Our 44th annual bald eagle trip on September 21, 2013 set a new record for total number (66) of bald eagles sighted! The boat was full of eager birders and the day was nice with a foggy ending, though we were told by some guests who know Southport that it always gets foggy around Southport no matter what it’s like in the harbor or up river!
The trip route was out of Boothbay Harbor and up the Kennebec River into Merrymeeting Bay. We followed the river past Swan Island to Richmond where we turned around back to Bath to the Sasanoa River back to Boothbay via the north side of Southport. We stopped counting birds on the way back from Richmond and started again when we were on the Sasanoa River.
27 species total were sighted and the full species list is below the photos. Follow the links below for some awesome bald eagle photos from two of our guests (if you have some leave us a link in the comments, or send it via email and we will update):
- Canada Goose 32
- Common Eider 60
- White-winged Scoter 2
- Common Loon 4
- Northern Gannet 5 (Out of Boothbay Harbor)
- Double-crested Cormorant 40
- Great Blue Heron 4
- Snowy Egret 1
- Turkey Vulture 17
- Osprey 7
- Northern Harrier 2
- Bald Eagle 66 (First Eagle was in Kennebec River in Sagadahoc County Did not count numbers of mature and immatures but there were more immatures – mostly 2&3 year)
- Broad-winged Hawk 1
- Red-tailed Hawk 1 (Kennebec River)
- Spotted Sandpiper 1
- Greater Yellowlegs 8
- Black Guillemot 3 (Coming out of Boothbay Harbor)
- Bonaparte’s Gull 10
- Laughing Gull 2
- Ring-billed Gull 13
- Herring Gull 35
- Great Black-backed Gull 8
- Belted Kingfisher 5
- American Kestrel 1
- Merlin 2
- Blue Jay 8
- American Crow 6
View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S15225307
