Follow the Maine Birding Trail

Growing up in Maine, I took for granted that I lived in the “vacation” state. My brother and I were lucky to get to go hiking, camping, fishing, exploring and swimming each summer—the sorts of things that some kids from other parts of the country only got to do in Maine during their all-too short summer vacations. The Maine Birding Trail brochure highlights many of my favorite places from childhood. My mother pushed me in a stroller at Kettle Cove and Pine Point,where I fought the gulls for my steamed clams. On some kind of leash built for toddlers, I climbed Bradbury Mountain with my parents and looked through binoculars at osprey nests. As a little girl, I watched sparrows and egrets with my elementary school classmates in canoes at Scarborough Marsh. I lost my raincoat. I ran with the sandpipers along Popham Beach. Our family ventured out on boats a lot, too, to islands, where I liked to spot bald eagles. But my favorite—my token bird—was always the Great Blue Heron, who appeared wherever I waded into saltwater: the Great Salt Bay Farm in Damariscotta is still a favorite spot for my family to walk today. For a link to the draft Maine Birding Trail brochure, go to:http://www.mainebirdingtrail.com/Draft_Brochure.pdf  For other information about Maine birding and the areas mentioned in this blog post, visit: http://www.mainebirdingtrail.com/Brochure.html