Monhegan Island is off the southern coast of Maine, about 10 miles out into the Atlantic. It's only a mile and a half long and a half mile wide but it's a very big place for bird-watchers, especially during fall migration.
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| Nashville Warbler |
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| Red-breasted Nuthatch |
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| Yellow-rumped Warbler |
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| White-throated Sparrow |
Warblers, thrushes, vireos, sparrows, nuthatches, orioles, wrens and other songbirds refuel before heading out over open ocean, relying on the island's abundant berries, grapes, apples and flowers (including over 400 kinds of wildflowers!) and on all the yummy bugs attracted to the plants.
Hawks and falcons rely on the influx of smaller birds for their own refueling! In four days, Maeve saw Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks, Northern Harriers, Peregrine Falcons and Merlins.
Migrating flickers and resident crows and ravens add to the constantly changing bird-scape.
Seventy percent of the island is a nature preserve
protected by a trust.
Close to the harbor is a lovely little village with winding, curving, up-and-down dirt roads that are used more for walking than for the island's few motorized vehicles.
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| the Monhegan School |
Small vegetable gardens are tucked in all over the village. A local group runs a farm stand and makes cider from the island's many apple trees.
Birds (and birders) don't always choose locations for their intrinsically scenic beauty. The grapes growing on this fence are bird magnets, so this was a reliable spot for seeing Baltimore Orioles, Gray Catbirds, Northern Cardinals, and Black-throated Blue Warblers.
Monhegan Island is steeped in history.
Native Americans fished the waters as many as 5000 years ago. Basque and Portuguese fishermen visited before 1600. Samuel de Champlain explored the area in 1604 and Captain John Smith ten years later. Visitors can learn about the island at the Monhegan Historical and Cultural Museum.
Across the harbor is Manana Island, usually described as "unpopulated" although one man lived there for many years and now another person has sheep, goats and chickens there. There's an abandoned Coast Guard outpost on the other side of the small island.
Fire is a real danger on the island, especially during an unusually dry year like this one. There are fewer than 75 year-round residents, making for a very small fire department.
In the event of fire, any nearby person grabs hoses from plastic boxes scattered all over the island, to help the firemen.
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| A bit of the underground water pipe is visible to the right of the yellow stick. |
Many people come to Monhegan for the walking and hiking trails. There's a perimeter trail along some of the highest cliffs in Maine as well as several cross-island trails through thick woods.
Along with birds, Monarch Butterflies use Monhegan as a stop-over on their annual migrations.
There are three main industries on Monhegan: tourism, art, and lobstering.
It's odd to walk along a lovely forest path, see a patch of bright color ahead, and find out that it's a pile of lobster buoys!
Most of the hundreds of lobster traps on the island seem ready to be used at any moment - but a few piles have obviously been in one place for a long time, long enough so that plants grow six or eight feet tall right through the pots!
Fishing is such an integral part of the island that fishing net is used to deliver firewood!
Monhegan has been an artists' colony since the mid-nineteenth century. There are many studios, art shows, and sculptures.
Even the weather vanes are pieces of art!
Everywhere, all around, at the end of every trail, on every horizon, is the Atlantic: the sound of crashing waves, the smell of salt air, the strong winds and fog, and the staggeringly beautiful ocean vistas.
This is the fabled rock-bound coast of Maine, where cliffs and tumbled rocks are sandwiched between the waves and the forests of spruce and pine.
These are dangerous waters, with a long history of ship wrecks.
Visitors are warned not to swim in the cold waters off Monhegan (except from one small beach).
Lots of ocean means lots of birds: Northern Gannets, Common Eider, Herring Gulls, Great Black-backed Gulls, Double-crested Cormorants, and diminutive Black Guillemots. Bald Eagles can also be seen on the ferry ride from Port Clyde to Monhegan.
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| Common Eider |
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| Notice all the guano on this island full of cormorants and gulls! |
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| distant Black Guillemot |
Monhegan is worth a visit any time, for its beauty, its history, its culture, and the hardy perseverance of its fewer than a hundred full-time residents. Many dwellings don't have electricity or have power for only part of the day. Many buildings, including the two large inns, don't have heat upstairs. Food that isn't raised on the island has to come in by boat, along with the mail. But the local people continue to celebrate life with art, poetry and music!
Here are some more photos:
PS - I have to add one astonishing adventure: I was sitting on a dirt road near where someone often spills bird seed, where I'd seen several different sparrows the day before. I chose a shaded spot by an old apple tree, thinking that perhaps the shade would help keep birds from noticing me. Sparrows came, and jays and Mourning Doves, and even a rat. Suddenly, I heard small noises from right next to me. I turned my head cautiously - and I was just over a yard away from a magnificent male Cape May Warbler, intently eating either the fallen rotting apples or the little bugs on the apples. The warbler seemed completely oblivious to me. Soon it was joined by a second Cape May, this one a female. Then by three or four other warblers - and then I was joined by three or four other birders. Two got great photos of the Cape Mays, I think. I had been too awed by the birds' closeness, and too afraid that a lot of movement might frighten them away, that I never even got out my camera. This was the closest I've ever been to these beautiful birds, and probably the only time I'll ever see them on the ground!
In all, I got good, long and repeated looks at thirteen species of warblers, even with incredible wind one day and rain for parts of two other days.
I treated myself and stayed at the Island Inn: great room and truly excellent food! - Maeve
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