The Penobscot Valley Chapter of Maine Audubon conducts an annual online auction, and one of this year’s auction items is me. The highest bidder wins a morning walk anywhere in Maine to identify all the birds making noise. It could be a local neighborhood, up-to-camp, a park or refuge or any favorite place in Maine.
Maine birds don’t always make themselves easy to find. However, during singing season in the spring, birds reveal themselves readily to a trained ear. Many people are flabbergasted to learn about birds that have been right in their backyards the whole time, and they never knew it.
That’s the thing about birds. Feeder birds are familiar to backyard birdwatchers. They come right to the window in plain view. But warblers, vireos, kinglets, thrushes and a host of other birds are content to hide among the leaves, beyond the view of potential admirers. It’s my job to find them, which is actually pretty easy if they are singing.
The auction features other items, of course. Perhaps the biggest prize is a pair of tickets to watch the New England Patriots defeat the New York Jets on New Year’s Eve afternoon. Bar Harbor Whale Watch has come through with a pair of tickets for next year’s whale-chasing, and another pair for its lighthouse tour. There are show tickets, art works, food items, books, crafts and a unique cribbage board that my wife, Sandi, has vowed to win. The auction is on the chapter web site at pvc.maineaudubon.org.
It’s a particularly good time of year to try out what Maine Audubon has to offer locally wherever you are. There are seven chapters throughout the state, and each offers naturalist activities in its local area. The Fundy Chapter serves Washington County. Mid-Coast Chapter serves Waldo, Knox and Lincoln. Merrymeeting Chapter entertains the coastal area below Mid-Coast, and there are also chapters in York County and western Maine. Audubon is one of the few environmental organizations — perhaps the only one — that has local chapters providing local opportunities for people to interact with nature and wildlife.
For instance, there are two excellent offerings on the calendar for Friday, Nov. 17. This evening, Maine Audubon’s staff naturalist, Doug Hitchcox, presents a program for the Penobscot Valley Chapter titled “ATTU: The Holy Grail of North American Birding.” Attu is the westernmost point in the United States, at the end of the Aleutian Islands. It’s so far offshore that it’s 1,500 miles from the mainland of its own state, Alaska. That’s more than the distance from Bangor to Daytona Beach.
Attu featured prominently in the hit movie “The Big Year.” It’s closer to Russia than the U.S., so the potential for Asian birds on the island makes it a highly coveted destination. The island was once a military base, but the Coast Guard decommissioned the facility and abandoned the island in 2010. It is now uninhabited and almost impossible to get to. But in the spring of 2012, five intrepid Maine birders did get there. Doug Hitchcox was one of them, and this travelogue of photos and stories will likely draw a crowd to the Fields Pond Audubon Center in Holden at 7 p.m.
In the Hancock County area, the Downeast Chapter goes bats this evening, with a program titled “Maine’s Bats: Ecology and Conservation of a Secretive Guild.” It’ll take place at 7 p.m. at the Moore School Community Center in Ellsworth. Cory Mosby is the small mammal biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. He first got familiar with bats while working as a biologist for Grand Canyon National Park. Cory will be talking about Maine’s eight bat species, and update the audience on the status of bats in the wake of a devastating disease called White-Nose Syndrome.
Now then, back to the auction. Bidding will continue until Dec. 8. Then we party. It’s Double Discount Day at the Fields Pond Audubon Center store all day. Members always get a 10 percent discount on everything but optics at the Audubon center stores, but it’ll be a 20 percent discount on Double Discount Day. The day wraps up with the Penobscot Valley Chapter’s annual holiday party — a potluck affair starting at 6 p.m., followed by a member photo expo, and the announcement of the winning auction bids. Hint: if it’s between conscripting me for a morning of bird-finding in your backyard or going to a Patriots game, bid on the Patriots.
Bob Duchesne serves as vice president of Maine Audubon’s Penobscot Valley Chapter. He developed the Maine Birding Trail, with information at mainebirdingtrail.com. He can be reached at duchesne@midmaine.com.
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