I grew up in Maine, in the southern part of the state right outside of Portland, our largest city. Though I spent most of my time in close proximity to the coast, I really fell in love with nature every summer when my parents took my siblings and I up to Kennebago Lake, in the heart of the Rangeley Lakes region. We would swim, kayak, hike, and just relax for weeks, kids being kids! We had no television and no internet up there, so we often felt cut off from the outside world, but in a positive way.

It was only fitting then that I would first fall in love with birding while on a summer trip back to Kennebago. Unfortunately, by the time I began to bird I was already 23, out of the house and embarking on my first job out of college in Washington, DC, hundreds of miles away. I birded in the city and in the Mid-Atlantic, but it was nearly a year before I could return to Maine to bird again, in May. Lucky for me, May is the best time to bird.

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