Birders from the 1st Annual Rangeley Birding Festival visit Perham Stream Birding Trail.

Madrid Township, ME–In Madrid’s Intervale, the low-lying area between Saddleback, Saddleback Junior and Mount Abraham, Carson Hinckley, the owner and proprietor of the Perham Stream Birding Trail invites the community to enjoy the Perham Stream Birding Trail and Museum.

Open year-round, with no cost to visitors, the 2.2-mile trail network winds nature enthusiasts through five birding sub-habitats, offers panoramas of the valley, and unique opportunities to enjoy the history of one of Maine’s many unorganized townships. The trail is wide and maintained with a mower biweekly, is easy to navigate, and is suitable for all ages. Pets are welcome but must be leashed.

Though teeming with history, the valley is mostly barren of homesteads. Once home to 68 buildings, only a few stands today. A cemetery, maintained by Hinckley, speaks to the generations who built their lives in the Intervale, where there was no store and bartering was the way of life.

The Museum hosts a collected of historical farming equipment that was used in the Intervale until recent as the last decade. Hinckley has been collecting and sharing his collection with visitors for many years. As he says, “If the barn door is open, the Museum is open.”

To visit the Perham Stream Birding Trail travel north on Route 4 to Phillips, turning right onto Route 142 in Phillips. Following Route 142 for 2.5 miles, visitors will turn left onto the East Madrid Road. The Trail is 4.7 miles from this turn, stay straight through the intersection, cross over Perham Stream, arriving at 658 East Madrid Road, a red farmhouse. The trailhead and kiosk are on the left.