Maine Nature News - Tues., Nov. 11, 1997

Maine Nature News

Vol. 2, no. 45, Tuesday, November 11, 1997

You are invited to report on any aspect of Nature in Maine

Please e-mail Frank Wihbey, Editor: menature@maine.maine.edu

Informal plot of November 5 earthquake local intensity, based on natural history correspondents' reports given below.

This week's reports

Report format = Day, date, [time]. Location (Maine Atlas Map number) Report text. Initials of correspondent.

(The following very interesting report was inadvertently omitted from the October 4 Maine Nature News. It is included here and also has been added to the archived report for October 4.)

Wednesday, October 1. Phippsburg (Map 6) Seawall Beach. Watched a Peregrine fly [near] a flock of about 200 Sanderlings and then dive down on them. Flying sharply to right, left, up and down, and into the wave troughs, the Sanderlings, flying in tight uniform formation, managed to evade at least 10 of the attemps of the falcon as they were driven southward down the beach into the wind. The Peregrine seemed to rise effortlessly on the wind currents after each attempt. On diving, the Peregrine's target was so evasive that it was never able to employ its full speed: it had to concentrate so much on weaving and turning. I kept wishing to see it really put everything into a full speed drop. A.G.

Tuesday, October 28. Phippsburg (Map 6) Saw lots of White Winged Scoters at Head Beach in Phippsburg. Hunters had set up White Winged Scoter decoys which were successfully luring in the Scoters. Watched the hunters blast away at them for about half an hour and never bring one down. Also saw a Horned Grebe, 4 or 5 Yellow Rumped Warblers, a Bald Eagle, 2 Great Blues, and an Accipiter of some sort. In the last sun of the day a group of gulls were wheeling and diving down just above the top of the waves: seemed at times to be surfing waves' white crests. Often the gulls were caught by unexpected gusts of wind blown spray and thrown back. A.G.

Wednesday, November 5. Sabattus Pond (Map 12) Last week at Sabattus Pond (Delorme map 12, E1) , a haven for migrating waterfowl, some 15 local Ring-billed Gulls were hovering over 30 Common Mergansers who were diving and feeding. The gulls were probably hoping to steal food. Suddenly all birds took flight. A Bald Eagle swooped down to pluck a gull out of the air. The other gulls and ducks returned to feeding and harrassing, and the eagle settled on a rock to eat its meal.
Similar behaviour of harrassment of Red-breasted Mergansers by Ring-billed Gulls (without the eagle by-play) took place this week at the mouth of the Scarboro River (Delorme map 3, B4) N.M.

Wednesday, November 5, about 9:35 pm. Otis (Map 24) Earthquake felt. Furniture was jiggling in a brief, spasmodic manner. My husband didn't feel it, but it was a definite sensation and I noticed it as something unusual. B.G.

Thursday, November 6. Brunswick (Map 6) I did not feel anything from the earthquake. A.G.

Thursday, November 6. Fort Kent (map 67) I certainly felt the earthquake as well as everyone in the Fort Kent area. At first I thought it was some heavy wind, but I had just looked outside and there was no breeze. My then thoughts were of a chimney fire (wood stove in the house), but this was not the case. I continued to watch the Lewis & Clark series on MPBN without being alarmed. It was only this morning that the news said that there was the Earthquake. Then I realized that the noise last night was not the wind nor the smoking chimney. It was quite pronounced in the Fort Kent area. D.R.

Thursday, November 6. Orrington (Map 23) A series of major solar flares has produced a worldwide geomagnetic disturbance that according to my interpretation of magnetometer records available on the Internet shows a storm commenced at 2230UT, 6 November 1997. At 0400UT, 7 November [i.e. 11 pm EST, November 6] I observed aurora from Orrington, ME at a maximum elevation angle of about 30 degrees and extending magnetic east-west. Too bad the clouds are coming! L.S.

