American Animals Maine and Maryland

Watching Whales and Puffins Play in Maine

People enjoy whale watching and also seeing adorable puffins at play. If you travel to the U.S. state of Maine you can do some whale watching and see one of the largest creatures on Earth gracefully come up out of the ocean. You can see their huge tails seem to wave at you and then just as quickly the whale goes down into the deep once more.

The best time for whale watching is from mid-April to October. It all starts when the migrating whales come back in the spring. At this time, they have plenty to eat such as sand eels, copepods, plankton, and fish. In October the whales head south seeking warmer waters.

You can enjoy seeing whales all along the Maine coastline and the best way and up close is by booking a tour on a whale-watching boat. You will enjoy not only seeing whales but also dolphins and seals since these creatures also want to come out and see the people waiting for them.

Traveling in Maine you can also have the pleasure of seeing puffins. These furry adorable creatures are fun to watch. The coastal islands of Maine are the only places in the U.S. where you can find nesting sites for Atlantic puffins. You can start at the Project Puffin Visitor Center in Rockland, Visitors can see a live camera feed of puffins in activity as well as learn about conservation efforts to protect them and other Maine seabirds.

Afterward, you can hop on a puffin tour boat taking off from Mt. Desert Island or ports on the mainland like Jonesport, Cutler, Bar Harbor, Millbridge, and others. It can be enjoyable watching the puffins at play.

Chesapeake Bay in Maryland

The best-known sea creatures in the Chesapeake Bay are the famous blue crab. The bay provides food water, cover, and nesting for over 3,000 migratory and resident wildlife species.

The blue crab needs a variety of aquatic habitats from the mouth of the bay to fresher rivers and creeks to complete its life cycle. Adult crabs feed on thin-skinned bivalves, fish, and plants. Female crabs lay up to eight million eggs in one season.

The oyster is a keystone species and very important to the Chesapeake ecosystem. Oysters purify the bay straining algae from the water for food, They provide habitat and food for many marine plants and animals.

Waterfowl

Waterfowl and other kinds of birds migrating along the Atlantic Flyway make stopovers in the Chesapeake Bay to find food and shelter in the coves and marshes. The migration of the common loon and tundra swan are definite signs of the winter season here.

The Chesapeake provides a winter haven for tundra swans, Canada geese, and a variety of ducks including canvasbacks, pintails, scoters, eiders, and ruddy ducks.

It is also a major nesting area for the threatened bald eagle, the brown pelican, and double-created cormorants.

The Chesapeake is home to the world's largest population of the osprey which is the harbinger of spring.

Fish

The tidal freshwater tributaries of the Chesapeake provide spawning and nursery sites for such fish as white and yellow perch, striped bass (also known as ‘rockfish’), herring, American shad, and hickory shad.

Other species here include bluefish, weakfish, sturgeon, Atlantic menhaden, flounde3r and spot, and larger fish such as as sandbar sharks and cow nose rays. Making their home here year-round are the Bay anchovy, silver perch, and lined seahorse.

Mammals

Among the mammals found in the Chesapeake area at bottlenose dolphins.

There are also land mammals like the river otters, the white-tailed and sika deer, bobcats, marsh rabbits, muskrats, and red foxes.

Reptiles and Amphibians

The most common reptiles are turtles and snakes in the bay watershed among them diamondback terrapin, loggerhead turtles, and more than 40 types of snakes.

There are also many varieties of frogs including the northern green frog, toads, salamanders, and newts.

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