Please e-mail Frank
Wihbey, Editor: menature@maine.maine.edu Vol. 3, no. 9, Tuesday, March 3, 1998
Quick jumps: | This week's reports | 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, February 20. Old Town (Map 33) Pussy willows are blooming in scattered roadside locations. J.A.
Saturday, February 21. Orono (Map 23) Pussy willows are blooming in the ditches along the University's Witter Farm Center road. K.W.
Sunday, February 22. Garland (Map 32) I heard from a neighbor that he has put out about half of his usual total of taps to date. (It is a commercial maple syrup operation.) These guys watch Nature pretty closely, and so I assume they must have a plan or a sequence they follow (besides the calendar -- not reliable!) M.J.
Thursday, February 26. Gray (Map 5) Some optimist in Gray has his [maple sap] buckets out already! He always has been one the earlier ones. I can only assume they're not out just for the aesthetic value. C.R.
Sunday, March 1. Alfred (Map 2) I took a little walk out
in the woods today -- something I haven't done much of all winter -- and saw quite a mess.
It is still early (there is always a chance of another big snowstorm) to say the winter
freeze is over. But it seems like the end of March not the beginning.
I'm guessing the deer and other wildlife who depend on tree buds for food have fared
extremely well, at least around here. The amount of trees fully or partially down is
tremendous. Deer have congregated around some downed trees to feed on the easy bounty of
browse. I would guess that possibly next fall we might see quite an explosion of large
bucks tagged. I haven't spent any time in northern Maine to see what the woods look like
up there, but if here in southern Maine is any indication the deer and other wildlife
fared well.
Sorry, I have no information to share about the partial solar eclipse. J.L.
Monday, March 2. Fort Kent (Map 67) In Northern Maine, the
sun's eclipse was not visible because of the cloud cover. Actually, the other side of the
street was not visible for the same reason. The fog has been so thick with visibility less
than 1/4 mile.
The fog and drizzle of the weekend is compacting the snow, There is a lot of melt, but
still lots to go. The people in Northern Maine are not fooled by this thaw. We look at it
as making more room to put more snow.
The lakes are covered with slush. I spoke with a fellow at Chamberlain Lake on Saturday
and this Allagash lake had 8-16 inches of shush. The Northern Maine lakes are no better,
and probably worse with the thicker snow cover. D.R.
Monday, March 2. Machias (Map 26) The ground in Washington County (Machias area, at least) is almost bare. The streams and rivers are all open, and the lakes will be too if we continue with this weather. N.P.
Monday, March 2. South Freeport (Map 6) No snow on the ground in the open. In the woods it varies from 2-3 inches of wet heavy corn snow/ice. T.R.
Tuesday, March 3. E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: About a thousand feet of water is open, shore to shore, here at the end of the lake--the open water creates a fog in any cooling weather. The pond is high despite the dry weather. A female common merganser visited early last week, followed a day or two later by 2 male hooded mergansers, then, later still, by 3 females. We have not seen any of these the last 2 days. The redpoll herd has swelled to over 50. They seem to dominate the feeders and to have displaced the goldfinches completely. The persistent chickadees, of course, forever stand by waiting for a quick pick. Much of the yard is soggy in the warm sunshine. Pussy willows are opening their furry buds. W.D.