A warm night and an early awakening sees us taking a stroll to the village before breakfast. It's foggy but warm, and consequently very humid. We check out the schooner trip and, walking back to the B&B, spot a 'Bird Tours of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park' sign. The office is not open yet but just as we are leaving the owner turns up and we arrange for an afternoon trip.
Breakfast is a choice of sweet or savoury, we both go for the sweet, which is almond, blueberry and oat brûlée, with steel cut oats (?? Wonder what these are), maple syrup, fresh blueberries and almonds - when it comes it looks a lot like what we'd call porridge! There is also pineapple on the side and bacon for the meat eater.
It tastes delicious, as do the cranberry and orange scones that are also on offer. A couple of cups of tea later we are on our way back to the jetty to see if we can climb aboard the schooner morning trip.
The schooner at anchor.
The day's cruise ship had docked at 7am so hopefully they will not all want to go out on another boat trip! It turns out that some do! but luckily the boat is not too full. The fog has lifted slightly but seems to be swirling around. The Captain says he needs volunteers to help get all four sails up, so we pitch in, not too difficult really. There are so many lobster pot markers and fog so dense that someone has to stand at the front of the ship and signal to the captain which way to go in order to avoid them. Apparently there are about three million of these marker buoys around the island!
Islands hove into view and then disappear into the fog again, as does this morning's cruise ship.
There are Guillimots and Gulls but a bit too late for the Puffins. Two different types of Seal,
this Grey Seal (if you can make it out) is cutting through the water at quite a rate, the Captain tells us that these are the larger heavier seals. One of the deckhands points out a tree on top of Porcupine Island that has a Bald Eagle nest in it. Apparently they have raised two young there this year. He told us that he could make out the head of one of these immature bald eagles in the nest, but I'm blowed if I can see it even using the fifty times zoom on the camera, and he didn't even have binoculars!
The boat is under sail and there is about a two or three foot swell, apparently more wind than they usually experience on the morning sail. It is very quiet, just the sounds of the boat creaking as it glides through the water - very pleasant. The sun has even made some brief appearances.
Return to land and check out the little cabins on one of the piers - here we find a giant beached whale.
Well, it's a sculpture really of course, otherwise there'd be a dreadful smell and we probably wouldn't want to get as close as Eric has!
Eric's appearance, as usual, means we strike up a conversation with the people sitting next to us on the bench, who were from near Albany. A saunter back to the B&B for a relaxing cup of tea before we depart on our afternoon excursion.
Our guide picks us up at 1:30 in a Chrysler Pacifica - you press a button and the doors close themselves - well the back sliding doors did anyway. The bird tour involved driving to about a dozen or more locations around Mount Desert Island, including within the Acadia National Park, where we would jump down from the car and then have a shortish twenty minute or so hike looking for birds (and any other interesting wildlife he might have spotted). Initially, as with our earlier outings, the birds seemed to be hard to find, but by the end of the afternoon we had worked up quite a list.
Have put some photos in, as much to show some of the views and the varying states of fog, but won't bore you too much with the details!
We were quite excited to spot a beaver dam, and the trees the Beavers had been munching on!
Our first beaver dam, behind the dam we could even see the beaver lodge.
A closer look at that dam.
A closer look because we were amazed by this - as was the guide by our amazement! Apparently they do this as more of an orthodontic service to themselves because their teeth don't stop growing, so they have to wear them away. It does have other benefits for them of course.
precise.
More images of the Azalea Gardens. We'd gone there to look for birds, but it was possibly more interesting for the other things as we didn't seen many birds!
A very pretty little bird in the marshland - a Common Yellowthroat - the leaves kept getting in the way every time we tried to take a picture so decided to go with this one in the end.
The Loop Road in the mist, with some Semi-palmated Plover and Least Sandpiper
They were there, honest.
We also visited some high school ponds - a good wildlife spotting area.
Plus a Muskrat!
With a very broad flat tail! It uses it for propulsion under water.
A Solitary Sandpiper having a snack
And it's gone!
Arrive back about 6pm, quite tired and quite hungry. We had missed the regular afternoon tea provided by the B&B but luckily not all the goodies had been eaten. Consequently we staved off our immediate hunger and enjoyed the 'leftovers' with a cup of tea before venturing out for dinner. Our choice of eating establishment was quite adventurous for us, a Tapas Bar, but it was closer than most of the others! It turned out to be a very good choice as the food was delicious with very friendly and helpful staff.
Eric enjoying the Tapas
