BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 10, 2023
Head Harbor Passage is a world-class adventure. Tides here are double the height of those reached in Bar Harbor, only 70 miles southwest. In the pre-COVID era, I liked to take my tiny inflatable boat into the channel to look for rare birds. The tubes on my inflatable are about the same shape, length and color of gray seals. I started to wonder if the sharks could tell the difference. I also wondered if the minke whales surfacing all around me would even notice, if they came up directly under me. I stopped doing it. Nowadays, I happily pay for Head Harbor boat tours. Minke whales are easy to see all summer. Fin and humpback whales are less common, but visit regularly. Gray seals and harbor seals are frequent sightings, and you can’t miss the roaming pods of harbor porpoises. But I go for the birds. Bonaparte’s gulls, Little gulls, Black-headed gulls, Atlantic puffins, razorbills, common murres. ~ Bob Duchesne