Vol. 2, no. 9 Tuesday, March 4, 1997
Quick jumps: | This week's reports | From the Press |Downeast Birdline -- discontinuation announcement | Meeting of new group: Greater Portland Naturalists Forum | Publication announcement: Biological Diversity in Maine: An Assessment of Status and Trends in the Terrestrial and Freshwater Landscape |
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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
Wednesday, February 26. E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: One of the neighborhood crows lifted a piece of ice of about 2 X 6 inches, put it on a rock, then proceeded to bath in the hole where the ice had been, successively dipping head and butt! Funny, human- like, lovable, noisy neighbors. They hang, often, in a small skeleton of a tree across the water, three of them, like patient vultures perched in a naked desert tree. Several evening grosbeaks showed earlier, accompanied, as they often seemed in the past to be, by blue jays, a small flock of shore-feeding black birds, and a single nuthatch; interesting how different species will roam in loose community, maybe symbiotically. W.D.
Sunday, March 2. Orono (Map 23) Beavers have been active on a small stream in the plateau below a hilltop a mile above my house. Passing by easier, smaller trees that were also nearer the stream, they cut down several six to eight inch diameer trees and left them where they fell. Why? Sharpening their teeth after a winter of disuse? F.W.
Monday, March 3. Orono (Map 23) Comet Hale-Bopp was a striking sight low in the Northeastern sky at 4:30 am. Seen clearly without even the aid of binoculars was a very recognizable tail, extending about 2 degrees above it. F.W.
Monday, March 3. Alfred (Map 2) Most is melted,but there still is 0 to 7 -8 inches depending on where you are standing, i.e.thick woods or open area; North side of an opening or South side of an opening. J.L.
Monday, March 3. E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: The usual few acres of open water in fact remained mostly iced over this week, here, until today when we have a couple acres opened. It was surprising that it stayed iced given the moderate temperatures. Cars and trucks are occasionally a quarter mile out on the ice, upstream. Our herd of goldfinch regulars have been sporting blotches of the beginnings of summer blacks and yellows for a week or two now. W.D.
Monday, March 3. Presque Isle (Map 65) Unlike the rest of the state, we still have a LOT of snow around - so much so that the public works people keep plowing it back into the street on sunny days so that you can see around corners. It is hard to tell with all the blowing and drifting (we got more over the weekend but then had a sunny afternoon yesterday which started it melting before it froze). Snowbanks along the streets are huge but I judge by depth on my deck (Northwest side of house) which still has at least a couple of feet? - about third of the way up up the sliding glass door so I can see from the inside. G. F.
Monday, March 3. Fort Kent (Map 67) I stepped outside tonight and went onto my snowshoe trail to the barn. I unfortunately stepped off the trail and sank to my waist in snow. We certainly have had our share of snow this winter, but the real problem is that it has all fallen at the same time. On January 1, there was no snow. On February 21, at 9 am, the official reading in the town of Fort Kent was 91 inches of accumulation. I would estimate that the snow depth in the fields is between 36 and 40 inches. But we have seen Robins in Fort Kent since February 25. I personally saw about 20+ yesterday afternoon feeding on Mountain Ash. But on the 25, 26, and 27th, I saw 4 Robins eating Mountain Ash right next to my office window. They were among a flock of some 30+ Cedar Waxwings. D.R.
Monday, March 3 Brunswick (Map 6) I have not had much opportunity to observe the outdoors in the daylight, but my impression is that most of the ground is covered with a sheet of ice, that except for being a bit bumpy would be great for skating. A.G.
Tuesday, March 4. Otis (Map 24) For snow cover, we have no snow in fields with exposure to all day sunlight, to heavy ice (up to three inches deep) in low spots in fields, and ice to five inches of snow in the woods. B.G.
Tuesday, March 4. Fort Kent (Map 67) Snow depth? I'll try and find an area that has an undisturbed accumulation and measure--you see the problem is that when you clear driveways or walkways you have to pile it somewhere, and that somewhere is becoming a scarce commodity. I just went down the hall and did a survey of colleagues here at UMFK, representing the towns of Fort Kent, Wallagrass and New Sweden--answer, "between 3 and 4 feet of the #&#* white %$@!! " I realize that this isn't particularly accurate, I'll try and get something more accurate. S.Z-B.
Tuesday, March 4. Portland (Maps 3/5) Portland (downtown) has essentially no snow on the ground. There is at least 3 inches around my home in Gray, with, I suspect, considerably more in the woods. There were several storms this winter where it continued to snow in Gray but had changed to rain in Portland. The dividing line seems to have been up the Pike about halfway between Portland and Gray. C.R.
Tuesday, March 4. Farmington (Maps 19/20 ) Snow in our area is down quite a lot after some rainy weather. Probably 2 feet or less. What is there is packed hard and crusty. Hard on the deer. I think they are still skiing upriver at Sugarloaf but they make so much snow it is hard to measure their natural vs. "fake". Our rivers are pretty solidly iced in still at this point - lots of ice fishing. No open water in brooks or anywhere. We went 38 miles south to Augusta this past weekend and no snow to speak of - some dirty piles here and there. Jonquil leaves sticking out! Happy "March lamb" weather. S.M.
