Maine Nature News
Vol. 6, no. 28, Tuesday, July 10, 2001

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Tuesday, July 3.  Cumberland (Map 5) West Cumberland.  The bat colony in our barn is in good form this year. At dusk tonight we counted a good 25 heading out from under the roof shingles down toward the river.  Their clicking and chittering alerted me to their presence. A few nights back, I saw them heading back to sleep at around 4:30 am.
    One of last years rehabbed woodchucks that survived the winter is happily using his old haunts and is studiously avoiding this year's orphans who have taken up residence in the barn. Woodchucks have an impressive repertoire of sounds; lots of whimpers, yips and growls that sound just like puppies.  One little guy huffs like a steam engine when I'm close by telling me what a dangerous character he is but he'll pause to check out the formula I offer (though he'll try to grab the syringe and take off with it).  Fun to watch them gather up dried leaves and grasses, cram them into their mouths, and take off to pad their nest area.
    Saw my first ripe raspberry on the bushes out back and tried offering it to one of my raccoon babies.  She thought it was disgusting and spat it out.
   The Baltimore orioles have fledged their babies. This past week I did the "haul the barn swallow fledgling who could fly down (but not up) from the floor of the barn up into the loft" at least twice a day for a few days.  His parents would complain but would always go to him after I brought him back up.  L.P.

Wednesday, July 4.  Burnham (Map 20)  Unity Pond.  We moved to Maine from Virginia on the 23rd of June. In the past couple of weeks since our move we have seen a great deal of wildlife in our area, a porcupine walking down the road, several deer, and a red fox.  We have a pair of chipmunks and a squirrel that feed on seeds we put out in a stump in our back yard.  At night the loons and bullfrogs can be heard out on the lake.  W.B.S.

Tuesday, July 3 and Thursday, July 5. Fort Kent (Map 68) Little Black Lake. 
   Tuesday, July 3.  When returning from my walk up the Daigle Road about 9:30 p.m., with the moon almost full, I heard some short barks followed by a bone-chilling screaming sound.  This was repeated several  times. With the help of my binoculars, I was able to make out the silhouette of the source - the male (I assume) fox I wrote about  a couple of weeks ago.  It was standing in the middle of the road at just about exactly the same place where I  had seen it play with its pups. As I approached, it went into the roadside shrubs, but I continued to hear its eerie cry several more times.
   Thursday, July 5.  Coming down the road where I heard the fox, this time in bright daylight at about 7:30 p.m., I suddenly, just as I came around a curve, saw, about 100 feet away, a cow moose standing on a levee surrounding an abandoned irrigation pond.  It was accompanied by a second antlerless moose which looked as though it might be its its calf, but was really too big to be this year's offspring.  But, because it was  partially hidden by the levee, I could not estimate its size well enough to be sure. In any event, the moose on top of the levee looked at me for a short while and then decided I was not to be trusted.  So both moose trotted off through the large hay meadow surrounding the pond and headed in the direction of the nearest forest about a quarter of a mile away. About half-way across the meadow, they stopped and looked back at me before continuing on and eventually disappearing among the trees. The lesson corroborated  by this encounter was that moose, contrary to deer, are not afraid to cross large open spaces, venturing far away from cover.  This explains why the large recent clearcuts one can find in our state encourage moose while causing a reduction in deer.  Deer, as I understand it, never go more than a  few hundred feet away from cover at the uncut forest edge and thus can utilize only a small portion of such large clearcuts.  It's like sitting at a large dinner table, but being able to reach only the dishes near its very edge.  Moose, on the other hand, can reach all the way across, gorging themselves on a a banquet made up of all kinds of nutritious sprouts, saplings, grasses and herbs - unless, of course, the land owning "Homo economicus" decided to increase his profits by killing most of the succulent leafy goodies with herbicides.  E.T.

Friday, July 6.  We have been up at Chain of Ponds (our camp) on Route 27 near the Canadian Border.  Things are pretty good here.  Definitely a green spot [black fly level = 1].  The wind has been up, so that might help.  Dates are July 4-6.   B.B.

Saturday, July 7.   Bar Harbor (Map 16)  Dorr Mountain.  Steams were dry, but a pond formed behind a beaver dam was maintained at the level of their dam.  Most wildflower blooms have disappeared from the forest floor.  As we passed the ledges near Canon Brook I noted water striders and water boatmen skating on the remaining small pools.  Given the relative drought, a nearby wet, lushly vegetated patch at the margin of forest and ledge caught my eye.  I recognized this as a perpetually wet area.  Evidently several springs were keeping this moist.  At the very edge there were about ten sundew plants, some actually in flower -- a stage I don't remember ever seeing before.
    Blueberries were in fruit, and in some places on the mountain nearly half the berries on the bushes were already ripe! F.W.

