Nature lovers enjoy moonlit canoe trips

HOLDEN – Once a month in summer, we offer a canoe trip out onto Fields Pond under the full moon. We float along the lake shore as sunset darkens and becomes moonlit night.

If it’s a clear sky, the full moon is then our escort. Wildlife sightings add to the experience.

Holly Twining and I led the June canoe trip. Participants met at the Audubon Center and Twining helped them find the right sizes of life jackets and paddles. Then we headed for the canoes and the water.

Neophyte and expert paddlers alike got into their canoes and kayaks. After a few words about the trip, we all took off onto the lake.

When we got near the island, we saw a pair of eagles perched on a big pine tree on Maine Audubon’s island. The eagles were regal as they looked down on the lake and paddlers below. Frogs and birds were calling. It was a beautiful night.

In July, Della and Michael Gleason were the leaders under the full moon.

They led their flotilla of participants toward the island. The regal overseers of Fields Pond, the two eagles, appeared in the same pine tree.

The whole flotilla stopped and watched.

As they watched, many fish were jumping. A pair of loons swam on the water. Two ospreys circled overhead, and a pair of great blue herons flew languidly by. Fishing must have been good for all those fish-eating birds.

Auduboners paddled on down Orrington’s Sedgeunkedunk Stream to the “Red Bridge,” which is not red, but its historic predecessor was. A pair of phoebes had a nest full of young under the bridge. The parents were vigorously feeding them mosquitoes and damselflies.

The paddlers turned back and headed to the shore of Fields Pond, where an industrious group of bats were eating mosquitoes.

“The bats were doing their job,” said Della Gleason.

Michael Gleason said, “There were thousands of mosquitoes, no exaggeration.”

“It really wasn’t buggy out on the lake,” said Burt Huchins, “just a little at the end, near shore.”

Greg Carter had “a great time. Leaders were very knowledgeable, stressed safety and were very good at pointing out the wildlife.”

Carrie Pierce loved the moonlight tour. “I just wish it was longer,” she said.

Laurie Gonyea went on a moonlight canoe tour last year. Recently she called the Audubon Center and said, “Among the wonderful things I’ve done, last year’s moonlight canoe tour ranks right up there with the best. That’s why I’m signing up for it again.”

Our last moonlight tour will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 27, with Tom Copeland of Copeland Hill leading. For information, call 989-2591.