Maine trip, Pt 1 - Claybrook Mountain Lodge

For my last few posts, I have been referring to a vacation that Pamela and I took last week. It started on Sunday, June 28th, where we headed up to the Claybrook Mountain Lodge in Highland Plantation, ME. Along the way we made a stop at Lake Messalonskee in Belgrade in hopes of putting the kayaks in for a little while. Unfortunately, as we arrived, the first drops of what would be a regular on-and-off rain started to fall. We satisfied ourselves with some mid-range looks at the Black Terns there, and continued on our way to the lodge, where we our friends, Eddie, Mark, Laura, and a group of other birders from the Brookline Bird Club - as well as Pat, our hostess at the Lodge who met us with homemade cookies and fresh fruit. As we waited for the rest of our group to arrive, we birded the grounds and the road near the lodge, where we saw the first of several pairs of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers.


Once everybody arrived we headed out as a group to explore some local spots, including a very reliable spot for snipe. We were able to hear a pair winnowing almost upon stepping out of the car, but the rain soon drove us back to the cover of our vehicles. As we were turning the vehicles around, we noticed that the rain-grounded snipe were not on the ground at all!
On returning to the lodge, we had our first amazing meal from our hosts, and many of us stayed up chatting, playing cards, telling bird tales and generally catching up. That evening, while a few of us were still up and hanging out on the enclosed porch, the light drew in a large moth, which turned out to be a beautiful Polyphemus Moth:
And speaking of moths, the next morning there were a pair of Blinded Hawk Moths roosting on the screen in the hall window near where a light had been left on overnight.

Over the next few days, we travelled to various places in the area, often guided by our host Greg, who knows the area very well, and is an excellent naturalist. We explored logging roads and trails (including winding down a questionable dirt road when a bridge was out - great job driving Greg!) looking for boreal specialties like Gray Jay and Spruce Grouse (tho' I missed that one) as well as warblers that were singing on territory like Blackburnian & Mourning.
Although not a great photo, it was probably my best looks at this skulking bird to that point. The next day we would get even better looks, with a bird perched up and singing for a few minutes at a time. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me, as we were hiking up a small mountain, the weather was questionable, and I had broken the shutter release on the camera the day before and I had become a bit disgusted with it. (Thankfully, I was able to work around it for the rest of the trip.) One day we did have a bit of sun, and during that time, a few dragonflies also made their appearance. As I was slowly approaching this Beaverpond Baskettail, it flew up right at me, bounced off of me twice, and landed again on the ground. It was only after a minute of shooting that I realized that it had caught the deer fly that had been buzzing my head only moments before, and was consuming it!

One day, Greg led everyone who wanted to on a canoe/kayak trip on Gilman Pond. Pam was tired, and sizing up the weather, I decided to pass on it, and spend some more time with the resident sapsuckers. I had found one pair visiting a nest cavity, and really was hoping for some nice light for photos and maybe a video or two. Well, the light never got much brighter, but I had the idea of setting up the camera on a tripod and tripping the shutter with the camera's infrared remote control. I was able to get a few nice photos and some video that I was quite happy with. Unfortunately, when I compiled them and uploaded to YouTube, there was quite a bit of degradation in the quality, but you get the idea...



Next post, birding in the Rangeley Lakes area