July 2, 2014: We slept in a bit on July first, then did some errands and birded locally, but by July 2nd we were up and out the door on our way to the Rangeley District of Maine. I first fell in love with this area from reading the books by Louise Dickinson Rich. She lived here in the early Twentieth Century and wrote vividly about her life in this area. Her descriptions of the mountains, lakes and towns were so accurate, that I use to read the books with the Maine Gazetteer in my hands and I would look each place up on the map as I read about it! When Gus and I lived in Livermore Falls, Maine for almost two years, I had him drive me to the places she wrote about in her books so I could see them for myself. Thus, I knew from experience that the Rangeley district was beautiful, but what I didn’t know then was how birdy it was! After seeing Chris and Micheal’s reactions to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I just knew I had to take them to Rangeley. Plus, every birder we met and talked to said we had to bird Boy Scout Road.
On and on we drove, climbing ever upwards to the Rangeley Mountains, until we came to a place called Height of Land; one of the most spectacular views in all of Maine! It is one of the places I read about in Louise Dickenson Rich’s books and it does not disappoint! Chris and Micheal loved this place, and I thought of a friend of mine named Donna, who loves to hike. She wants to hike the Appalachian Trail, and the trail goes right through here! Come visit me Donna and I will take you here!
Confetti on the mountainside!
They are usually found near water!
Notice how the yellow on the chin bleeds right into the lower part of the beak. This is a good field mark for this species.
This is a public rest area and local swimming hole with a fun waterfall to see! Though thunder rumbled in the background there were still plenty of swimmers seeking relief from the heat and humidity! there are some people who jump from that upper canyon wall into the upper pool, but we did not see anyone who did it while we were there.
We made it to Farmington and into a restaurant just as the skies opened up and poured down rain! Thunder boomed. Lightening flashed as we ordered our food. the power flickered a few times and threatened to go out, but the wait staff kept on serving us. Outside the window of the booth we sat in we saw a pair of killdeer running on the grassy lawn next to the restaurant! these were our first killdeer since Chris and Micheal arrived! see, even when we are eating, we are still birding! However, the windows were too wet with rain for a photo!
When the rain did not lesson, we knew any further birding was out of the question, so we decided to head for home. We took a different route, which proved to be very scenic as we travelled through a small artsy town called Mount Vernon. A wet porcupine crossed the road in front of us as we drove, then we came into town and Chris just had to get out to photograph an old mill that he fell in love with!
Later that night, long after we were home, I heard on the late news that there had been power outages and flash flooding in Rumford, Maine, right along the roads we had travelled on that morning! if we had tried to go back that way, we could have been stuck, or even worse, caught in a flash flood! I am so glad that we did decide to go home by another way! In the end we submitted 8 checklists on this day and counted 27 species of birds with 22 of them being seen on Boy Scout Road!
Links:
- Boy Scout Road-an eBird Hotspot
- Height of Emotion-Chris’ post about this day
- Louise Dickinson Rich-Wikipedia
- Rich, Louise Dickinson-Maine, an Encylopedia
- Las Aventuras-Chris’ blog
- Our Big New England Birding Adventure-all posts on this subject
