Downeast Migration Birding Festival
A Gull filled weekend you won’t want to miss!
August 16th-18th, 2024
Link to 2023 eBird Bird Count
Join our passionate guides and our sweet community of bird enthusiasts for a deep dive into the fall migration in Downeast Maine.
2024 Weekend Festival Fee: $500
(Sliding Scale available for local residents)
Weekend Fee Includes:
2 Boat Trips to Head Harbor Passage out of Eastport
3 Opportunities to visit the South Lubec Flats
Guided Trips to Upper Duck Pond, Pike Lands, Quoddy Bog, Campobello Island & Mowry Beach
Friday Night Dinner & Music
Early Breakfasts Friday-Sunday
Bag Lunches Friday-Sunday
*You may customize your itinerary to your interests, however everything is included in the flat rate for the weekend.
Cobscook Institute Accommodations:
Private Rooms in Heartwood Lodge: $140/night (with a 3 night minimum)
Different room types are available to meet your needs, with full size beds and single bunk beds. Each room has a private bathroom and is available for single to quadruple occupancy depending on the size of your group. The Lodge has a quiet library, a communal kitchen with dining room and laundry facilities.
Camping: $15/night (with a 3 night minimum)
Camp alongside Heartwood Lodge and have access to bathrooms and showers in The Lodge as well as the quiet library, communal kitchen, dining room and laundry facilities.
RV Parking: $25/night (with a 3 night minimum)
Park in Cobscook Institute’s lower parking lot with electrical plug in and have access to bathrooms and showers in The Lodge as well as the quiet library, communal kitchen, dining room and laundry facilities.
Our festival accommodates 30 participants and we attempt to make accommodations for everyone on campus.
Birdlist:
Common Eider
Red-necked Phalarope
Spotted Sandpiper
Pomarine Jaeger
Parasitic Jaeger
Common Murre
Razorbill
Black Guillemot
Atlantic Puffin
Black-legged Kittiwake
Sabine's Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
Black-headed Gull
Little Gull
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Caspian Tern
Black Tern
Common Tern
Arctic Tern
Common Loon
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Great Shearwater
Sooty Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
Northern Gannet
Great Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Bald Eagle
American Crow
Common Raven
Peregrine Falcon
The Trips:
South Lubec Flats
The most abundant species include least, white-rumped, and semipalmated sandpiper, dunlin, sanderling, black-bellied and semipalmated plover, greater and lesser yellowlegs, short-billed dowitcher, and ruddy turnstone. We'll search through the flocks for less common species such as western, Baird's, and buff-breasted sandpiper, American golden plover, willet, whimbrel, marbled and Hudsonian godwits. Bring your binoculars and a spotting scope if you have one.
Head Harbor Boat Trip
The Pier Pressure, a Coast-Guard-certified whale-watching boat, will transport us throughout Head Harbor Passage and its many Canadian islands for 2-½ hours. Seabirds congregate to feed in the strong tidal upwellings and to roost on the many exposed ledges. We'll sort through flocks of Bonaparte's gulls in search of black-legged kittiwakes, little gulls, and black-headed gulls, and we'll venture out to East Quoddy Head to look for shearwaters, razorbills, and murres. Minke whales, harbor porpoises, and seals also frequent this area. Bring your binoculars and camera.
Pike Land Preserve
In August migrating and resident birds are abundant and include vireos, warblers, flycatchers, thrushes, raptors and coastal seabirds.
Quoddy Head Bog Walk
The Park’s variety of habitats include dense balsam fir and red spruce forest and the 7-acre boreal peat bog surrounded by black spruce. Many neotropical migrant birds may be seen along the coastal and inland trails and the bog boardwalk. Carrying Place Cove Bog is considered one of the most significant peatlands in the eastern US, and in clear weather the trails along the rockbound shore offer dramatic cliff views.