Downeast Spring Birding Festival
Every Memorial Day Weekend since 2003
May 23rd- May 26th, 2025
The annual Down East Spring Birding Festival provides a unique birding experience during spring migration and the breeding season with four days of guided hikes, boat tours, and presentations, all led by local guides with local knowledge. The Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife has named the Down East Spring Birding Festival one of the best in the country, and was listed by Yankee Magazine as an Editor’s Choice event.
The Spring Festival is planned by 20+ community members from 10 partnering organizations, promising an event reflective of the naturalists who treasure this region.
2024 Festival Fee: $150
(Sliding Scale available for local residents)
Our Inclusive Rate Includes:
Breakfasts
Guided Trips
Presentations
Talks
Add-on Items:
$18 Bagged Lunches
$250 Puffin Boat Trips
$100 Head Harbor Boat Trip
$120 Petit Manan Boat Trip
$40 Canoe & Kayak Paddles
$30 Welcome Dinner
$15 Bird Tally Celebration Dinner
All events are self selected and optional, allowing you to customize your weekend to your interests and energy levels.
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: $20/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: $30/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 has 130+ participants and we regrettably cannot make accommodations for everyone on campus. Please visit our Where to Stay Webpage for more options.
200+ Potential Bird Species:
Spruce & Ruffed Grouse
Eastern Whip-poor-will
American Woodcock
Razorbill
Black Guillemot
Atlantic Puffin
Bald Eagle
Canada Jay
Winter Wren
Hermit & Swainson’s Thrush
Bobolink
20+ Warbler Species
Ducks
Scoters
Popular Events:
2024 Keynote Talk with Bob Duchesne
Enjoy our annual Keynote Talk with an area Naturalist presented on Friday evening of the festival at Cobscook Institute’s Campus.
Machias Seal Island Puffin Trip
Machias Seal Island has the largest Atlantic Puffin colony on the Maine coast. The trip to the island takes about an hour. Weather and sea conditions permitting, you should have over two hours on the island, with 45-60 minutes in a blind with puffins all around. The rest of the time, you’ll be on a ground-level, open-observation platform. If the boat is unable to land, we will motor around the island with excellent opportunities to view the island’s birds.
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. Amid spectacular scenery and plentiful wildlife, we'll explore Head Harbor Passage in search of nesting Black Guillemots, Double-crested Cormorants, Bald Eagles, and three species of gulls. Razorbills and Common Eiders are also routinely seen. Seals, porpoises, salmon pens, and lighthouses will be part of the tour.
Birding By Ear Workshop
Join this presentation by Bob Duchesne—avid bird guide, Bangor Daily News columnist, YouTube contributor, and author of the official guide to the Maine Birding Trail—as he helps you demystify birding by ear. In this popular presentation, Bob will offer simple tips for mentally organizing what you’re hearing and help you take advantage of what you already know. Experienced birders are encouraged to share their own tips.
eBird Tutorial
eBird is a computer application developed by the Cornell Ornithological Laboratory in 2002 to record sightings of birds worldwide. It has established an enormous global database that is used by hundreds of thousands of birders and scientists. This workshop will show you how to set up a free account, record bird sightings for your outings, use features of the program to explore the complete database to plan your own birding trips both locally and around the world, and access your personal bird species list.
Edmunds Moosehorn
This part of the refuge has more of the coastal spruce-fir habitat than the northern Baring Division. Starting in 1993 a series of 3-to-5-acre clear cuts were done to increase habitat for early successional species such as American Woodcock and Chestnut-sided Warbler. The older spruce-fir and early successional forests of the area are habitat for a wide variety of birds, including warblers, thrushes, and raptors, with possibilities for Spruce Grouse, and Canada Jay. At the end of the South Trail we will park and walk a short distance into a designated Wilderness Area. No mechanized or motorized equipment is permitted in Wilderness Areas; they are meant to be “forever wild” with no active management and minimal impacts from people. There we will scout the Crane Mill Flowage for waterfowl and possibly Solitary or Spotted Sandpipers.
Reynolds Brook
This varied habitat offers a wide variety of birds, including warblers, thrushes, and flycatchers, with the possibility of Spruce Grouse, and Canada Jay. This easy walk along a sparsely inhabited flat gravel road passes through both boreal and early successional forests, with a mixture of shade and sun. The route is not a loop, so the distance we will walk before turning around is not predetermined. There is good visibility for all participants.
Warbler Walks
Enjoy a non-strenuous walk, for birders of all levels, on the Cobscook Institute campus and nearby trails. We will get to exercise our birding-by-ear skills as well as our birding-by-eye skills, and observe the associations between birds and habitats. We will look and listen for flycatchers, vireos, thrushes, many species of warblers, and a variety of other birds. The walk will take us around the campus and, time permitting, down a lane into forest and meadows.
Campobello Island
This is a driving and walking tour within Roosevelt Campobello International Park. Campobello Island is a stopover for thousands of migrating birds. The habitat includes marine shoreland, salt and freshwater marshes, sphagnum bogs, coniferous, deciduous and mixed forest, forest edges, thickets, brushy and open fields, cliffs, banks, and ponds. Over 150 avian species breed here or on nearby islands or migrate through the area, including Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, American Black Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Common Eider, Spruce Grouse, Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper, and many varieties of gulls.
