Maine
Gateway to Canada’s maritime provinces, Maine offers limitless
possibilities to the photographer, but I have only scratched the
surface. A workshop by the publisher editors of Nature Photographer
Magazine, based in Lubec, Maine, just about as far north and east as you
can go in the United States, offered my second opportunity (the first
was on the trip home from Newfoundland) to become acquainted with the
true Down East Maine, its tiny fishing villages, wild blueberry fields,
sometimes endless expanses of lupin, and Machias Seal Island. Its
ownership disputed in a friendly fashion, Machias lies in US territorial
waters but is also claimed by Canada which administers it as a wildlife
research center over which the Canadian flag flies.
The
island is accessible by excursion operators from Cutler and Jonesport,
Maine and Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada and requires a
sometimes tricky landing onto seaweed covered rocks. Today the island
hosts rookeries of Atlantic Puffins, Arctic and Common Terns, and
populations of Razorbills and Common Murres. Whales are sometimes
sighted on the trip and whale watching trips are available from St.
Andrews, NB, not far over the Canadian border, and viewing of native
seals are generally part of the excursion.
On
the island, blinds are provided for the limited number of people on each
trip, with puffins sometimes coming nearly within arm’s reach - too
close for a long telephoto lens. Many of the accompanying shots were
taken on the four Machias landings I have made (out of six attempts -
sometimes the water is too rough for those tricky landings). There is
obviously much more to see in Maine, I just haven’t been there - yet.
