Down East Spring Birding Festival

The annual Down East Spring Birding Festival provides a unique birding experience during spring migration and the breeding season with guided hikes and boat tours, all led by local guides with local knowledge

Festival Headquarters

5:30 am - 12:00 pm EDT
COBSCOOK INSTITUTE
Stop by to use the restroom, have a cup of coffee, fill your water bottle, take a rest, or get information.

Saturday Morning

Breakfast
5:30 am - 9:00 am EDT
FESTIVAL HQ

Campobello Island with Susan Cline, Pete Colman
6:00 am - 10:00 am EDT
CANADA
This is a driving and walking tour within Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Campobello Island is a stopover for thousands of migrating birds. The habitat includes marine shoreland, salt and freshwater marshes, sphagnum bogs, coniferous, deciduous and mixed forest, forest edges, thickets, brushy and open fields, cliffs, banks, and ponds.
Event in EDT Time Zone

Bold Coast Hike with Doug Hitchcox, Bridget VerVaet
7:00 am - 10:00 am EDT
EASTERN REGION
Boot Head Preserve of the Maine Coast Heritage Trust features some of the most dramatic views of the Maine coastline. Enjoy them, along with an excellent variety of bird sightings, during this circular hike a little more than 2 miles long.

Machias Seal Island Boat Trip with Mike Boardman  + $250.00
7:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT
EASTERN REGION
Machias Seal Island has the largest Atlantic Puffin colony on the Maine coast. The trip to the island takes about an hour. Weather and sea conditions permitting, you should have over two hours on the island, with 45-60 minutes in a blind with puffins all around. The rest of the time, you’ll be on a ground-level, open-observation platform. If the boat is unable to land, we will motor around the island with excellent opportunities to view the island’s birds.

Edmunds in The Morning with Maurry Mills, Chris West
7:00 am - 10:00 am EDT
EASTERN REGION
The older spruce-fir and early successional forests of the area are habitat for a wide variety of birds, including warblers, thrushes, and raptors, with possibilities for Spruce Grouse, and Canada Jay.

Barn Meadow Trail with Becca Cusick
7:00 am - 10:00 am EDT
NORTHERN REGION
We begin with an easy 3-mile hike along the Barn Meadow Trail through a variety of habitats: various ages of hardwood and softwood forest, a managed oak stand, wetlands, and fields.

Reynolds Brook with Bob Duchesne, Sandi McRae Duchesne
7:00 am - 10:00 am EDT
EASTERN REGION
This easy walk along a sparsely inhabited flat gravel road passes through both boreal and early successional forests, with a mixture of shade and sun. This varied habitat offers a wide variety of birds, including warblers, thrushes, and flycatchers, with the possibility of Spruce Grouse, and Canada Jay.

Round The Bay with Colin Brown
7:00 am - 11:00 am EDT
EASTERN - CENTRAL REGION
The many birds likely to be seen include warblers, Bobolinks, ducks, raptors, and more; and there will be an up-close visit to a Bald Eagle nesting site.

Saturday Midday

Pennamaquan Alewives Moving Event with Fred & Linda Gralenski, Chris Bartlett
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm EDT
CENTRAL REGION
This event consists of several short easy walks and a very small amount of driving for a close-up experience of fish ladders in the Pennamaquan River and Pennamaquan Lake. It focuses on the alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus, an anadromous fish that migrates up rivers at this time of year to spawn in lakes.

Head Harbor Passage Boat Cruise with Woody Gillies, Pete Colman, Bridget VerVaet  + $100.00
12:00 pm - 2:30 pm EDT
CENTRAL REGION
The Pier Pressure, a Coast-Guard-certified whale-watching boat, will transport you throughout Head Harbor Passage and its many Canadian islands for 2-½ hours. Amid spectacular scenery and plentiful wildlife, we'll explore Head Harbor Passage in search of  nesting Black Guillemots, Double-crested Cormorants, Bald Eagles, and three species of gulls. Razorbills and Common Eiders are also routinely seen. Seals, porpoises, salmon pens, and lighthouses will be part of the tour.

Habitat Management at Moosehorn Wildlife with Maurry Mills
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm EDT
NORTHERN REGION
Habitat Management, Monitoring, and Research for Birds at Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, Past, Present, and Future.

Whiting Bay Kayak Paddle with Spencer McCormick, Cathy Lookabaugh  + $40.00
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
EASTERN REGION
Launching from Whiting Bay Beach we’ll explore the sheltered inlets of Whiting Bay, which make up the innermost reaches of Cobscook Bay. These waters are home to abundance of eagles and seals; and one can often spot kingfishers, cormorants, and yellowlegs among other shorebirds while paddling in this ecological treasure.

Plants of Wetlands and Northern Forests with Louise Barteau
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
NORTHERN REGION
Along the path we will identify and talk about the wetland and northern forest plants that line the trail.

Saturday Afternoon

Open House at Downeast Lakes Land Trust
3:00 pm - 6:00 pm EDT
NORTHERN REGION

eBird Tutorial with Doug Hitchcox
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm EDT
NORTHERN REGION
eBird is a computer application developed by the Cornell Ornithological Laboratory in 2002 to record sightings of birds worldwide. It has established an enormous global database that is used by hundreds of thousands of birders and scientists. This workshop will show you how to set up a free account, record bird sightings for your outings, use features of the program to explore the complete database to plan your own birding trips both locally and around the world, and access your personal bird species list.

Bird Trivia & Beer with Colin Brown
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
CENTRAL REGION
Join Downeast Coastal Conservancy Staff for games and fun at Horn Run Brewery! Cash Bar

Saturday Evening

BBQ at Downeast Lakes Land Trust
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm EDT
NORTHERN REGION

Rails, Wrens, & Nighthawks; Whippoorwills, Woodcocks, & Owls with Woody Gillies, Maurry Mills, Becca Cusick
6:30 pm - 9:00 pm EDT
NORTHERN REGION
This event begins in the YCC Building with a brief orientation including photographs and calls of some of the species we hope to encounter. We will then caravan north in our own vehicles to the abandoned railroad grade off US Route 1, parking along the highway. We will walk along the old rail bed which goes through two impounded wetlands. Listen for the calls of
secretive Soras and Virginia Rails.

Bag Lunch Options

SATURDAY- Vegan Sandwich  + $18.00
6:00 am - 1:30 pm EDT
Pick-up at Festival HQ - PRE-ORDER REQUIRED

SATURDAY- Roast Beef Sandwich  + $18.00
6:00 am - 1:30 pm EDT
Pick-up at Festival HQ - PRE-ORDER REQUIRED