Linda and I are headed into the woods above North New Portland soon for a weekend birding adventure. When Greg and Patrice Drummond opened Claybrook Mountain Lodge in 1984, their first guests were deer hunters. And for many years, the November deer season was their busiest.

But things have changed.

“The deer herd in our area has declined to such an extent that our (deer) season is the least profitable of the year,” Greg wrote in my sporting camp survey.

So what is their busiest time of the year now, you ask? It’s winter — when the camps are loaded with cross-country skiers and the Drummonds serve weekend lunches to traveling snowmobilers.

I am currently working on a book on Maine sporting camps for Down East Books, and I asked every camp owner to tell me about their greatest challenges.

The loss of hunters and anglers, mostly due to the diminishment of those resources, is right at the top of the list for most places.

But some folks, including the Drummonds, have smartly moved on to identify and cater to other outdoor recreationists. A few years ago the Drummonds turned Memorial Day weekend into a birding adventure, attracting so many guests that they added a second birding weekend last year. Greg Drummond, along with his friend Ron Joseph, a retired federal wildlife biologist, lead the birding weekend adventure and often identify more than 100 birds for their guests.

That is amazing, and Linda and I can’t wait to get there!

And we’ll tell you all about it in an upcoming Travelin Maine(rs) column published in the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel.