In August 2017, my wife Marinka and I visited our beloved New England for 10 days. Main reason to visit was one of Marinka's high school friends throwing her 50th birthday party in Portland, Maine.  While Marinka and her friends enjoyed themselves for three days with lovely diners, lunches, shopping and some tennis in the Portland area, I went into the White Mountains in New Hampshire trying to find moose, black bears and other wildlife. The weather was most of the time pretty sunny so I managed to see quite a lot of birds, however, no moose or bears. In my serious attempts to find them I drove all the way north to the Connecticut Lakes and even into Canada where I spent a few hours birding. I learned, unfortunately, that both moose and bears are not easy to find.

After three days I picked up Marinka and we spent some time with our hostparents Betsy and George Burns in Falmouth with whom Marinka lived during her high school year in 1983 and with whom I lived for 3 months in 1993 while working as an intern with their law firm in Portland. Of course, I did some early morning birding at my favorite birding spot in Falmouth: Gilsland Farm Audubon Center.

Subsequently, we visited our good friends Julie and Patrick Fredericksen in Littleton, Massachusetts, with whom we spent four great and memorable days. We explored the lovely Littleton area and had some great time together, including with their two great sons Sam and Henri. Their yard is rich with wildlife, including deer, raccoons, groundhogs, squirrels, wild turkeys and it seems that some time ago they even had a mountain lion crossing their lawn.

Our last 4 days in New England were spent in the very nice Lighthouse Inn at West Dennis on Cape Cod. Of course I couldn't resist to go on another whale watch boat trip during which we encountered a rare sighting: a Great White Shark feeding on the dead carcass of a Common Minke Whale!

Check out all my photos under Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Canada!