Boot Head Hike
The coniferous forest regularly has Blue-headed and Red-eyed Vireos; Magnolia, Black-throated Green, Black-and-white, and Yellow-rumped Warblers; Ovenbirds, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Black-capped Chickadees. Boreal Chickadees (uncommon) and Spruce Grouse are found in the boreal forest. Stands of stunted spruce along the rocky headlands provide habitat for migrating passerines. Black Guillemots breed on the rock ledges and may be seen in the water below the cliffs. Common Ravens have nested on the cliffs in the past and the young may be in view from the trail in late May.
Barn Meadow Trail and Magurrewock Marshes
Many neotropical migrant birds may be seen. Birds here can include Double-crested Cormorant, American Bittern, Wood Duck, American Black Duck, Ring‑necked Duck, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, Virginia Rail, Sora, Wilson’s Snipe, Pileated Woodpecker; Alder, Great rested, and Least Flycatchers; Eastern Wood-pewee, vireos, thrushes, Marsh Wren, Belted Kingfisher, Bobolink, Savannah and Swamp Sparrows, and nearly two dozen species of warblers
‘Round The Bay
This event is a half-day excursion around the Cobscook Bay region, providing the opportunity to experience a rich diversity of downeast habitats. People will caravan in their own vehicles around the inner parts of beautiful Cobscook Bay, starting in Lubec and ending at Gleason’s Cove in Perry. Stops will include Tide Mill Organic Farm, South Edmunds Road, Hobart Stream and Meadows, Pennamaquan River, and Sipp Bay Preserve. The many birds likely to be seen include warblers, Bobolinks, ducks, raptors, and more; and there will be an up-close visit to a Bald Eagle nesting site.
Nature Sketching
Center and relax at this session of drawing and painting birds and other animals on loan from the taxidermy collection of Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge. In addition, enjoy the natural history lore shared by your guides. Bring your own art materials, or use basic drawing pencils and papers provided by the studio.
Pennamaquan Alewives
This event consists of several short easy walks and a very small amount of driving for a close-up experience of fish ladders in the Pennamaquan River and Pennamaquan Lake. It focuses on the alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus, an anadromous fish that migrates up rivers at this time of year to spawn in lakes. The fisheries managers, both state and federal, are taking a closer look at the concept of rivers and streams being nurseries for the Gulf of Maine; in 2016 the St. Croix River was opened to spawning anadromous fish after being closed for 18 years.
Plant Walks
Identify and discuss native plants with the popular Northern Forest Walk, Musquatch Esker Trail and West Quoddy Head Bog.
Beach, Birding & Beer
Explore the shoreline habitats of Mowry Beach Preserve, an uncommon and beautiful example of sandy beach in the region. Proceeding along an all-accessible beach and marshland boardwalk, we’ll search for shorebirds, warblers, gulls, and more. Conclude the walk with a buy your own pint at Lubec Brewing Company.
Rails, Wrens, & Nighthawks; Whippoorwills, Woodcocks, & Owls
Watch for waterfowl such as American Black Duck, Wood Duck and Common Yellowthroat, Swamp Sparrow, and Red-winged Blackbird should be easy. Listen for the winnowing of courting Wilson’s Snipe and watch and listen overhead for foraging Common Nighthawk. Other species seen in this area in the past include Northern and Orchard Orioles and Warbling Vireo.
Eagle Hill Bog & Forest
This moving event offers a rare opportunity to bird a bog via boardwalk. Unusual resident species are often close to the path. Magnolia, Nashville, and Palm Warblers should be easy. More difficult targets include Lincoln’s Sparrow and Northern Goshawk. The boardwalk has many interpretive signs about the bog’s interesting botanical community, and it is likely that North America’s native azalea, the delicate purple Rhodora extolled by Ralph Waldo Emerson, will be among the plants that are in bloom. We’ll also spend time birding the road beside the bog, where dense coniferous forest often yields a view of Bay-breasted and Cape May warblers, plus the chance at White-winged and Red Crossbills.
Beginner Canoe & Kayak Paddles
These trips are suitable for all canoe skill levels including beginners. Trips in fresh water and along Cobscook Bay are both options. Canoes, paddles, and PFDs are provided. Physical Requirements: These a slow-going paddles. You must be able to lower yourself into a canoe and sit for the duration of the event.
Blueberry Barrens
Woods, ponds, marshes, and creeks provide habitats for a variety of birds that can be found as we travel through the barrens. We often see Upland Sandpiper, Palm Warblers, Field Sparrows, Eastern Towhees, Brown Thrashers, and Eastern Bluebirds along the roads. Prairie Warblers are rare on the barrens and there are a few reports of Eastern Meadowlarks.
Petit Manan Hike & Boat Trip
This event explores Petit Manan National Wildlife Refuge by land and by water. We will meet at the Acadia Puffin Cruise wharf in Steuben to scan the shore for shorebirds and seabirds. We will then drive/carpool to one of the mainland trails to look for birds within the coastal spruce forest such as Cape May warbler, Blackburnian warbler, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and Swainson’s Thrush. We will return to the Acadia Puffin Cruise wharf for a 10AM departure on board the 40-foot Tricia Clark, captained by Steve Brown, for a two-hour cruise around Petit Manan Island. Likely species include Atlantic Puffin, Razorbill, Arctic Tern, Roseate Tern, Common Tern, Black Guillemot, Double-crested Cormorant, Bald Eagle, Common Eider, a variety of gulls, and Gray and Harbor Seals.
