Tuesday,
December 25, 2000. Saco
(Map 2) I tried an
experiment with my new camera that worked fairly well!
Taken in Saco at approx 12:50 pm on Christmas day with a HP 200 camera
with a welding glass over the lens. J.B.Maine Nature News
Vol. 6, no. 1, Tuesday, January 2, 2001
Tuesday,
December 25, 2000. Saco
(Map 2) I tried an
experiment with my new camera that worked fairly well!
Taken in Saco at approx 12:50 pm on Christmas day with a HP 200 camera
with a welding glass over the lens. J.B.
Friday, December 29, 2000. Bar Harbor (Map 16) On a hike around Eagle Lake we were treated to the sight of three different kinds of woodpeckers in close proximity: downy, hairy and pileated. On the Around the Lake Carriage Road the snow was still shallow, so we walked in hiking boots. Some people did ski, as there was just enough snow for cross country skiing. F.W.
Monday, January 1, 2001.
Brunswick (Map 6) Despite
reports in the news media of snow
amounts of 12" in Brunswick from this weekend's storm, my location had
approximately 7" to 8". It
was a very heavy, moisture-laden snow.
Temperature on Saturday reached about 35 degrees.
As for the bird feeder situation, the goldfinches, juncos,
chickadees, etc. vanished this week as quickly as they had appeared last week.
This correspondent is not worried about the health of the birds, however.
I think the irregular feeder-visiting patterns this season are a result
of a plentiful supply of naturally available food.
A.R.S.
Monday, January 1, 2001.
Skowhegan (Map 21) I was
glad to read your report and your comment about the image of the solar eclipse
that appeared [upside down on the front page of the Bangor Daily News] as I had
seen it and been puzzled about it. We did the pinhole trick here and had a good,
if small, image of the eclipse.
On December 23, we had chance to watch a sharp-shinned hawk
devour a mourning dove about a foot away from our back door step! We took
several pictures, which are only fair, of the event. The hawk was not troubled
by our voices. I think it could also see us in the window of the door. He
plucked and ate his prey, leaving with a very small unfinished piece only after
my daughter drove in, parked, got out and walked to within 8 feet of him.
We have seen lots of deer tracks, a few rabbit tracks, a few fisher
tracks, dog or coyote tracks, and small creature tracks in the foot of new snow.
Saw a mouse trail which ended abruptly under the print of wings on the snow.
My daughter saw 3 bucks traveling together -- a large 6
pointer, and two with only single points. J.F.
Monday, January 1, 2001.
Fort Kent (Map 68) Little Black Lake. Following a snowfall of
9" yesterday and another inch today, we now, with 21" total, have
almost regained the 22" of snow cover we had on December 16, just before 50
degree temperatures and heavy rain melted the snow down to maybe half its depth
on December 17. However, during
the night of December 17, it
turned colder, and the rain changed to wet snow that covered everything it came
in contact with, adorning and simultaneously burdening trees and powerlines.
And then came the high winds of December
18. Trees heavy with snow were no
match for the storm and were thrown across powerlines. Together with hundreds of other Fort Kent residents living
along our street, we were without electricity for 12 hours from about 10 am to
10 pm. Fortunately, our gravity-fed
private water system, a wood furnace in the basement, plenty of candles, and a
Coleman cookstove allowed us to survive this (for us) unprecedented lengthy
period of electric deprivation in relative comfort. Still, it felt great when we once more were able to turn a
switch and actually cause it to turn on the light.
(Flipping light switches seems to be a habit that continues
even when the power is gone.)
We couldn't help wondering, why, in this modern age in the
richest nation on earth, we still have to put up with above-ground powerlines.
Why can't we bury them as, I have been told, has been the case in
Germany! Here in the U.S., power poles and wires still cover our urban
areas like ugly stalked giant spider webs.
They still spoil our scenic views in rural landscapes.
They continue to electrocute some of our birdlife, and
they remain the reason why every year, somewhere in our country,
thousands of people have to go without the
necessities of daily living as floods, fires, ice and snow raise havoc with our
power distribution system.
A couple of days ago, I followed retraced snowshoe tracks
which my daughter and I had made two days earlier and which had become covered
with an inch or so of new snow. Never have I been able to see wildlife
tracks more clearly than this day. One
or more foxes and coyotes, following our trail for as much as a quarter of a
mile at a time, frequently left clear imprints of the underside of their feet.
It was interesting to observe how a coyote had placed his hind feet
almost exactly into the depressions made by its front feet.
Even a moose expected some advantage from following our trail for about
150 feet. Although
it broke through the surface with every step as one would expect, it
still left occasional imprints of its dew claws and the typical double-line
drag-mark that results when it extracts its pointed hoofed toes while moving
ahead. Snowshoe hare tracks, crossing our trail with great frequency, only once
followed it and then only for a few yards.
I assume this is because, being endowed by Nature with their own
snowshoes, the hares did not see a major advantage in using our trail for any
distance. In fact, the coyote
predator - hare prey equilibrium may well shift in the predator's favor on
packed snow surfaces. Another
explanation for the disinclination of snowshoe hares to follow the snowshoe
trail for any distance is probably that snowshoe hares have much smaller home
ranges and cruising radii then the far-ranging carnivorous members of the local
wildlife community.
In any event, it was good to see that a snowshoe trail can
serve as a substrate for recording wildlife tracks all winter long, no matter
how deep the snow. And I enjoyed
observing the activity log left by my wild friends and speculating about what it
seemed to tell me. I now await with
even greater anticipation the arrival of the tracking books I have ordered
through the library in the hope of
learning more about the ways of wildlife in our winter woods.
E.T