Please e-mail
Frank Wihbey, Editor: menature@maine.maine.edu
Vol. 2, no. 50, Tuesday, December 16, 1997
Quick jumps: | This week's reports | Informal plot of Nov.5 local earthquake intensity | Prior weekly Nature reports | Prior Black fly reports |
You are invited to report on any aspect of Nature in Maine
Please e-mail
Frank Wihbey, Editor: menature@maine.maine.edu
This week's reports
Report format = Day, date, [time]. Location (Maine Atlas Map number) Report text. Initials of correspondent. .
Friday, December 12. Orono (Map 23) The pine grosbeaks that were seen feeding early in the week at road's edge on my street, at the icy margin of the exposed dead grass, are gone. But here on the University of Maine campus they can now be seen feeding in flocks numbering from 4 to 40 in the crabapple trees next to Fogler Library. Females in duller color seem to greatly outnumber the brightly colored males (unless the winter coloring of male adults is paler in most individuals - ?) F.W.
Saturday, December 13. E. Orland (Map 23) Certainly we've had tons of evening and a few rose-breasted [grosbeaks], as I remember. W.D.
Sunday, December 14. Orono (Map 23) The day dawned cool, the sky was blue and clear, the air calm. It remained that way all morning and into early afternoon. Around 2 pm I chanced to look out the windows of the building where I work. It looked as if someone had suddenly shaken up one of those little glass globes with the snow in the water: big flakes were flying down from a darkened sky! A little later, from the other side of the building I saw that the snow had started to fly horizontally, and dust-devils (snow-devils, if there is such a term?) were whirling in the street. A powerful snow squall had arrived and then left just as suddenly a half-hour later, bringing bitter cold air with it. F.W.
Monday, December 15. Georgetown, Arrowsic, Woolwich,
Wiscasset, West Bath, Phippsburg area (Map 6) Along the mid-coast the snow is covering
about half the ground. What lies on the ground has been reduced to a thin, hard crust.
No pine grosbeaks yet, though we have seen a rufous-sided towhee (late for the season) and
a fox sparrow (not too rare for this time of year). We are looking forward to our
Christmas Bird Count - Saturday, December 20th. D.H.
Monday, December 15. Fort Kent (Map 67) I have seen two
flocks (not very large, perhaps 20 plus birds) of Pine Grosbeaks. What I found strange is
that I saw them in unlikely places,that is I saw them on the edges of fields not really
close to any great cover. I usually see many of them in the woods west of Baxter Park. I
was there this weekend and did not see any. A coworker has had a few Pine Grosbeaks in her
feeders, but they stayed a few days.
At the feeders at the house, there are MANY, MANY Blue Jays (more than we have ever seen).
We have Chickadees, one Mourning Dove, and several Woodpeckers. The Snow Buntings are here
in good numbers. There are no other birds.
There are lots of fox tracks in the snow, but few rabbits and grouse. This weekend, on a
trip to Baxter Park I did see 10 moose (only two bulls) and 3 deer. Most of the deer were
cow/calf combinations. I would expect another good herd next year. D.R.
Monday, December 15. Freeport/Brunswick (Map 6) No grosbeaks seen by yours truly. Snow cover in Freeport/Brunswick is 0-1 inches in the open and 0-2 inches in the woods. T.R.
Tuesday, December 16. E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near
the dam: Ice first sheeted this end of the lake a week ago. Since then this entire section
(Toddy One) has become hard-ice covered. Long cracks decorate the slick, windswept ice
today. We're beginning to hear the house-shaking, thunderous creation of these cracks
during cold nights. (The ground has been snow covered most of the month, though snow is
sublimating, packing, and otherwise disappearing.)
We were down to -3° F. yesterday. Sunday's storm, that brought that cold, swept through
here midday with darkness and a roar of winds pelting us with rice-like snow -- I was
working on the roof in midday's warmth when that dark blizzard hit, providing a lovely
thrill. Despite its ominous appearance and horizontal precipitation, the front passed
quickly and left little accumulated snow; just a clean, baby blue sky decorated with light
clouds and some scud out of the north.
The many hooded-mergansers fished here till the ice pushed them away. Nuthatches seem to
be newly permanent residents, feeding with their chickadee cousins. W.D.