Black fly reportSubmit Your Nature ReportSearch Archive Astronomical Diary Meteor Showers Search Site Map Tides Studying Maine Natural History Links Clubs History of the MNN Editor's Column Robin's Thoughts & Rambles Robin Follette, Editor/Publisher April 28, 2009 It's here, and it's not cause for celebration. "It" is the first black fly report of the year. "It" was followed by Steve's report from the kitchen. "Hey Rob, the blackflies were out while I was in the garden." The wind was heavy enough to keep them down while I worked outside today. The first reports in 2008 were in the May 13 edition, two weeks later than this year. Jj will work with me on the report again this year. Thank you Jj! Some of the peas, the spinach, fava beans and beets/greens have been planted. Cold tolerant crops and potatoes will start being transplanted tomorrow. The winter that felt like it would never end, ended abruptly and spring has allowed for early planting. Today's wild weather was a nice hint of summer. I'm glad it didn't last! I'm not ready for 88* just yet. The air was dry at 30% humidity. I'll go out before I fall asleep tonight to light the heater. Tonight's low is 38*. The weather returns to normal tomorrow with a high of 60*, perfect for working outside. ~Robin  April 11, Milford (Map 33)
Not really a natural phenomenon but a sure sign of spring , first sat night beanhole bean supper of the year. BM April 7, 2009 FG sent these comments: Interesting that RRR would mention Coltsfoot. I had started to write my Quoddy Tides article on early stuff and Coltsfoot was one of them.There are no warnings about ingesting coltsfoot compounds in most of my reference books except for 'Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs.' Lots of stuff on Google. On Pileated holes, the woodpecker eats carpenter ants almost exclusively during the winter, and carpenter ants generally hibernate pretty close to the ground. If she looked closely at the holes she would see ant construction. FG asked about snakes in my area when he sent his report this week. Do you find them up in Topsfield? Do you find any other snakes up there? There used to be big water snakes in East Grand, West Grand, etc and I've seen pictures but no actual critters. I found baby brown snakes in a pile of rocks I'd removed from the garden last summer. That was the first time I'd ever seen them. At the time I had no idea what they are. The only snakes I see here (as far as I know, I'm not great with snakes) are garter snakes and the brown snakes. A garter sunned itself in the entry of the rabbitry for five or six years. I made a mental note of how much it was growing from year to year. If I'd first discovered it when it was full grown I probably wouldn't have been willing to step up and over it to get into the rabbitry like I did so many days. Easing into our "relationship" was for the best. It must have trusted me though I don't know why. I knew it was going to be there in the morning and still, I screeched when I had other things on my mind and forgot about the snake. Unfortunately, he or she didn't return last summer. I want snakes to move into the garden and stay because they're great pest controllers but I want them to stay put in places out of my way. I don't dislike snakes but they do startle the heck out of me. There's nothing like reaching down to pick something in the garden and coming eye to eye with a snake to make my heart race. You'll probably never see a picture of snake in my hand. I've heard about water snakes on Pocomoonshine in Princeton but I haven't seen them. We spend a lot of time fishing so it's probably just a matter of time. Movement caught my eye just now. A chipmunk is jumping from bare spot to bare spot. Poor little guy's probably wondering if he woke up too soon. There shouldn't still be a foot of snow in the woods on April 7. I thought i heard him chipping this morning. Stumpy, the half-tailed red squirrel, reappeared in the last week. I do think it's the same stumpy-tailed squirrel that visited last year. It will sit on the platform feeder while I walk by. The other squirrels run for safety in the shed or under the back porch. Have a good week! Sincerely, Robin Follette Editor/Publisher | Maine Nature NewsApril, 2009 Vol. 14 No. 4 What is it?  Q. These
tubers were dug out of a sandy bank on the edge of the Kenduskeag
Stream in Bangor. There are many of them strung together like
beads. They inside is white, odorless and similar in texture to a
radish. Do you know what these are? Please email answers for next week's edition. Enquiring children (and their parents) want to know! RF A. The tubers I could maybe identify with the whole plant, although I have a good idea as it is. Not being able to be positive, I'm not saying, but please dont eat that just yet, either. :) EW A. Groundnut, Apios americana. Good eating either raw or cooked. FG A. The brown lumpy things are a ground nuts. I don't know if they are edible or not. They can be a real pain if they get into a garden as the vines climb and choke whatever they can get to. the flowers are enticingly pretty. Ground Nut (Wild Bean) Apios americana • Family: Pea (Fabaceae) • Habitat: moist thickets • Height: vine up to 10 feet long • Flower size: 1/2 inch long • Flower color: dark red • Flowering time: July to September • Origin: native (RRR)  A. The
same outdoor-loving children would like to know if this is wild
asparagus. If it's not, is it something they could pick and eat?
