turkeys I finally gave in on the next to last day and drove into a farm entrance so we could all photograph them.

Wild Turkeys

A few of the group gathered around a berry tree

 

 

Here are a selection of "others" taken during the tour.....

Brown-headed Cowbird

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Blue Jay

Song Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal

Eastern Phoebe

Gray Jay

Northern Harrier

American Goshawk

Merlin

 

Dark-eyed Juncos

Dark-eyed Junco's

Myrtle Warbler

Black-capped Chickadee

Savannah Sparrow

Wood Ducks

Wood Ducks

This was an organised tour by Naturetrek Tours and we will be doing the same trip again in 2025. Please follow the link if interested in joining us.

Naturetrek: Autumn Colours of New England 2025

Whale watching out of Bar Harbor, Maine, USA September 24th 2024.

 

I've been fortunate to lead a recent Naturetrek tour entitled "Autumn colours of New England" which took in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire.

Here are photos and chat about our whale watching day...more updates to follow about the 'autumn colours'.

 

One of the highlights of the 14 day tour was a pre-booked whale watching trip from Bar Harbor in Acadia National Park, Maine. We were sweating on whether the boat would go as a heavy swell in the north eastern Atlantic had caused them to cancel the 3 days prior to our booking and even then we had warnings that it could get quite rough once out of the bay. But we were in luck and the large catamaran left dock at 11 am and once out in the ocean ploughed into a head wind at 30 knots. We all had our hoods up and huddled in as the wind in our faces was very strong and indeed uncomfortable. But we were hardened wildlife watchers and whilst we could have gone downstairs in the warm cabin we stayed up on deck looking for a first sighting of a whale or any wildlife to be fair!

There was a very knowledgeable marine ecologist giving a commentary and we learnt an awful lot in a short space of time. We spotted Harbour Porpoise, Short-beaked Common Dolphins and Atlantic White-sided Dolphins on our 60 mile journey north into Canadian waters.

All types of vessels were enjoying the area and this huge cruise liner was moored in the bay.

Atlantic White-sided Dolphins

Atlantic White-sided Dolphins

Atlantic White-sided Dolphins

 As we pressed on father toward the Bay of Fundy with Nova Scotia in the far distance most of our phones started buzzing with "Welcome to Canada" showing us we had entered into Canadian waters. Suddenly our other leader Martin Pitt shouted out that he'd seen a "blow" from a whale in the distance and we all kept our eyes peeled. We reached an area of white water where we were told there was an up-welling of water where the depth changed from 600 feet to 200 feet and this was where the whales like to feed.

All of a sudden we had 2 whales on our port side and as they started to show themselves they were identified as rare Northern Right Whales. So rare that it is estimated there are only about 350 left in the world. The skipper powered back and we drifted along always keeping our distance from them but they came quite close and displayed by head popping and diving to show their tail flukes. This was a "mega moment" in my marine watching life and they displayed for about 30 mins until we moved on to look for other sightings.

Distinctive 'blow' from a Northern Right whale

 

Northern Right whale

2 Northern Right whales

Northern Right whale

2 Northern Right whales

Northern Right whale

Northern Right whale

Northern Right whale

2 Northern Right whales

Northern Right whale

2 Northern Right whales

 

As we left the Northern Rights we motored on and started spotting both Humpback and Fin whales.

There were 'blows' all around us and several animals came close to the boat to check us out. 

We counted 3 Fin whales, the 2nd largest animal on earth after the Blue whale and it was an amazing experience to look down from the upper deck onto these huge creatures.

Fin whale

Fin whale

 

It was estimated that we saw between 12 and 15 individual Humpbacks and we didn't know where to look as they blew and dived showing their tail flukes in every direction we looked.

Here are just a few of the many images I captured on the day.....

Humpback whale

 

Humpback whale

Humpback whale

Humpback whale

Humpback whales

Humpback whales

Humpback whales

Humpback whale

Humpback whale

Humpback whale

 

After spending approximately 90 minutes in close proximity to these animals it was time to take the long trek back to port. I must add that the tour was both educational and ethical with all whales left to  forage and feed without any pressure from the boat. Everyone was elated and the journey back didn't seem so bad as we also had the wind behind us so it was a more pleasurable passage than on the way out. Very few birds were seen but here are a couple of the better ones.

Possible Common Tern

Pomarine Jaeger or Skua to us Brits

Back into sheltered waters

 

I can highly recommend Bar Harbor Whale watching Company if you get up to Acadia  and Naturetrek tours run this as part of their "Autumn Colours of New England" tour annually.