Birding Down East by Norman C. Famous
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Carrying Place Cove Bog
Another interesting site in the Quoddy Head State Park area
is Carrying Place Cove bog located
3 miles from the Park's entrance toward Route 189.
This bog is significant as it served as the site for one of the
first descriptions of coastal plateau bogs.
Coastal plateau bogs are raised or elevated above the surrounding landscape.
Many raised coastal bogs have a relatively flat surface giving rise to the name
'plateau bog', a morphological form found within about 5 miles of the coast only
in eastern Maine and adjacent New Brunswick, coastal Scandinavia, and New Zealand.
The flora of these bogs contain several more northern species including baked-apple berry,
black crowberry, and hare's tail sedge (Scirpus cespitosus).
Northern comandra (Geocaulon lividum) was historically found in this bog.
More recently, it was discovered in two bogs on Campobello Island and a third bog about
5 miles southwest of the park (Boot Head Bog in Trescott also contains many Palm Warblers,
Lincoln's Sparrows, Boreal Chickadees, and Alder and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers).
The best birding at Carrying Place Cove Bog is found along the forested edges and on the north side facing Lubec. A 8-10 foot high peat moss cliff is being eroded away from this side. More than 150 feet of the 8,000 year old bog has washed into the sea since the early 1950's. With a little early morning effort, one should find Savannah, Lincoln's, White-throated, and Song Sparrows. One can also hear Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow on the The Nature Consevancy's barrier beach located immediately north of the bog (separated by water at low tide). Along the shrub and forested edges one should encounter Alder Flycatcher, Wilson's, Yellow (forested edge), Nashville, Palm, and Magnolia warblers as well as Common Yellowthroat, Cedar Waxwing, American Robin, and Purple Finch. Bank Swallows nest near the top of the eroding peat cliffs.
There are several ways to bird this bog.
There is a small pull off above the end nearest Quoddy Head State Park.
At the other end (west end) there is a small road leading south to a group of homes.
The northeast end offers access to the shoreline.
Walk west and view an entire cross section of the eroded bog.
Note the texture of the highly decomposed
peat at the bottom of the bog (where the small logs and roots are exposed) and
compare it to the middle and upper peat layers comprised of poorly decomposed
moss and shrub fragments. This bog is fairly young, approximately 7,000 years old.
If one follows the shore east past the parking lot there are several eroding clay
banks containing small shells approximately 12,000 years old.
Also, notice the exposed parallel scratches on the exposed bedrock.
These scratches were carved by a continental glacier that traveled southeast over Maine
and the adjacent Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine. The marine clays were deposed at
the time of deglaciation approximately 12,000 years ago. The small shells
(mostly Portlandica galcialis) found in the clay once thrived in silt-laden waters
at the base of glaciers where they are currently found growing in the Arctic.
Keep an eye out for migratory shorebirds on the adjacent mudflats. They are best observed 2 hours before and after high tide while they are crowded on the last flats to be covered by water or the first to be exposed. I find that they are less susceptible to disturbance during the falling tide while they are preoccupied with feeding and bathing. At high tide they are usually found at either (or both) the small cobble bar 100 yards northeast of the pull off or along the shoreline of The Nature Conservancy's barrier beach north of the bog. During the breeding season one can hear Sharp-tailed Sparrows along this barrier beach and associated salt marshes. Expect to find Black-bellied Plovers, Least Sandpipers, Dunlin, Short-billed Dowitcher, and Yellowlegs through the first week in June. These same species return southward during the first week of July. The greatest numbers of birds arrive after the 3rd week of July.