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

Sunday Hours
5:30 am - 8:00 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.

Sunday Morning

Breakfast
12:00 am - 3:30 am EDT
FESTIVAL HQ
Join us for an early morning cuppa & complimentary light meal.

Boot Head Hike with Bridget VerVaet, Louise Barteau
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.

Pottle Tree Farm Walk with Fred & Linda Gralenski, Nathaniel Sharp
7:00 am - 10:00 am EDT
CENTRAL REGION
Pottle Tree Farm has diverse habitats, including hayfields, grown-up farmland, a working forest of mixed hardwood and softwood through which Boyden Stream runs, and surrounding lowlands. Apple trees and overgrown cellar holes are scattered throughout, mixed with alders, cherries, roses, and other shrubs.

Songbirds on Commissary Point with Doug Hitchcox
7:00 am - 10:00 am EDT
FESTIVAL HQ
This area attracts a variety of bird species including warblers, vireos, flycatchers, woodpeckers, and raptors.

Machias Seal Island Boat Trip with Colin Brown  + $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.

Pike Lands with Woody Gillies
7:00 am - 10:00 am EDT
EASTERN REGION
The highlight of this walk is the great variety of warblers and other bird species including vireos and flycatchers that may be seen in the apple orchard. The trail leaves the orchard and goes through a forested area, saltwater marsh and follows the Cobscook shore to a gravel bar.  Thrushes, Swamp and Nelson's Sparrows, Great Blue Heron, Bald Eagle (active nest likely), and perhaps shorebirds can be seen along these varied habitats on the way to the gravel bar.

Eagle Bog Excursion with Bob Duchesne, Sandi McRae Duchesne
7:00 am - 10:00 am EDT
CANADA
This moving event offers a rare opportunity to bird a bog via boardwalk. Unusual resident species are often close to the path. Magnolia, Nashville, and Palm Warblers should be easy. More difficult targets include Lincoln’s Sparrow and Northern Goshawk.
Event in EDT Time Zone

Sunday Midday

Bird Sketching with Mike Boardman
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm EDT
FESTIVAL HQ
Wildlife artist and Maine Master naturalist Michael Boardman will teach a class pairing nature journaling and art skills with looking at birds. We’ll work from mounted specimens in the classroom, going over basic drawing techniques and strategies for capturing the gesture of live birds the field.  Nature journaling is a great way to learn and meditate about the world around us, and drawing what we see helps us better understand and explore the wonder of the natural world.

Beach, Birding & Beer with Cathy Lookabaugh, Doug Hitchcox
12:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
EASTERN REGION
Explore the shoreline habitats of Mowry Beach Preserve, an uncommon and beautiful example of sandy beach in the region. Proceeding along an all-accessible beach and marshland boardwalk, we’ll search for shorebirds, warblers, gulls, and more. The trip will conclude at Lubec Brewing Company. CASH BAR

Head Harbor Passage Boat Cruise with Chris Bartlett, Fred & Linda Gralenski  + $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.

Plant Walk- Quoddy Head Bog with Louise Barteau
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm EDT
EASTERN REGION
In the bog there is a raised boardwalk of 0.2 miles from which to view, and identify bog plants and shrubs of the northern forest that thrive in conditions of high levels of acidic water and few nutrients.

Sunday Evening

The Bird Tally! with Doug Hitchcox
5:00 pm - 6:00 pm EDT
Festival HQ

Bird Tally Celebration Dinner with Minor Characters  + $15.00
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm EDT
FESTIVAL HQ
We will be celebrating our Bird Tally over dinner. The  Minor Characters will be playing their lively blend of Traditional Jazz, Gypsy, Gypsy Jazz and Fiddle tunes.

Woodcock Walk with Woody Gillies, Maurry Mills
8:00 pm - 9:30 pm EDT
EASTERN REGION
This evening event in the Edmunds Division of the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge is timed especially for observing the fascinating courtship flight of the American Woodcock. We will be visiting areas managed specifically by the US Fish & Wildlife Service to provide habitat for this bird and a variety of other species that require young forests.

Bag Lunch Options

SUNDAY- Vegan Sandwich  + $18.00
Sun May 26, 6:00 am - 1:30 pm EDT
Pick-up at Festival HQ - PRE-ORDER REQUIRED

SUNDAY- Turkey Sandwich  + $18.00
Sun May 26, 6:00 am - 1:30 pm EDT
Pick-up at Festival HQ - PRE-ORDER REQUIRED