A funny thing happened while I was leading a Penobscot Valley Audubon bird walk on Monday.
For at least a decade, I’ve taken a small crowd down Government Road toward Leonard’s Mills in Bradley on the third Monday in May. Usually, there is little traffic. Not this time.
Just as the walk got underway, a crew of volunteers for the Maine Forest and Logging Museum arrived. A long line of personal vehicles and a big flatbed truck squeezed by. They were moving a Lombard Log Hauler to the museum.
The organization’s president, Mike Weatherbee, later explained that it was the first time this invaluable antique had been moved in 40 years.
Rather than being disappointed by the short interruption, I was quietly thrilled. The Lombard is an iconic piece of Maine’s logging history. This antique behemoth appeared to be in great shape, making a nice addition to the museum.
The entire Leonard’s Mills complex is a gem, and it’s underappreciated. More people should visit, and as Weatherbee explained, they’d love to see more birders on their grounds. He said that the birding is great there.
He’s right. Government Road, located in Bradley, passes through a portion of the Penobscot Experimental Forest, which is a northern research station of the U.S. Forest Service.
The mile-long gravel road from State Route 178 to Leonard’s Mills is unusually rich in songbirds, especially warblers. The habitat changes every 100 yards.
At the junction with Route 178, the habitat is a dense forested wetland. Every time I’ve gone birding there, I’ve found a chestnut-sided warbler in this spot. There’s another just up the road. That’s how predictable this walk gets.
Just my luck. Mere minutes before walk participants arrived, a male scarlet tanager sang directly above my head, courting a flirtatious female one branch removed. The pair disappeared before anyone else could see them.
Nobody else saw my best bird of the day.
Beyond the wet area, flowering trees and shrubs dominate the landscape. Flowers attract bugs, and bugs attract birds. At least three American redstarts, two common yellowthroats, and a veery were taking full advantage of the feast.
More warblers were heard but not seen, including a singing Tennessee warbler passing through in migration.
Moving down the road, there’s a stand of white pines on the left-hand side. Pine warblers nest here, and they often sing. The first of many ovenbirds is also likely to sing in this location.
The next stretch of forest contains dense conifers on the right, sparse deciduous trees on the left. Two different habitats side-by-side can yield an interesting mix of birds. Expect a northern parula or two. Hermit thrushes seem to like this spot.
Just beyond, pine warblers can be heard singing from the towering white pines on both sides of the road. Listen for their trills to track one down. You might hear a Blackburnian warbler, as this species also prefers tall treetops. Its song is much quieter, higher-pitched and more easily missed.
Then the habitat changes again. We heard one last black-and-white warbler sing, as the woods abruptly opened into a marsh under powerlines.
From that one spot, we could hear several more songbirds, including yellow, chestnut-sided, and Nashville warblers. A common yellowthroat was close. A northern waterthrush was a little more distant.
If you visit, compare the trill in the marsh with the pine warbler trilling behind you. That slower trill is one of the many swamp sparrows lurking among the cattails.
Scan down the powerlines to observe the ospreys nesting on one of the towers.
Once you’ve moved past the powerlines, you’ll be back in dense forest. The trees are taller here. The bird mix changes yet again. Eastern wood-pewees and black-throated blue warblers make their first appearances. More pine warblers sing. There’s usually a Blackburnian warbler here.
And so it goes. A constant change of habitats over a mere mile of easy walking makes this birding hotspot special. At the end of your hike, you arrive at Leonard’s Mills.
It’s like dessert after a feast.
Leonard’s Mills is a recreation of an early pioneer settlement from the 1790s, but it was a special place long before Europeans arrived. The entire area has been culturally important to the Penobscot Nation for thousands of years. Even now, the alewives currently running up Blackman Stream are a testament to the resource richness of this location.
You see, I’m not always interested merely in birds. I can appreciate a little culture and history, too, you know.
