Downeast Migration Birding Festival
A Gull filled weekend you won’t want to miss!
August 16-19, 2024
Registration Opens May 1st
Link to 2023 eBird Bird Count
Join our passionate guides and our sweet community of bird enthusiasts for a deep dive into the fall migration in Downeast Maine.
2024 Weekend Festival Fee: $400
(Sliding Scale available for local residents)
Weekend Fee Includes:
2 Boat Trips to Head Harbor Passage out of Eastport
3 Opportunities to visit the Lubec Flats
Guided Trips to Bog Brook, Reynold’s Brook, Quoddy Head and Edmunds Moosehorn
Friday Night Dinner & Talk
Early Breakfasts Friday-Monday
Bag Lunches Friday-Sunday
*You may customize your itinerary to your interests, however everything is included in the flat rate for the weekend.
Cobscook Institute Accommodations:
Private Rooms in Heartwood Lodge: $140/night (with a 3 night minimum)
Different room types are available to meet your needs, with full size beds and single bunk beds. Each room has a private bathroom and is available for single to quadruple occupancy depending on the size of your group. The Lodge has a quiet library, a communal kitchen with dining room and laundry facilities.
Camping: $20/night (with a 3 night minimum)
Camp alongside Heartwood Lodge and have access to bathrooms and showers in The Lodge as well as the quiet library, communal kitchen, dining room and laundry facilities.
RV Parking: $30/night (with a 3 night minimum)
Park in Cobscook Institute’s lower parking lot with electrical plug in and have access to bathrooms and showers in The Lodge as well as the quiet library, communal kitchen, dining room and laundry facilities.
Our festival accomodates 30 participants and we attempt to make accommodations for everyone on campus.
Birdlist:
Common Eider
Red-necked Phalarope
Spotted Sandpiper
Pomarine Jaeger
Parasitic Jaeger
Common Murre
Razorbill
Black Guillemot
Atlantic Puffin
Black-legged Kittiwake
Sabine's Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
Black-headed Gull
Little Gull
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Black Tern
Common Tern
Arctic Tern
Common Loon
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Great Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
Northern Gannet
Great Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
American Crow
Common Raven
Peregrine Falcon
The Trips:
South Lubec Flats
The most abundant species include least, white-rumped, and semipalmated sandpiper, dunlin, sanderling, black-bellied and semipalmated plover, greater and lesser yellowlegs, short-billed dowitcher, and ruddy turnstone. We'll search through the flocks for less common species such as western, Baird's, and buff-breasted sandpiper, American golden plover, willet, whimbrel, marbled and Hudsonian godwits. Bring your binoculars and a spotting scope if you have one.
Head Harbor Boat Trip
The Pier Pressure, a Coast-Guard-certified whale-watching boat, will transport us throughout Head Harbor Passage and its many Canadian islands for 2-½ hours. Seabirds congregate to feed in the strong tidal upwellings and to roost on the many exposed ledges. We'll sort through flocks of Bonaparte's gulls in search of black-legged kittiwakes, little gulls, and black-headed gulls, and we'll venture out to East Quoddy Head to look for shearwaters, razorbills, and murres. Minke whales, harbor porpoises, and seals also frequent this area. Bring your binoculars and camera.
Pike Land Preserve
In August migrating and resident birds are abundant and include vireos, warblers, flycatchers, thrushes, raptors and coastal seabirds.
Quoddy Head Light
The Park’s variety of habitats include dense balsam fir and red spruce forest and the 7-acre boreal peat bog surrounded by black spruce. Many neotropical migrant birds may be seen along the coastal and inland trails and the bog boardwalk. Carrying Place Cove Bog is considered one of the most significant peatlands in the eastern US, and in clear weather the trails along the rockbound shore offer dramatic cliff views. Permanent residents include Spruce Grouse, Canada Jay, Common Raven, and White-winged and Red Crossbills. Other species include Common Eider, Merlin, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Golden- and Ruby-crowned Kinglets; Swainsons, Bicknell’s, and Hermit Thrushes; two dozen warbler species, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, and seabirds.
Edmunds Moosehorn
This part of the refuge has more of the coastal spruce-fir habitat than the northern Baring Division. Starting in 1993 a series of 3-to-5-acre clear cuts were done to increase habitat for early successional species such as American Woodcock and Chestnut-sided Warbler. 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. At the end of the South Trail we will park and walk a short distance into a designated Wilderness Area. No mechanized or motorized equipment is permitted in Wilderness Areas; they are meant to be “forever wild” with no active management and minimal impacts from people. There we will scout the Crane Mill Flowage for waterfowl and possibly Solitary or Spotted Sandpipers.
Reynolds Brook
This varied habitat offers a wide variety of birds, including warblers, thrushes, and flycatchers, with the possibility of Spruce Grouse, and Canada Jay. 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. The route is not a loop, so the distance we will walk before turning around is not predetermined. There is good visibility for all participants.