I spent last week in northern Maine guiding grouse hunters at Libby Camps. I enjoy the chance to spend time in remote country. The dogs seem to like it as well even though they arrived home exhausted. After a couple of days off they are sitting at the kennel gates waiting patiently to go again.
There are always great opportunities to see things that I do not normally see when I am in that part of the state. Spruce grouse are not common even there but I see enough of them to keep me on the lookout for a small dark grouse on the side of the road. I did get some pictures of a male at the end of the Oxbow road last week. If you are not familiar with them the most remarkable thing is how tame they are. One allowed two of us to walk up to within 20 feet of him and another within 5 feet.
While guiding one of my last striper fishing parties before I left I had worked the boat well up onto a mud flat. As I tell many clients I have all kinds of courage when the tide is rising. We were in roughly a foot of water but the fish were there chasing bait to the surface in shallow water. I heard a kingfisher yell as they do in the late summer and did not really pay any attention. In a moment he was right in front of the boat still nothing that unusual except we were far from shore not where they usually hang out. Something did not look right about the way this one was flying and he caught my eye because of his darting motion in the air. His head was tucked way down against his body also unusual.
I pretty quickly noticed the reason for his strange behavior; right behind him was what I at first thought to be a hawk of some sort. Of course by now my attention is fully focused on the drama playing out in front of the boat. I realized that the following bird was not a hawk but rather a Peregrine falcon. The falcon made repeated attempts to hit the kingfisher in the air but missed every time. I assume that the falcon was a juvenile learning to hunt for his own meals. The best part of the story is that the splashing fish had the clients so focused on fishing that I am pretty sure they did not even look up when I pointed out what was happening.
Last I saw the pair of birds they were far out over the channel and headed for the opposite shore. I can't imagine that the falcon was successful that time but I'm sure he found another bird that was not watching as carefully.
I am unexpectedly home this week due to some schedule changes at Libby's. I have plenty to do at home so while I will miss the income it is great to have a chance to catch up at home. I need to get the firewood stacked into the garage soon because it could snow at any time now and I have had a new front door that has needed to be stained since mid summer.
One of the local papers ran an article about my appointment to the board of Trustees at Unity College this week. I hope that you are enjoying your fall as much as I am mine.
Best regards,
Don Kleiner
Master Maine Guide