Saturday, July 7.  Glenburn (Map 23) We have many fledged baby birds at our feeder; Both Harry and Downy woodpeckers, Rosebreasted grosbeaks, Starlings, Red winged Blackbirds, Grackles, Nuthatches, both white breasted and the rose breasted and blue jays.  We also have a catbird that has nested in a maple on the lawn.  We still have many finches both gold and house, along with many chickadees.  Also we are hosting about 10 pairs of mourning doves, two crow families and an occasional trio of pigeons.  All in all this has been a banner year for the bird population. R.F. and E.F.

Saturday, July 7.   Buckfield (Map 11)
INSECTS: Definitely more Red Admirals even this far inland (edge of Western foothills) this year.  Still many fireflies; grasshoppers becoming common. Black flies nearly gone but mosquitoes up to almost a 2.  Eastern tent caterpillars and Gypsy Moth larvae, both expected to be higher this year, are nearly absent here.  More Bumblebees than usual since early spring; fewer wasps, Yellow Jackets, Bald-Faced Hornets.
HERPS:  The usual (many) garter snakes and the occasional grass snake. Toads and wood frogs seen fairly often in the woods.  Not as many salamanders as last year in all the rain.
OTHER ANIMALS:  Coyotes, abundant here, seem quieter in the last week or two.  All the usual signs seem to indicate normal levels of moose, deer, hares, porcupines, skunks.  Seem to be higher local reports of Black Bear (usually at feeders), but we've not - as usual - seen any.
BIRDS:  Robins still building nests for yet another brood.  Catbirds, Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Goldfinches, even Indigo Buntings relatively abundant this year.  Only Bluebirds are absent - we usually have at least one pair nesting.  Populations of woodpeckers, esp. Hairy, Downy, Flicker, Pileated still (since ice storm) high - many fledglings now, esp. of Hairy Woodpeckers.  Ruffed Grouse young big enough to fly easily. 
PLANTS:  Trillium (T. erectum, grandiflorum, undulatum) seeds almost ripe.  Still many many Jacks (Arisaema triphyllum) after last year's wet summer; now in unripe fruit.  The woods are in that lush, July-dark-green stage; even small streams continue to have at least a trickle of water.  Many interesting sedges (Carex spp.) in bloom or fruit now; most grasses are gone by.  In the fields, Queen Anne's Lace, Mallow, Common Milkweed, St. John's Wort, Cinquefoils, Primrose, Achillea, Black-Eyed Susan, Red and White Clover and of course Daisies in full bloom.  Blueberries and Raspberries also just beginning to ripen here; was a good year for wild strawberries but almost gone now.  Blackberries still hard and green.   G.R.

Sunday, July 8.  T16 R4 WELS (Map 68) Numerous black-winged damsel flies (males with metallic green bodies, females dull black bodies) flitting around the brook that flows through the Carry Brook rest area on Route 161.  Occasional black flies present, but none that dared to antagonize a supporter of the MBBA.  C.B.K.

Maine Wild Blueberry Report for July 4-10, 2001

    Blueberries surprised me by their earliness.  What is their stage where you are, or have visited?  

Early ripe fruiting stage:  coastal and interior Hancock County, southern Penobscot County
No reports: other Maine counties

Things that remain the same

      It was just a momentary glance, as we drove past on I-95:  a couple of red-winged blackbirds flying over a drainage ditch.  One lands on a cattail plant.  The image stays in mind:  blackbird on a cattail.  
    So ordinary, yet so precious.  The cattails survive in a niche by a busy highway.  The purple loosestrife has not overtaken the cattails.  The blackbirds find a watery place to their liking, with speeding cars only yards away.
   That is how it remains in mind's eye:  Blackbirds and cattails forever!

Frank Wihbey
Editor

Maine wild blueberry reports invited!

   Blueberries surprised me by their earliness.  What is their stage where you are, or have visited?  

   Each week during berry season I am seeking reports on the level of ripeness of wild blueberries at any place you might see or visit.  Suggested description levels are: unripe berries; early ripe stage; middle ripe stage; late ripe stage; fruit gone by.   I will compile these reports by county into the weekly report of the Maine Nature News.  I think all the readers would enjoy this feature, which we have done for the past few years.

Thanks,
Frank Wihbey, Editor
menature@maine.edu