BIRDING TO THE EDG

You may have been following me on my trip to Maine with Richard Crossley two weeks ago. Well, I am going to talk about it again, because the trip was absolutely amazing. After the Machias Seal Island, Richard and I began chasing photographable Black Guillemots on the Schoodic Peninsula which harbors a small portion of Acadia National Park. Certainly, one of the more aesthetically pleasing parks in North America. These birds are extremely hard to get close to, so we tried a bit of tape to see if they would come in. We used the tape sparingly, but did get a few to come inside of the break in these little harbors (which there are thousands of) on the peninsula.

I will have fond memories of this day envisioning laying on my stomach with my Nikon D200 and my Nikon 7x42 binoculars strapped around my shoulders trying to ignore the three hundred mosquitoes at any given time trying to suck my blood. Not to mention the rocks were jagged as all heck, but I had to persevere to get some decent shots.

What we have here with these two photos are two different adult Black Guillemots. Not too difficult to identify, but are really cool seabirds and fun to watch diving in and out of the surf.

These birds breed on rocky islands off of the North Atlantic. According to Kenn Kaufman, these lovelies usually forage within 30 feet on the surface looking for crustaceans and fish for their primary diet. As with most seabirds their legs are placed farther back on their bodies to help induce a stronger propelling action as they are swimming. They are very agile with the ocean waves and will dive into a wave like a surfer just before it breaks over them.

Winter adults turn to a snowy white head and neck which makes them look significantly different. Pigeon Guillemot of the west coast has dark underwing linings, a black bar on the white wing patch, and is slightly larger. These birds only overlap in the Bering Sea so most of us down here know the Black Guillemot to be the eastern bird while the Pigeon Guillemot is known as it's western counterpart.

Optics tip: While scanning the coastline Richard and I used Nikon EDG 65mm Fieldscopes with a 20-60 zoom eyepiece. It really dawned on me that the size of the ocular glass really made it so comfortable to view through. Other scopes out there have very small hole through which to view and sometimes is like looking through a pin-hole. Keep in mind how comfortable the eyepiece is when looking at scopes, because nobody wants to continuously pull their eye off the glass to gain comfort and possibly lose time looking for your target bird. Scopes are meant to be viewed through for extended periods! A Nikon EDG Fieldscope will give you that level of comfort.


Thanks for reading! Please comment if you wish to see some different things on the blog. I will always work to get certain photos for our followers if it is feasible. Good birding!