Tree swallows danced overhead, swooping and gliding as their shimmering blue feathers caught the sunlight. We drifted in our canoe, basking in the sights and sounds of springtime.
Red-winged blackbirds sang from the cattails, their sharp beaks lifted to the sky. Bright green blades of new grass lined the channel, and fresh lilypads dotted the water.
It had been a vigorous paddle across Fields Pond to reach the wetlands on its west side. Wind had pushed at us from the northwest, whipping up waves and threatening to toss our baseball caps into the drink. But we’d made it to calmer waters, sort of.
On the west side of Fields Pond, a wide channel of water threads into a wetland, narrowing as it becomes Sedgeunkedunk Stream. This outlet flows north, and a tad west, through East Orrington and South Brewer to empty into the Penobscot River.
Though we’d left the open water of the pond behind, the wind stayed with us.
Steering in the stern, I could feel the wind pushing against the side of the boat, making my job a bit more challenging. But we forged ahead, finding pockets of calm water where vegetation provided shelter.
For years, I’d wanted to paddle this part of Fields Pond, or was it Sedgeunkedunk Stream? It’s hard to say where one body of water ends and the other begins. Maps disagree.
The nonprofit Lake Stewards of Maine lists Fields Pond at 518 acres, while the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife surveyed it at 182 acres. The Maine Audubon has it at 191 acres. The difference lies in how much of the wetland you include in the calculation, I think.
The pond, stream, wetlands and surrounding forests and fields attract a wide variety of birds. On eBird, a popular online tool for documenting birds, there are 49 bird species you’re likely to come across while exploring the wetlands in spring. Common sightings include hooded mergansers, ospreys, alder flycatchers, American goldfinches, song sparrows, swamp sparrows and grackles.
As we paddled around a bend in the channel, we spotted a Canada goose on its nest, which looked to be on a muskrat mound at the edge of the water. This is typical for geese. They like to build their nests on elevated areas that allow them to see in several directions.
Canada geese pair up, usually for life, and split the duties of raising offspring. The female does most of the nest building and incubates the eggs, while the male stands guard.
In this case, we only saw the mother goose. She kept her head low and stared as we passed by, but she didn’t move from her post. In no time, a squad of fuzzy yellow goslings will be trailing after her wherever she goes.
As we continued down the outlet, we saw several birds, and heard even more. I saw my first eastern kingbird of the year, perched in a bush as it took a break from hunting flying insects. I’m still learning how to identify Maine’s 300-plus species of birds, but the kingbird is somewhat easy to tell apart from other flycatchers because it has white at the tip of its tail.
By far the most exciting wildlife encounter of the day involved two young bald eagles. As we paddled around a bend, we spotted them standing on the bank. One took off into the air and flew away, but the other remained and appeared to be stomping on something in the grass.
Looking through the zoom lens of my camera, I caught the glimmer of silver scales. The eagle had a fish. Perhaps they’d been fighting over it.
Bald eagles take about five years to develop their adult coloring of the telltale white head and bright yellow beak and feet. Before that, they’re mostly dark brown with patches of white feathers. This leads people to often mistake them for hawks.
In Maine, bald eagles are protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Harassing or harming them is prohibited, not that we would have bothered it anyway. Keeping our distance, we continued onward, leaving it to its meal.
Overall, and accounting for the wind pushing us off course now and again, we paddled about 4 miles. Crossing Fields Pond to the wetlands was about 0.75 mile, and we explored a little over a mile downstream before turning around. However, looking at an aerial map, we could have paddled farther. The channel remains wide and lazy for another mile or so and reaches a small boat launch on Brewer Lake Road in Orrington.
On our way back across the pond, we passed two loons, resplendent in their summer plumage. A few ducks flew overhead, but I was too busy battling the wind to try identifying them.
If you wanted to, you could make this a full-day birding adventure. In fact, from the boat launch on the north end of Fields Pond, you can access a network of trails that thread through Fields Pond Audubon Center.
The 229-acre preserve is excellent for birding, with lots of edge habitats.
Keep an eye out for bluebirds and tree swallows in the nesting boxes that dot the fields, and if all else fails, there’s always a variety of birds raiding the feeders near the nature center.
It’s truly an ideal place to go birding.
