Tuesday, April 23, 1996
* *
Additional natural history correspondents sought, especially from Western, Northern, and
coastal Maine. Please send your reports to menature@maine.maine.edu
at any time.
* *
Quick jumps:
This week's reports | Conferences of interest in the state | Downeast Birdline -- transcript of telephone message |This week's reports
Report format = Day, date, time. Location (Maine Atlas Map
number) Report text. Initials of correspondent
Tuesday, April 16, morning. Garland (Map 32) A muskrat was seen for the first time this
season. It was feeding in a roadside slough. M.J.
Thursday, April 18. 5 pm Old Town (Map 33) A flock of 75 to 100 crows was observed
feeding on plant stubble in a farm field, the largest such flock I've seen in a long time.
Many herring gulls were feeding in the same areas, among them, with no apparent signs of
interspecies competition.
Green frogs were heard in a wetland pond. Water has ponded up to a seasonally high level
in all low spots, even though not all snow is yet melted. Newly built spider webs seen for
the first time this season. F.W.
Thursday, April 18. Garland (Map 32) Peepers heard in farm pond. M.J.
Friday, April 19. Otis (Map 24) This has been a week of many firsts for the year. First sapsuckers of season drumming and calling and phoebe singing. B.G.
Saturday, April 20. Argyle (Map 33) Wood frog in vernal pool that still was partially covered by ice. B.G.
Saturday, April 20. Passadumkeag (Map 33) Field full of tree swallows. B.G.
Saturday, April 20. Holden (Map 23) First mosquito and beetle (brown, 3/4 inch long, species?) in flight this year. F.W.
Saturday, April 20. Orono (Map 23) First goldfinch at feeder. K.W .
Sunday, April 21. Bar Harbor (Map 16) Lakes and ponds mostly or completely ice-free.
Adult pickerel frog observed sunning on lakeshore--first sighting this spring. F.W.
Sunday, April 21. Otis (Map 24) Wood frogs and spring peepers calling. B.G.
Sunday, April 21. Holden (Map 23) Fields Pond, first kingfisher of the season. B.G.
Sunday, April 21. Garland (Map 32) Peepers heard in pond and forested bog that are just
emerging from ice.
At dusk, vigorous courtship activities of ducks on the pond. M.J.
Sunday, April 21, 8:45 pm Orono (Map 23) Peeper frogs heard in neighbor's small frontyard pond. Very few calling at this time. F.W.
Sunday, April 21. Otis (Map 24) First goldfinch (male) and purple finches at feeders. B.G.
Monday, April 22. Orono (Map 23) Beaked hazel in flower. B.G.
Monday, April 22. Fort Kent (Map 67) Last night received a call from resident of Fort Kent who had discovered hundreds of living earth worms on top of a thick crust of ice. I checked them out and it all was true. The worms were alive and would begin moving when you held them in your hand and they warmed up. The worms were of the red wriggler type and on the small end of the scale. The worms had absorbed enough heat during the warm day that each had melted a little depression in the ice. There were some copulating pairs--could this have been some type of Annelid Rites of Spring? S. Z-B.
Monday, April 22. 11 am. Sidney (Map 13) Wild turkey seen crossing I-95. B.B.
Tuesday, April 23, 12:15 am Hudson/Alton (Map 33) Dozens of small frogs crossing Route 43 in darkness. M.J.
Conferences of interest in the state
Downeast Birdline -- transcript of current telephone message
Downeast Birdline for April 18, 1996
Return to top of this page.