They were very interested in this plant. It was on a sandy
but solidly packed roadside. RF
A. In response to the question on 4/21
about whether the plant is a wild asparagus, it is a horsetail, a non-flowering
relative of ferns, from the genus Equisetum. The one pictured could be a
field horsetail (Equisetum
arvense) which is very common. I don’t know if it is edible but
horsetails are filled with silica and would be quite rough on the teeth! The
globular object at the top of the stem ifs the fertile “cone” which bears the
spores. -ARS A. Please dont eat the 'wild asparagus' its Horsetail, not asparagus, and not
edible. EWA. Horsetail, probably the common horsetail Equisetum arvense Probably not poisonous but I suggest using this plant for scouring your camp dishes after it grows up instead of eating it, unless you have a deficiency of silica. FG A. Horse Tail Rush. It's a plant that hasn't changed much since the dinosaurs were around. it starts out with that sort of bleached asparagus look and then converts to a green, kind of tree looking thing. It's a real nightmare if it gets into a garden as it's impossible to eradicate. The Grass 'Horsetail Rush', Equisetum hymeneal, is an upright mounded, clumping rhizome. An ancient plant with bushy, slender stems and a weeping habit. When young, the slender stems grow horizontally but the plant sends up thicker, vertical stems as it ages. In winter, the evergreen, gray green foliage turns a rich bronze. The Horsetail Rush, also known as the Scouring Rush, is one of the oldest plants to be used by man. It reaches heights to 4 feet, and is a durable plant. It has jointed, hollow stems that are furrowed and green with black bands that give it a bamboo-like appearance. RRR A. Your plant is one of several species of horsetails known as “scouring rush” and has been around since the middle Devonian period (398 to 385 million years ago). The stems contain silica. They were sometimes used to smooth items made of wood and bone, polish fingernails and arrow shafts, and scour pots and pans, hence the name. Native Americans used scouring-rush medicinally for its diuretic (taken in an infusion) and astringent properties (applied to burns). SW April 23, Milford (Map 33) As spring progresses there is a short period when all the low ground seems to take on an unusual reddish hue. With a closer look it's the flowers of the red maple, some call it swamp maple. I'ts the same tree that is the first to turn its leaves to crimson in late summer and early fall. BM   This Belted Kingfisher found a great perch on the road in to Head Beach. April 25, Greenbush (Map33) Came across this porky (porcupine) worked aspen, striped perfectly clean except for the branch scars top to bottom, quite a feat if you could see how small the top is. Someone one time examined porky skeletons in museum collections and found that most porkies at one time in their life had broken some bones in their body, presumably from falling out of trees. I can now understand why. BM    March 26, Phippsburg (Map 6)Update on the Phippsburg Four: these guys are looking more like their parents, now. They are more wary than before and harder to photograph. They are roaming further from the den into the woods for food and gone for longer stretches. This is a skeleton from what looks like a chicken carcass. It had been picked completely clean and was next to a den hole. Local citizens, concerned for the kits welfare posted this cute sign. It's a dirt road that barely sees three cars a day! RRR     April 26, Phippsburg (Map 6) Barred Butt in The Burg This is the nest cavity of Barred owls in Phippsburg. The cavity, shaped to my eye like a heart, is located about 40 feet up in an oak tree. It's where a limb had broken off long ago and the cambium curled back in on itself. This is the tail of the nestling, who has yet to turn around for a photograph! I'll keep trying, though. It's hard to get a clear shot of the hole. Owls nest where there are lots of branches in front of the hole so that crows can't get in easily to pillage the nest. Crows don't like to go where there isn't a clean, quick escape route. RRR April 26, Milford (Map 33) A study in contrast, the bleak wet low ground of a red maple swale still shrouded in winters hibernation is the backdrop to the bright iridescent green of the emerging Skunk Cabbage. BM  April 26, Phippsburg (Map 6) Head Beach Road On the road into Head Beach