Maine Waterfront Real Estate – It’s for the Birds!

For Maine Lakefront Real Estate Buyers, Spring Training Is Over
April 8, 2008
Maine Waterfront Real Estate – Choosing the “Sow’s Ear”
April 12, 2008

Maine Waterfront Real Estate – It’s for the Birds!


Before buying my Maine lakefront camp I was not really “in touch” with our feathered friends. Having grown up in the city, my idea of birds was pigeons, grackles and the sparrows. They co-existed in the old South Boston neighborhood that was all the world to me. These were the kinds of birds that I was used to.
When I was a kid, I really liked the sounds of pigeons. Their cooing in the eaves of the old three decker on Dorset Street seemed strangely calming to me. Most folks don’t think much of pigeons. In fact, I’ve heard them refered to as rats with wings. A bit unkind I would say. They probably never heard them cooing.
Living on a lake in Maine gets one acquainted with a different world of birds. Everyone who spends anytime on a lake will praise mightily the common loon. What a misnomer! There is absolutely nothing common about the common loon. I could go on and on about how special they are. But that’s for another day.
As much as I love loons, I have a special fondness for the common merganser. Nothing common about this bird either. In the Spring, before the lake is taken over by powerboats, one can observe a mother merganser with her family of chicks. To watch them feed is an absolute delight. Because they are fish eaters they come in close to shore to feed off the minnows in the shallow water. To see these chicks only days old diving for food and skittering over the water is so much fun.
Can’t wait to see mergansers in action? If you’ve got three minutes, check out this incredible video from YouTube, “Ride of the Mergansers”.

Stay Informed

Get the latest lake news delivered direct from Maine’s lake expert, Tom Ferent