Tuesday, March 4, E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam: An American merganser female and a hooded merganser couple dove together here and are now huddled together, still in still water, in a small cove in the ice. A crow pecks the ice near them. A flock of maybe 20 evening grosbeaks, which has been coming by the past few mornings, just left. Open water is only an acre or two. W.D.
From the Press
Bangor Daily News Monday, March 3, 1997 Pages A1, A8.
"Where's winter? Jet stream to blame for
Maine's drizzly season"
By Andrew Kekacs
It's enough to make a groundhog snicker. On Feb. 2, Punxsutawney Phil poked a furry
little face out of his hole in western Pennsylvania and failed to see his shadow. His
prediction: Spring was near. ...
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service continued to issue dire warnings about Alberta
shivers and jet screams and all sorts of other nasty stuff headed our way.
Well, it's March 3 and the final score is in: Groundhogs 6, Highly Paid Meteorologists 0.
You don't need a weatherhog, or even a meteorologist, to tell you something was missing
these past few months: winter. From Rockland to Ripogenus Gorge, it was a season to
remember.
"I call this the year of freezing mist, drizzle and rain," said Paul Knaut of
Dover-Foxcroft, who has kept his own weather records since 1950.
According to Knaut, the Dover area had seven snowstorms this winter. Six ended in drizzle
or freezing rain&emdashtwice as many as usual. Even at Baxter State Park, five of
seven storms ended on a wet note, he said.
The question is: Why? Blame the jet stream, strong winds in the upper atmosphere that
usually sweep storms from the western United States and Canada toward the East Coast. This
winter, however, was different.
"The jet stream has been pushing storms farther to our west," said Tom Berman, a
meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Gray. "When that happens, we
get a southwesterly flow of warm air, and any snow changes back to rain."
Statistically, it has been astonishingly warm. With an average daily temperature more than
eight degrees above normal, last December was the warmest on record in Portland, according
to Berman.
In northern Maine, the first major storm of the season didn't arrive until Jan. 10. Arctic
air poured into the region during the next week, and the mercury bottomed out at 32 below
in Caribou on Jan. 18. Five days later, however, Caribou reported a record high
temperature of 42 degrees.
The pattern was repeated across the state&emdasha short spell of brisk weather,
followed by unseasonably high temperatures. Bangor had just 5,108 heating degree days
through the end of February, about 10 percent below normal. ...
In more bad news for the oil tycoons, the National Weather Service predicts the slush
belt will see more warm weather this week. Temperatures are expected to be as much as 12
degrees above normal.
Expect crocuses soon in southern Maine, which is bare of snow. Cardinals and robins
already have been spotted in Bangor. Even in Dover-Foxeroft, Knaut reports just 17 inches
of snow on the ground, compared with 36 inches in a normal year.
But Knaut doesn't think 1997 will be remembered as Maine's least-snowy winter. He has
recorded only 62.9 inches of snow so far, but Knaut expects a bit more before it's time to
till the garden. In 1964, just 64 inches fell the whole winter.
"The record snowfall [for Dover] was in 1969, when we had 163 inches," said
Knaut. "Since 1975, we've never had over 112 inches."
Perversely, the lack of snow has kept area plow crews busy. The problem: freezing rain and
black ice. "For us, it's been busy," said Lenny Williams of Williams Plowing and
Sanding in Eddington.
Williams has spread 3,500 cubic yards of sand on town roads in Clifton and Eddington this
winter -- enough to cover a football field with a pile more than 2 feet deep. "We've
just used a tremendous amount of sand," he said. "We've been out three or four
times a week because of the ice."
If nothing else, Old Man Winter is a Patriots fan. On Jan. 11, just in time for the AFC
championship game, 7 inches of snow fell on the football stadium in Foxboro, Mass. The
next day, with the wind-chill factor around zero degrees, the Patriots iced the
Jacksonville Jaguars.
Unfortunately, winter was less friendly to Maine ski areas. Lack of snow in southern New
England is very bad for business.
"It's a backyard syndrome," said Mark Latti, communications manager at
Sugarloaf/USA. "When people don't see snow in their back yards, they don't go
skiing."
But rain on the flatlands has little to do with conditions on the slopes. "We're at
145 inches [of natural snow] for the season, and our snowiest months are usually March and
April," said Latti.
January was the cruelest month at Squaw Mountain near Greenville, according to Rich
Donaher, ski shop manager. It was either too cold to ski, he said, or too warm and rainy.
"But the month of February was great for us," said Donaher. "On a scale of
1 to 10, I'd say we were at an 8.5."
Not surprisingly, it hasn't been a good year for snowmobile sales. Most dealers still have
large inventories of unsold sleds. End of-season specials are common. ...
Anticipating an early spring, traffic is up at stores that sell boats, motorcycles and
ATVs. Gerrish sold his first four-wheeler of the season last week.
The National Weather Service, however, isn't ready to close the books on The Winter That
Wasn't. "We've had some pretty nasty storms in March," Berman said.
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