Please e-mail Frank Wihbey, Editor:
menature@maine.edu Vol. 5, no. 45, Tuesday, November 7, 2000
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You are invited to report on any aspect
of Nature in Maine
Please e-mail Frank Wihbey, Editor:
menature@maine.edu
Report format = Day, date, [time]. Location (Maine Atlas Map number) Report text. Initials of correspondent.
Thursday, November 2. Holden (Map 23) Children on nature walks found a Garter Snake and a Red-bellied Snake at the Fields Pond Nature Center. J.K.M.
Friday, November 3.
Holden (Map 23) A Leaf-footed Bug was on the window at the Fields Pond
Nature Center. I never saw one before. Its hind leg was flattened and shaped
like a tiny leaf, and even had a leaf-like midrib through the middle.
At 10 pm, two Barred Owls called back and forth at the Fields
Pond Nature Center. J.K.M.
Saturday, November 4.
Skowhegan (Map 21) This week I got a film back that I took this
summer and had forgotten about. On
it is a picture of a garter snake swallowing a bird!
My cat killed one and I left it by the back step to dispose of later.
When I got around to it, the bird was gone.
A little movement under my rosebush caught my eye -- the snake with the
bird. I have seen the snakes doing that with frogs, but admit I was
surprised to see the bird disappearing.
Speaking of disappearing birds--our feeders have been nearly deserted for
several weeks, a most unusual occurrence here. We feed year round and this
simply has not happened before. J.F.
Saturday, November 4.
Bar Harbor (Map 16) Cadillac Mountain. Expecting
a “partly cloudy” day for hiking in that part of our state, I went to Mount
Desert Island, but was surprised when I got there to see the whole island socked
in by low clouds. All except the
lowest hills were poking into the overcast.
Somehow I got the inspiration to drive up Cadillac Mountain and, lo and
behold, the summit was in sunlight! The
view was just like that from an airplane with sculpted shapes in low relief on
the top of the cloud layer. Occasionally
a view would open below, and reveal for example, Bubble Pond through just enough
cloudiness to preserve the illusion I was aloft.
Always eager to “salvage the day” (my version of carpe
diem) I decided to do an “upside-down hike.” Cadillac is one of only two mountains on the island –
because of auto road accessibility -- where one can do this: start with a descent, and finish with an ascent.
As I descended over the rocks back into the cloud world, all was very
quiet except for the occasional bird calls of
black-capped chickadees, blue jays, crows and ravens, the sudden
wingbeats of a startled ruffed grouse, and the tapping of a downy woodpecker.
The subdued colors of the day were underscored by the oaks and beeches,
which retain their brown leaves a long time and contrast with the conifers.
Rarely I would see a moth fly a bit and settle back from my disturbance.
The temperate cloud forest effect was much in evidence, as I could see
water collecting on twigs where needleleaf trees strained water directly from
the saturated air.
When I returned to the sunlit summit I heard a late season
cricket in the sunwarmed south-facing rocks.
F.W.