Thursday, November 6. Orrington (Map 23) I did not feel anything [of the Nov. 5 earthquake] here in South Orrington, and my students in Orland said they did not feel anything. On the radio they said the epicenter was in Québec, a long ways away. Certainly one would expect to feel a magnitude 5 quake if it was anywhere near us. L.S.

Thursday, November 6. South Orland (Map 23) We didn't notice it [the Nov. 5 earthquake]. Maybe too much background noise. W.D.

Thursday, November 6. Old Town (Map 33) Felt it in a BIG way in Old Town! [The Nov. 5 earthquake]. Unmistakably earthquake in nature!!! B.D.

Friday, November 7. Orono (Map 23) I regret that I did not experience it [the Nov. 5 earthquake]. Darn! I hate to miss out on great natural events. J.K.M.

Friday, November 7. Bangor (Map 23) Didn't notice a thing [the Nov. 5 earthquake]. S.R.

Friday, November 7. Alfred (Map 2) No, Frank, but my instructor said he did [notice the Nov. 5 earthquake]. He lives in Lisbon.
By the way, I've had the pleasure of having 3 does walk up to and around me -- one for two hours. I also had a buck, albeit a smaller one, walk by me on Saturday about 3 pm. I then saw two does that evening by an apple tree. No I didn't take any of them. I also enjoyed the company of a family of four grey squirrels playing around me -- sometimes a few feet away -- never to be noticed. That was cool. J.L.

Friday, November 7. E. Orland (Map 23) Craig Brook Nat'l Fish Hatchery. Today we had a flock of robins singing on one side of the hatchery, and a flock of about 20 evening grosbeaks and as many pine siskins at a feeder on the other side! Great Blue Herons are still around, as are loons.
Fall is spawning time for Atlantic salmon, and salmon at the hatchery are being spawned. Last week was slow, but more fish are coming ripe. There are perhaps 1,000 fish on station to be spawned. Each female salmon gives an average of 7,000 eggs; more as she matures (Atlantic salmon don't die after spawning). There are a handful of fish on station that have spawned many times. One 8-year-old (20 lbs.!) gives 10,000+ eggs! Spawning will be over by the end of Nov., and eggs will be incubated until late Feb./early March. Craig Brook handles salmon from the Penobscot, Dennys, Machias, E. Machias, Narraguagus and Sheepscot Rivers right now. C.P.D.

Friday, November 7. Bangor (Map 23) I did not feel it [the Nov. 5 earthquake]; however my brother and his family did. They live in Passadumkeag. J.B.

Sunday, November 2. E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: Warm rains brought the lake up from what was a low for the last 2 decades. We saw a slender frog leaping across the yard, away from the pond. W.D.

Monday, November 10. E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: A bald eagle circled several times just a few dozen feet above the water outside this window. In a role reversal for the neighborhood crows, they harassed the eagle.
This last week we also had a cardinal visit, the first since the snow of last winter, I think. Other visiting flock changes: The goldfinches are mostly back from a few weeks somewhere else. Fox and white-throated sparrows have been plentiful. Our two species of upside-down birds have been regulars, especially the white-breasted. Slate-colored juncoes came and went during the last 2 or 3 weeks. Hairy woodpeckers have been checking rot often the last month.
At the lake's edge: the water is several inches above its record low, the result of the rains of the last week and a half and the dam-keeper's not draining it off to Alamoosook. A bright red berry decorates the opposite shore for a couple hundred yards, and for many weeks now. (We'll canoe to it this week to identify it--others probably know what it is from this distance.) Larches are still yellow, but all other fall-falling leaves have fallen. W.D.

Monday, November 10. Northfield (Maps 25/26) No, I did not [notice the Nov. 5 earthquake]. But I did notice the loons made quite a racket at around that time, and I wondered about it at the time! N.P.

Monday, November 10. Orono (Map 23) No -- didn't feel it [the Nov. 5 earthquake]. I was in my office at the time [on University of Maine campus]. I have only experienced an earthquake once, as a kid in Indiana, of all places (must have been that Kentucky-Tennessee fault, whatever it is). C.W.

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