Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge

It finally quit raining enough for us to get out for a morning of birding. We drove up to the Aroostook National Wildlife Refuge. The visitor center was open so we went inside and were met with “Can I help ya’ll?” Wow, someone who speaks Texan! That’s the first ‘ya’ll’ we’ve heard in a long time. We were met by Bill and Sharon who are the volunteers at the Refuge. They aren’t actually ‘from’ Texas but it sounds like they have spent a lot of winters there. After talking to them for about an hour Bill had to go to “work” but we spent another delightful hour talking with Sharon. Turns out we have friends in common (Carolyn and Wally). I’ve mentioned before how much we enjoy talking to other volunteers and Bill and Sharon are the kind of folks we really enjoy visiting with.

We walked a 1 1/4 mile trail around the visitor center. It’s a really nice trail that goes through some forested areas, some ponds and marshy areas and some meadows.

We got a very far-off look at this Northern Goshawk.


Northern Goshawk

There were also a lot of wild raspberries in the area. They were a little tart!




We saw a couple of these Ebony Jewelwings. They were absolutely beautiful and seemed to be glowing in the sun!


Ebony Jewelwing


Unknown butterfly (moth?). We haven’t been able to identify this one. If you know or even think you do, please post a comment.

Tomorrow I will post pictures of our best “find” of the day.
Talk to you tomorrow!