ABA: Friday

The convention's schedule included presentations in the morning and afternoon as well as the vendor mart in the Bangor civic center. Birdchick's coworkers agreed to staff the booth so that she could chase the King Eider at Acadia National Park. Despite my plan to go on Saturday's Acadia field trip, I joined my roommate on her quest to get 20 lifers in Maine.

Priorities, however: First stop -- Dunkin' Donuts coffee and fried, decorated dough. Mmm mmm good!

The directions given to Sharon proved to be less than clear, and we didn't find the distinctive duck. We did, however, cross paths with a deer and later find a road that took us through delightful habitat that included singing Hermit Thrushes. With the windows rolled down, we enjoyed hearing the song for a few minutes before continuing.

An odd tick convinced us to get out of the Jeep, and we encountered some vocal Dark-eyed Juncos and Red-breasted Nuthatches. A Brown Creeper also did its thing, and a possible Hermit Thrush made a cameo appearance. The nuthatches' yank amused the heck outta me.

On the drive back to Bangor, we amused ourselves by documenting unusual miniature golf decorations.

I spent the afternoon schmoozing at the vendor mart and enjoying the wit of various colleagues. After dinner, I returned to the room to find Birdchick cutting up the Sooty Shearwater head that had been chilling in an ice bucket since Thursday. My apologies for not photographing that lovely sight ;^)