As of Saturday (March 16), there still were hundreds of Common Eiders vacationing just outside Blue Hill Falls.
One day soon they’ll vanish north, but now they’re massed in a flotilla of black-trimmed white males and dark-barred brown females.
The “Falls” that attract these birds consist of fast whitewater tides within a rocky channel between Salt Pond and Blue Hill Bay. Eiders, our largest native ducks, are among the few birds that can swim in this fast water.
However, even they strain at times.
The tides surge into and out of the Pond and become a food funnel – sweeping up crabs and starfish and uncovering mollusks. In the winter, the fast water doesn’t freeze, making this place a far better winter resort than Mar-a-Lago, if you’re an Eider.
(Brooklin, Maine)