We hope you recall our 2019 pursuit of a Maine Mindfulness Big Year. As of our last report in October, we had found 214 species in the state since Jan. 1. We mentioned then of our hope to get over to Sabattus Pond to see some of the duck species that we had not yet encountered in 2019. Not long after writing the column we did indeed make a pilgrimage to Sabattus Pond and found a number of the duck species that had been missing from our list. But the greatest pleasure from that trip was the “mindfulness” moment when we discovered a large flock of restless black scoters on their way to sea for the winter.

That was one of the themes of our Maine Mindfulness Big Year—to connect to the natural world that people are so much a part of, even when we’re faced with distractions that can leave us feeling more distanced that we’d like to be. More and more evidence is amassing of the physical and mental health benefits that accrue when we humans allow ourselves to fulfill that ancient need to be in nature. This Maine Mindfullness Big Year helped us to step back and ensure that we took time to make that connection to the pulse of our planet.

We ended up adding only 12 more species to our list after October, ending with a total of 226 species counted in Maine in 2019. We used eBird to keep track of our numbers for us, and it was kind of fun to see that we had submitted 338 checklists in Maine in 2019 in our quest. That seems like a lot, but it has already started us thinking—could we make it at least 365 (one for each day of the year) in 2020? Surprisingly, we submitted more checklists in February, March, and April then in other months of the year although, not surprisingly, we saw the most species in May and June.

Looking back through the list brings back a flood of wonderful “mindfulness” memories. We scanned across the ice at Damariscotta Mills looking for the white back of the lone male canvasback that wintered there. We stood on the icy path at Two Lights State Park, eyes tearing up in the cold and wind coming off the ocean as we watched a flock of harlequin ducks bobbing in the surf. There were the incredible May mornings along the Harrison Avenue Nature Trail in Gardiner where we scanned the treetops for bay-breasted warblers on their way north to the boreal forest. Unforgettable was our time on the Hardy Boat when it was filled with fellow nature lovers, all members of the Natural Resources Council of Maine, gently rocking off Eastern Egg Rock with Atlantic puffins on the water all around us, punctuated by a brilliant sunset on our way back to New Harbor. Or how about that wonderful Father’s Day adventure to the Orono Bog Boardwalk even though we didn’t find the hoped-for Lincoln’s sparrow?

Whatever the number of species on our Maine Mindfulness Big Year, the number of mindfulness nature memories that came from 2019 made it a triumph—so much so that we just may do it again this year!

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists and author of “Birder’s Conservation Handbook”. His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a nonprofit membership organization working statewide to protect the nature of Maine. Both are widely published natural history writers and are the authors of the book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds” and “Birds of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao: A Site and Field Guide” from Cornell Press.