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Nature Cruise

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In order to give us the opportunity to see some of the larger marine wildlife of coastal Maine (larger than the invertebrates we saw at the tide pools), we took a trip aboard one of the wildlife tour boats from Bar Harbor, the Acadian Nature Cruise. Our trip took us around Frenchman's bay past a light house and numerous small islands, some privately owned. On the lighthouse island we saw a large group of northern gray seals and a number of eider ducks. We also saw ospreys and their nests and bald eagles and two of their nests. We saw a number of other marine birds, including black guillemot, common loon, double-crested cormorant and northern gannet, among others. We also spotted a single harbor seal in the water on our way home. The cruise also allowed us to see, from a different perspective, the impacts of glaciation and the great fire of 1947 on the shape and forest habitats of the island, respectively.

Click on a photo below to enlarge.

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