Bob Duchesne

1 week ago | bangordailynews.com | Bob Duchesne

“Borealis” is Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s Emmy-winning outdoors and environmental program hosted by Aislinn Sarnacki, formerly a Bangor Daily News outdoors journalist and editor and currently a BDN Outdoors contributor. Join Bangor Daily News Subscribe to stay in the know! Pick up a subscription for $1 a week. Many readers fondly recall her One-Minute Hikes column and video series that appeared on the BDN website for years.

2 weeks ago | bangordailynews.com | Bob Duchesne

A funny thing happened while I was leading a Penobscot Valley Audubon bird walk on Monday. For at least a decade, I’ve taken a small crowd down Government Road toward Leonard’s Mills in Bradley on the third Monday in May. Usually, there is little traffic. Not this time. Just as the walk got underway, a crew of volunteers for the Maine Forest and Logging Museum arrived. A long line of personal vehicles and a big flatbed truck squeezed by. They were moving a Lombard Log Hauler to the museum.

3 weeks ago | bangordailynews.com | Bob Duchesne

Quit reading this. Grab your binoculars, and get outside. We’ve arrived at peak bird-finding season. Here are my top three places to go in the immediate Bangor area. Rolland F. Perry City Forest is the official name for Bangor City Forest. If I could bird only one place in the area, it would be here. This is why. The forest is managed for tree diversity in both species and age. There are so many different trees at various heights that habitat is plentiful for every woodland bird.

4 weeks ago | bangordailynews.com | Bob Duchesne

To become an experienced birder, you only need one thing. Experience. There are two ways to get it. You can just get out there, do it, make every mistake in the book and learn slowly. Or you can borrow experience from someone else and speed things up a little. I wish I had taken the faster route. I’m a pretty good birder now, but it took me about 65 years to get here. Penobscot Valley Audubon has launched this year’s series of Neighborhood Bird Walks. Each is led by experienced birders.

1 month ago | bangordailynews.com | Bob Duchesne

Migration is well underway. The second wave of songbirds arrives over the next few days, and they’ll be singing upon arrival. It’s about to get loud wherever you are. You can use all this singing to figure out what birds are in your neighborhood. Many of the most common backyard birds don’t visit feeders, and don’t forage in plain sight. They lurk in the bushes and treetops. They might not be noticeable, except for the noise they’re making. Use their noise to find and identify them.