When you hire Michael Good, owner of Down East Nature Tours in Town Hill, Mount Desert Island, for a guided hike, one thing’s for certain. You will see birds.
“When I have a group with me, if they’re hiking, they are going to see birds, because they are diurnal. They are with us all the time,” he said last Saturday.
I had stopped in at his home and base on Knox Road, Three Pines Sanctuary, to learn about his operation and what hikers can expect when they sign up for one of his guided birding hikes.
“I want them to see the bird, not just look at it. I want them to see the detail. When they are with me, I put the spotting scope right on the bird. Once people see the bird’s detail and hear the call together, it seems to stick in their brain, and the effect seems to stay forever. I mean, I can remember birds I’ve seen years after.”
Good is a Registered Maine Guide in kayaking, recreation, boating, canoeing and hunting, although he’s never guided hunters, unless they were bird watching without guns. He has held his guide’s license for the past 18 years, when he started guiding hikers and birders. He’s also a scientist, having received his master of science degree in developmental biology from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
He worked at Woods Hole Institute for nine years, studying marine systems. He’s also the founder and director of the Acadia Birding Festival, a four-day event being held from Thursday until Sunday this weekend, on Mount Desert Island. When we met, he was in the middle of the final preparations for the festival, now in its 12th year. Even so, he found time to drive me around to a few sites to look for warblers.
After a short ride, only minutes, he pulled the van over in the pouring rain to identify a Nashville warbler that he heard from outside of his open window. We got out and stood under to open back gate, while he made a non-specific call with his mouth that sounded like a cross between an angry red squirrel and a chirping bird to see if he could get a fix on the bird’s location in the trees.
The bird life is abundant on the island, drawing enthusiasts from around the world. Particularly, the warbler family of birds is well loved among birders. I asked Good what the attraction is to warblers.
“Well,” he replied, “they are difficult to find in other locales. There are 54 species of warblers in North America. These neo-tropical birds like this Nashville Warbler probably flew here from Ecuador.”
He’s fond of the quote by Roger Tory Peterson, the famed ornithologist, who called Mount Desert Island the “warbler capital of the world.”
Good said that he’s identified more than 40 species of warblers on the island.
I stopped him from setting up the spotting scope, otherwise he would have. It was pouring, but I’m sure we would have had a great view through the powerful optics. I explained that I didn’t want a complete tour for free, I just had a few more questions. I’m sure the nearly 5-inch high warbler was still singing when we left.
Good started his interest in birds as a boy, growing up in the farm country of Pennsylvania where he hunted grouse and pheasant. “From that experience I learned that you have to understand how birds function in the ecosystem to understand birds,” he said.
It’s that understanding that he imparts to his groups that accompany him on his hikes. He explains to them how the ecosystem, geology, flora and fauna all work together.
In the early spring he leads bird study groups in Cuba for a couple of weeks, then, he returns to Maine for the summer guiding season. Most of his summer customers arrive by cruise ship moored in Bar Harbor. So, most of his hikes are on the island, in Acadia and outside the park. But, he also leads hikes throughout Maine.
“I’ve guided all over Maine. I’ve led hikers in Baxter State Park, Grand Lake Stream, all over Washington County, coastal, inland. I’ve guided all over Hancock County, with Elder Hostels, any kind of group you can think of. My favorite place is Machias Seal Island,” he said.
The reason, he said, is “there are somewhere between 2,000 to 4,000 individual puffins breeding on the island and 800 to 1,000 razorbills. There are also the beautiful common murre, which has a ‘bridled’ form with a unique white eye ring and a spur trailing off behind the eye. One day we had a total of 26 species including some great photos of warblers and vireos.”
I asked if he gets many customers from Maine.
“I get a lot of people from Maine, but I wish I had more Maine people, so that they would realize just how important this place is to bird life and how it is all connected,” he said.
He also has favorite places in Acadia.
“I love the Great Head Trail to Sand Beach, Sand Beach to Otter Cliffs.” he said. “The other day, with a group off the Maasdam, we had a singing Swainson’s thrush. The call is an ethereal flute-like call rising up in scale.”
“I feel very lucky to be able to do this,” he said.
It was easy to become affected by his enthusiasm for his work. We pulled into the Three Pines Sanctuary and got out of the truck to walk around the 12-acre property which includes wetland, upland cedar forest and mixed growth forest, perfect birding habitat.
How much experience do people need to hire his guide service?
“I get all kinds of experience levels on the hikes,” he explained. “There are listers, people who just want to see a bird and move on, to raw beginners. I tell people to wear sturdy hiking footwear and bring rain gear and a good pair of binoculars, but I’ll supply the rest. I’ve got just about one of everything, so I can outfit them pretty well. And, I’ve got the spotting scope to share and that puts them right on the bird.
“When we leave on a hike, they can expect four intense hours of looking at birds, identifying birds, talking about the ecology, their environment and how they interact with it.”
Good offers a variety of packaged trips of varying lengths and themes, such as the four-hour “Discovering the Birds of Acadia” and the two-hour “Wetland Ecology” tour, among several others. He’ll also customize a trip.
The sun made the briefest of appearances and Good had the scope set up quickly to scan a distant, tall larch for birds. Again, he made the mad squirrel/bird noise and quickly spotted a Canada warbler to show me.
After a couple of hours of visiting, I left with an impression that here is a guide who truly has made his life — his work — leading people to discovery outdoors. As I turned to shake his hand to leave, a hermit thrush flew in and landed on the ground about 8 feet away, looked up at us, then hopped off.
bradviles@gwi.net
990-8275