Natalie Springuel almost deleted the message that had come sometime last October. It was an email from a Philip Keillor, a name totally unknown to her. Out of curiosity, she opened it to find that coastal engineering specialist Philip Keillor was also brother to Garrison Keillor, the humorist storyteller whose "A Prairie Home Companion" has been a public radio phenomenon for more than 30 years.
Do you know anyone who would be interested in joining a Prairie Home Companion cruise as a naturalist? the email asked. Sure do, replied Natalie Us. She had no doubt she could rope in her ornithologist husband, Richard MacDonald.
Though neither of them is from coastal New England nor the Maritimes, both have established deep connections to the region. Springuel came to Bar Harbor to attend College of the Atlantic and is now the marine extension associate of Maine Sea Grant, housed at the college. Two years ago, MacDonald enrolled in COA's graduate program in human ecology and signed on as a part-time grant writer for the college.
It didn't take too many email exchanges for the deal to close. Along the way, Keillor asked for a photo of the couple, "looking rugged and knowledgeable." "At that point," said Springuel, "we knew what role we were supposed to take." The two are about as strong and healthy looking as a couple can be, and quite knowledgeable about the natural world. MacDonald had been banding birds since he was 10 years old and has worked as an ornithologist for Audubon and The Nature Conservancy; Springuel had extensive experience as a kayak guide on Mount Desert Island. Not too long ago, the two had spent five months kayaking just about the very route they would be traveling, from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia - 1.5 million paddle strokes, adds MacDonald with a broad smile.
Compared to that journey, the cruise was a whirlwind, just one week at the end of August, beginning in Boston, with stops in Bar Harbor, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton Island, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, before returning to Boston. There were 1,200 passengers and 500 crew on the Holland America Line's M/S Maasdam, keeping the pair busy from their sunrise bird talk to long past sunset.
During the day, there were workshops in poetry writing, maritime history, theater, sound effects - and the natural history of the region. "We were naturalists from waking to sleeping," said MacDonald during a break from his work at COA. "We were up at sunrise to be naturalists on deck, talking about what we were seeing and what we were not seeing. There were almost always seabirds, there was the occasional marine mammal - and if we couldn't see anything because of the fog, we'd give a discourse on fog." The couple did presentations on the natural history of the region and what species they were likely to see from the boat. They brought images of marine mammals from Allied Whale, COA's marine mammal research organization and talked about issues of the working waterfront, coastal access, and navigation, both in and out of the fog.
"We never had fewer than 50 people in our workshops. Eventually, we realized we had our own groupies," said MacDonald, "people who would come to our workshops day after day." Between workshops, there were questions. "A half hour lunch would take an hour and a half," added Springuel. "It was fun. Even if they didn't come to a workshop, they would bring their digital cameras and ask us to identify something they had just seen. And they didn't just want to know what bird it was, but where it ate and traveled, and what kinds of interactions it had. These people were tuned into the environment."
Equally as fun was being on the Prairie Home Companion show - twice. Though it may not be actually aired on radio, a full-scale program was put on twice during the cruise, complete with Prairie Home Companion regulars, plus such guests as the Cajun band BeauSoleil, Maine musician Gordon Bok, MacDonald and Springuel. Says MacDonald, "My family used to have what they'd call 'quiet parties' on Saturday nights. They'd invite people over for potlucks and no one would say a word because they'd be listening to 'A Prairie Home Companion.' So, I went onstage with my bird book in my blazer pocket, and binoculars around my neck and Garrison Keillor leans over me - he's a very tall guy, so he hunches over his microphone and in his lumbering way asked, 'Birders are a funny lot, they like to do things like make long lists. Are there any life birds you hope to see?' I told him about the birds that would be around, and then added, 'But there are two I really hope to find: a rosy-breasted pushover and a scarlet teenager.' Keillor got the references (rose-breasted grosbeak and scarlet tanager), and chuckled. Later he came up to MacDonald to say he really like the scarlet teenagers. "I was riding high. I told a joke to Garrison Keillor onstage!" recalls MacDonald.
Then Keillor asked Springuel to tell him a little bit about marine mammals. She mentioned that the finbacks and the blue whales have the deepest tones, and from that moment, as Springuel continued to speak about whales, Keillor backed her talk with a very deep tone. Far from getting flustered, she mustered up about as high a complement as she could give: "You could have a career as a marine mammal."
by Donna Gold, College of the Atlantic's Director of Public Relations
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