Before I acquired the wisdom of age and experience, I looked at the ocean the way most people do — as a flat, uniform expanse of water. In reality, it’s the saltwater equivalent of Africa’s Serengeti, teeming with life. You just have to know where to look.
I’ve taken many boat trips into the Gulf of Maine over the years. It took me a long time to learn what I was seeing. It took even longer to learn what I wasn’t seeing.
For example, on yet another trip to the Atlantic puffin colony on Seal Island last week, I noticed virtually no birds at sea. I’ve been on the Isle au Haut Ferry enough to suspect this was good news. It likely meant there was so much food near the island, the puffins and terns didn’t need to travel far to feed their chicks.
Bingo.
I’ve taken the puffin cruise out of Stonington many times, but I’ve never witnessed the sheer abundance of birds that greeted us upon arrival at the island. They were plundering a huge school of fish along the breakers. Gulls and shearwaters also swarmed over the bait ball.
Bait balls are a defensive tactic used by schools of small fish to discourage attack. The fish pack themselves into a tight spherical formation, which makes each fish a more difficult target and makes the whole mass look deceptively big.
This tactic helps fish evade small predators. But for seals, porpoises, whales and birds, it’s a banquet table.
Birds watch each other. When one gull flies toward a bait ball, others follow. You can sometimes watch the feeding frenzy from shore. Bait balls are especially apparent when looking down from the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia. When out on a boat, I look for wherever gulls gather, because other birds will be there, too.
Three days after my Isle au Haut Ferry adventure, I joined the crew of Bar Harbor Whale Watch for a daylong cruise. We hit the puffin colonies on Petit Manan Island and Machias Seal Island, then streaked 63 miles southwest to Mt. Desert Rock.
Our path took us through rich offshore waters, where birds from all over the planet come to feed at this time of year.
Great and sooty shearwaters nest in the South Atlantic. Cory’s shearwaters come over from the Mediterranean. Manx shearwaters nest mostly in Europe and Greenland, though a few try their luck on Maine islands sporadically. All are currently in the Gulf of Maine.
Wilson’s storm-petrels are tiny swallow-like birds that flutter just over the waves. They’re up from Argentina and Antarctica.
Red-necked phalaropes nest in wetlands and prairie potholes across Canada and out west. They, too, visit the Gulf of Maine to fatten up in summer and fall.
My job was to spot all these seabirds.
The ocean’s surface may be flat, but the seabed is not. There are mounts, ridges and canyons below the waves. When the strong tide flows over the rough bottom, it causes upwellings, pushing food to where whales and birds can feast.
I can now recognize when we enter an upwelling. I look for flat, calm, slick-looking spots, interspersed with confused waves thrashing about. When a gray seal pops up to look at us, that’s a sure sign that there’s food below.
Flocks of birds signal a bait ball, visible two miles away. Upon approach, you’re likely to see more seals and porpoises. On this trip, we enjoyed multiple encounters with both humpback and finback whales.
Floating mats of seaweed attract the phalaropes. Their food gets trapped in these vegetative patches, and it’s the best place to look for tiny shorebirds.
I’ve learned that when wave movements go slack during high and low tide, birds tend to sit idly on the water, waiting for mid-tide surges.
As summer marches along, our visitors from the South Atlantic are joined by birds from Canada. Northern gannets nest in Newfoundland and Québec, and their numbers increase in August.
Jaegers are raptor-like birds that steal food from other seabirds. Their numbers increase. Skuas are their bigger cousins, and several have been seen recently.
I tell you all this because getting offshore is an awesome birding experience, one that I expect to repeat several more times this summer. If you’ve never done it, I highly recommend it.