there is a tiny pond. It's not quite vernal in that it has water all year round, but barely. Right now, there are hundreds and hundreds of toad mating in the water. The fill the air sacks under their chins and break into raucous song. They are really loud, an ear piercing symphonic trilling. Each one is in a slightly different key. Sometimes the trilling ends in a choked gurgling when one toad leaps onto another mid song and shoves it underwater. Toad are amphibious and spend most of the year on land. When it's time to mate and lay eggs, they are in the water. They aren't bothered by predators, like cats, dogs or birds. If it was frogs singing and mating in the broad light of day, there would Great Blue Herons and Egrets skewering them for lunch. The toads excrete a taste from the bumpy glands on their skin which makes predators spit them out immediately. Have you ever seen a dog try to pick one up? They will only try to do it once and never again! RRR   April 27, Danforth (Map 53) We
completed the first of two North American Woodcock Singing Ground
surveys. It was a beautiful night, 62*, clear sky and moderate
breeze. We started at 7:22 pm and counted 10 stops through 8:29
pm. We counted 10 males. There might have been more but the
peppers were so loud at one stop we could barely hear each other and a
very loud motorcycle interrupted a second spot. In addition to
the woodcock and peepers we heard one unidentified owl, a Great Horned
owl, a killdeer and wood frogs. RF    Biddeford (Map 3)
Driving thru Fortunes Rocks and saw a tail sticking out of a hedge. Got
a multitude of pictures. The Explorer came within a few feet of us. Mom was not
concerned at all. JB  There has been some interesting and informative discussion about coltsfoot. Just starting to bloom here, came across this beauty yesterday, seems like it blooms almost overnight. BM  April 16, Greenbush (Map 33)Some talk of woodpeckers in recent columns I came across this excavation along a beaver flowage. Must have taken a Pileated all winter to dismantle this tree. BM April 18, Old Town (Map 33)  One of my favorite writers is Bernd Heinrich. What always strikes me is his fascination with the smallest wonders of nature. I try to emulate his powers of observation whenever I am outdoors, hence the beauty of the most common - Alder catkins (flowers). BM  Do you know what this is?  Q. Does anyone know what these are? I took this shot through the water. They were on Bald Head, salt water. I think it's what the Brants and gulls were dining on. They swim quickly and are about an inch long. RRR A. Pike. RP (I think they're much smaller than pike. We find them in rock weed on the beach. RF Answers! As
the ice locking in Maine's streams and rivers opens each
spring
an amazing reorganization of Maine's beaver population takes
place. As the Adult female readies for this yrs litter she
forces
the 2yr old kits from the colony. They begin a search for not only a
new location to establish a colony but a mate. They do this by scraping
up mud and debris at strategic locations along the streams and brooks
as they travel and deposit a dollop of castorium from their
castor
glands. This tells any other beaver that pass who they are and where
they have been. Each one adds its own dollop. Some of these castor
mounds have been used by generations of young beaver and are a foot
high and 2 ft around. Add to this the wanderlust of the adult
males for the summer and you have quite a parade. BM Wednesday
April 8 Lewiston, Auburn (Map 6) With the over 2" of rain that fell Monday night combined with the snow melt in the mountains the Androscoggin River rose to 12 feet, one foot below the 13 foot flood stage mark. That much water coming down stream has caused the Great Falls between Lewiston and Auburn to live up to their name. Most of the year the falls are pretty much on the dry side as the river water is diverted through one of the nearby hydro power plants. SY April 10, Milford (Map 33) Another of nature's wonders, an overwintering Mourningcloak streching its wings on a warm April day. BM  Friday April 10 Brunswick
(Map 6)
There is a small retention pond next to the parking lot at work. Last week the ice cover melted away along with the big piles of snow left over from all of the snowplowing. This morning I took a walk next to the pond to see if there was any life in it yet and could see or hear nothing. After lunch that all changed. The pond came alive after hundreds of wood frogs had made their way to the pond. SY April 10, Milford (Map 33) Ran the owl survey route last night in the Saponac
