Nesowadnehunk Lake
and the western verge of Baxter State Park, Maine
8-14 June 2018
I camped for five days on Nesowadnehunk Lake as part of my
ongoing studies of boreal forest and boreal forest birds. I was particularly
interested in habitat-use by the American Three-toed Woodpecker, and from my
examination of eBird records, it appeared as if this site was the most
productive in the eastern US for this rare woodpecker. In the 1970s
and 80s, this species was a regular nesting bird at Ferd’s Bog in the central
Adirondacks, but the species seems to have faded from sight in upstate New York
as a breeding bird. Hence my fieldwork in northern Maine....
my lean-to camp on the Lake
The Maine location I had chosen to study the woodpecker was
convenient to camping because of the presence of the Nesowadnehunk Lake
Wilderness Campground, on private lands just west of Baxter State Park, home to
mighty Katahdin peak. I drove to the campground over two days. The drive up to
the camp totaled 900 miles (via the “back way” through Scranton and Hartford
rather than the more direct but more annoying route through NYC and the Merritt
Parkway).
Common Loon - one of a pair that loitered in front of my campsite
The Nesowadnehunk campground is famous among fly-fishers because the Lake
has a native population of Brook Trout and regulations require fishing with fly
rod and fly. Unlike most eastern lakes, Lake Nesowadnehunk (pronounced
“Sow-da-hunk”) has no other game fish species in it. The campground is
beautifully set on the Lake and is nestled within tracts of boreal conifer
forest featuring White Spruce, Tamarack, and Balsam Fir.
vista of Katahdin from south of the Park
Looking across the lake one sees several impressive forested
summits (the Brothers) beyond which one can glimpse just a sliver of the high
alpine reaches of Katahdin. The conical summits of the Brothers are majestic
and beckoning to the climber.
two cow Moose who visited the Lake one lazy afternoon
The woods and waters west of Katahdin form wilderness area
that was visited several times by Henry David Thoreau in the 1840s and 50s,
mainly by canoe. I re-read Thoreau’s Maine
Woods while camped at the lake, and recognized the names of many of the
landmarks he mentioned (including my lake and the stream associated with it). Even back then the area was being logged (for White Pine at that time).
Black Spruce bottomland forest
The Nesowadnehunk campground is perhaps the most isolated I have visited
in North America. It is 47 miles by car from Millinocket, and most stretches of road are gravel and dirt. The campground is at the very end of an old logging road, and much
of the landscape along this route has been heavily logged for timber and pulp,
and continues to be logged.
Black Duck mother with ducklings
The vast landscape west and northwest of Baxter Park is 3.5 million acres of commercial forest estate known as the North Maine Woods. It is a partnership of a number of corporations and landowners, who manage the land for timber, pulp, fishing, hunting, and wilderness recreation.
Cliff Swallows in their mud nests place under an eave of a camp building
From my comfy lean-to campsite right on the lake, I could
bike west through the private timberlands or head east and get on the Baxter
Park Tote Road taking me through protected forest that has not been logged in a number of
decades. Using my bike, I could cover a lot of territory quickly, listening for
target species, stopping to observe when I heard something interesting.
a confiding Chipping Sparrow foraging in a Tamarack in the Camp
I was, in particular, interested in the relationship between
the patchy clear-felling of Black Spruce bottomlands with the continued
existence of the American Three-toed Woodpecker. The eBird data seemed to
indicate that the woodpecker was doing well in the patchy mix of logged-over and
unlogged forest to the west of the Park. There were quite a few records of the
species from right along the entrance road to the campground. This road passes
through a mix of clear-felled and old growth Black Spruce.
The upshot of all of this is that I apparently visited at
the very worst time of the breeding season, when adults were presumably tending
eggs and were silent and recondite. In spite of considerable effort, I never
encountered or heard a single three-toed woodpecker. Neither did I find the more common and related Black-backed woodpecker. In fact,
woodpeckers of all kinds were scarce and mainly nonvocal at this time. I should
have been here in earliest May, before the eggs had been laid and when the
birds were noisily drumming and calling. My bad!
breeding plumage Ring-billed Gull--note the red eye-ring and gape
Luckily, there were other birds to focus on. I found the Fox
Sparrow to be a common vocal breeder in thickets of young spruce and fir that
line the Baxter Park Tote road. The musical song given by the territorial male
is perhaps the loudest song of any sparrow. In spite of the striking song, the
sparrow is exceedingly shy and the birds rarely allowed themselves to be seen
except in flight. The Fox Sparrow is expanding its range into New England from
its breeding heartland in the Great North Woods of Canada. It should be looked
for soon in the Adirondacks. I also found singing male Blackpoll Warblers in
lowland conifer stands—another surprise. I generally think of Blackpolls as
mountaintop breeders.
glimpse of a super-shy Fox Sparrow
The wood warblers were here in numbers. For instance, a
single two-hour bike-transect of 3 miles along the Baxter Tote Road from the
Lake down to the Nesowadnehunk Field campground produced 13 species of
warblers totaling 59 singing males—including 9 American Redstarts, and 13
Magnolia, 7 Nashville, and 6 Bay-breasted Warblers.
female Spruce Grouse
Other boreal species of interest seen during my stay include
Spruce Grouse (4 encounters), Boreal Chickadee (2 encounters), and Olive-sided
Flycatcher (2 encounters).
another female Spruce Grouse
I surveyed a patch of old growth bottomland Black
Spruce—this unusual habitat is prime pulpwood forest and thus largely removed
from the area. This very Spartan habitat, with the spongy Sphagnum-mossy forest
floor and the spindly spruce (mainly 60 feet tall and 5-6 inches in diameter)
supported a rather impoverished boreal bird fauna: Yellow-bellied Flycatcher,
Blue-headed Vireo, Winter Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Ruby-crowned Kinglet,
Swainson’s Thrush, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Canada Warbler, Nashville Warbler,
White-throated Sparrow, and Dark-eyed Junco.
retreating Snowshoe Hare showing its big white feet
Snowshoe Hare were abundant and tame, especially around the
campground. Many were infested with ticks.
Boreal Chickadee
This is also big Moose country, and a pair of Moose cows
wandered along the Lake by the campground one afternoon, entertaining many of
the campers.
The two cow Moose on the dam at the base of the Lake
On two nights the temperature dropped below freezing, but
the days were, surprisingly, sunny and warm, and the mosquitoes and black flies
were not very annoying.
Nesowadnehunk Lake is a great base of operations for hiking,
biking, mountain-climbing, fly-fishing, and birding, in spite of its
considerable isolation. Presumably early May would be the best time to hunt for the resident boreal species, whereas early June will be best for the Neotropical songbird migrants.
