Many people would think birding in Maine in the winter months is horribly dull. “It’s freezing cold,” they say. “Everything is under feet of snow,” they point out. “How on earth can birds live there? Have fun staring at chickadees.”

They would be wrong! Birding in Maine is perhaps the best in the winter. Seabirds and waterfowl, who have spent most of the summer and fall in the far reaches of Canada and the Arctic Tundra, are suddenly off the Maine coast and peppering inlets and bays, within easy reach of binoculars and zoom lenses. They are just as active as those colorful songbirds enjoying tropical weather in South and Central America, only instead of flitting from tree to tree they dive and flap within the freezing waves, seemingly unperturbed by the frosty temperatures.

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