lake area, lots of activity. 5 Saw whets , 5 Barred and a
single Great horned. Also heard the first loon of the year on the
Passadumkeag river, a few woodcock and lots of of night flying
geese. First barn swallows showed up at the farm this morning. BM April 11, Pembroke (Map 27) Most of us humans celebrate life and mourn death. In nature, however, they are almost one and the same, as life always ends in death, and death helps life, and death is often as mysterious and interesting as life. I found this rabbit (snowshoe hare) Saturday afternoon near my barn where I had been taking gravel from a pile to patch up the potholes in my driveway. I couldn't find any clue as to how he met his demise; he seemed to be in good shape, no signs of any struggle or injury, and if he died from an illness or poison I would have thought that he would have sought a protected spot. Could it have been an owl that crushed him without puncturing the pretty fragile skin? Why would an owl leave a good rabbit? Did he kill it just for sport? I thought just people and cats did that. Whatever, Sunday (Easter) morning I brought it over to my raven feeding station. The ravens are nesting nearby. Sort of ironic; I eat chocolate Easter rabbits and the ravens eat the real thing. By mid afternoon there was nothing left but some tufts of fur, and the original mystery of why this came about in the first place. FG  Saturday April 11 Rangeley (Maps
28, 29) Spent this fine spring day skiing at Saddleback Mountain. Temperatures were in the low forties under a mostly sunny sky. While winter has relaxed its grip in the southern parts of the state here in the western mountains it's still trying to hold on for a while longer. As a matter of fact the trees on the upper reaches of Saddleback were covered with a heavy coating of ice and snow. From the ski area summit you get a outstanding view of the Rangeley Lakes Region that still looks much more winter like than spring like. At the base of the mountain is a still snow covered Saddleback Pond and beyond that the still frozen waters of Rangeley and Mooselookmegentic Lakes. At the top of one of the ski lifts one of the lift attendances had thrown out some crackers that five Canadian Jays were having a feast on. They would fly from the spruce trees to pick up a piece and then back to the trees to eat. At one time there were 2 or 3 of them at the base of my feet picking up pieces of the crackers. They were just to fast though for me to get a good picture of . On one of the runs down the mountain I took a seldom used trail off to the side of the resort. I guess you would have to call this a mixed use trail as there were a set of moose tracks going all the way to the bottom. I would bet it's a lot easier walking down on a ski trail than through the under brush. On the way back home I stopped off at the very nice roadside waterfall in Sandy River Township (Map 19). It's located on Chandler Mill Stream and is called Smalls Falls with a drop of about 18 yards into a small pool. SY   April 1, Milford (Map 33)
Bachelor party, There is
each spring a short window as the ice sheet melts and moves back up
river when amongst the hundreds of ducks in the stream and river around
the farm a contingent of Drake ring necks shows up waiting
for more water to open up river. In my opinion they
are one of the most strikingly beautiful of our
ducks. Their plumage and markings gives them such a regal
appearance BM  April 2, Milford (Map33) What's spring without a bouquet of pussywillows for the house. Little fuzzy sheaths to protect buds from a late freeze. BM  April
3, Milford (Map33)Skunk cabbage, often flowers under the snow, generates its own melting warmth and uses smell to attract early carrion feeding flies as pollinators.    A Red-Bellied Woodpecker regularly visits our suet feeder. JF Skowhegan (Map 21) April 4,
Lisbon Falls (Map 6) About an inch of rain fell overnight and as a result a number of earth worms had come out on the driveway. With a slight coating of sand on top of the pavement you could see the trails they had left behind. SY  April 7, Milford (Map 33)
Feebee (Phoebe), one of spring's most persistent singers; first one sang here yesterday and this morning at first light the serenade of the first Song Sparrow. BM |