Maine Nature News

Vol. 2, no. 28 Tuesday, July 15, 1997

The Editor recently hiked on the Appalachian Trail and observed Nature in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Link to trip report.

Quick jumps: | This week's reports | Black fly report for July 9-15 | Wild blueberry report | From the Press | 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 |

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, July 11. Stockholm (Map 68) Black fly report. Date: 6-23-97 scale: 3; Date: 6-30-97 scale: 3; Date: 7-7-97 scale: 3. The criteria by which I rank black flies on severity level 3 during Monday walks in wet forested areas in Stockholm = (1) I must wear my Okefenokee Swamp headnet to ward off facial attacks; and (2) the only exposed skin, my hands, receives frequent bites in a 30 minute period. So, like paddlers and fishers in the Summer, I will put on light, white gloves. (Since my walks are where humans seldom tread, I spook nobody.) M.S.

Friday, July 11. Arrowsic (Map 6) The black flies have dropped way off here along the midcoast. They never truly reached aggravating proportions. They have never gotten above a '1' on your scale here on Chewonki Neck, at home on Arrowsic, or in Georgetown. Now, the mosquitoes in Arrowsic and Georgetown are a different matter! We'll keep you posted on the blueberries. The set has been very good. D.H.

Friday, July 11. Alfred (Map 2) I haven't had the time to venture out into the woods much this year. That is the reason I haven't sent in many black fly reports. Of the times I have gone out there were never many black flies at all. About the only time the black flies were a pain was a sunset stroll at Parsons Beach in Kennebunk...and there they were bad. ...but not here in Alfred. If I get out to look for blueberries I'll send in a report, but we haven't picked blueberries in two years. Hmmmmmm....pretty bad for us. J.L.

Friday, July 11. Fort Kent (Map 67) There are still a few lingering Black flies in Northern Maine. They had a late start, and as expected will continue for another week or so. D.R.

Friday, July 11. Presque Isle (Map 65) Having been out and about last night, I know that they [black flies] are still moderate in Presque Isle and more up north. After next week, I doubt we will be involved as I have never seen wild blueberries in this area although I know we have strawberries, raspberries and fiddleheads! V.F.

Friday, July 11. Edmunds (Map 26) Blueberries on Hallowell Island in Edmunds, Maine on Wednesday, July 9: most in unripe fruiting stage, but a few ripe ones. T.R.

Friday, July 11. Old Town (Map 23) Wildflowers in bloom: black-eyed Susan, common mullein, plantain, purple vetch, yellow hawkweed, wild chamomile. Fruiting: chokecherry, wild strawberry. F.W.

Saturday, July 12. Batchelder's Grant (Map 10) Wild River valley. Moose prints, 7" length, in sandy banks of Evans Brook. Red squirrels and chipmunks abound.
Mosquitoes as expected. "Sweat bees" a small bee species, hover over humans and food but are not agressive; no one is stung. (Swan and Papp's guide remarks that they are important pollinators of low-bush blueberries.¹) No black flies now. Deer flies, never swarming in very large numbers, but circling endlessly around one's head and torso, and occasionally closing in for a chomp, take the accolades for Annoying Insect of the Week! A very few fireflies are seen wherever there are grassy margins to the forest.
In flower now: bladder campion, Canadian dwarf cinquefoil, heal-all and oxeye daisy.

Sunday, July 13, E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam. The two loon chicks hatched on our homemade island behaved appropriately. (Two other, nearby homemade island nests produced chicks, too). They'd flap one little, webbed foot at their body, just as their parents. They sprang up out of the water and flapped their furry wings. By the end of the week they were diving. Much of the week they were tucked in or on a parent who spent hours facing the wind, as if a moored nest. Once when moored like this, the loon yelled in fear or warning as an osprey or young eagle circled above.
Friday, as loons do, one chick pecked the other to death, witnessed by many unhappy campers at the neighboring campground. The one chick is healthy and growing and traveling much further afield. The mallards and their handful of chicks stay at the very edges or on rocks and don't travel much when the loons are present.
Bullfrogs seem louder and more numerous now that we keep our cat indoors. But so are the various squirrels and chipmunks except the one who got in the cellar with the cat.
Blackflies only made a brief appearance after some heavy rain. Mostly they were out of mind. W.D.

Sunday, July 13. Batchelder's Grant (Map 10) Wild River valley. Swimming toad tadpoles, with fully developed legs, but a long tail, scatter in the water upon human approach to shallow, still pools at the edge of the Wild River. ( A chance discovery: I had never thought to look in fast-flowing streams for tadpoles, but there are many still pools among the streambed boulders that evidently fulfill breeding habitat requirements for the toads.) Tiny fully formed brown tadpoles (sans tail) scatter from me on land in the same areas. Some of these toads had been noticed crossing Route 113, at their peril.
Among the huge boulders on Wild River's North bank I saw a snake, all dark brown, indistinct dark spots, narrow head, faint dark brown dorsal stripe along nearly all its approximate 24" length, no bright rings or spots, smooth taper in its body and tail. It moved a bit as I passed, then continued to sun when I stood still. It is probably the maritime garter snake, the first I've seen this subspecies, although The Amphibians and Reptiles of Maine ² says they are common, dependending somewhat on region of observation.
Birds seen: American redstart, chipping sparrow, raven. Birds heard: robin, rufous-sided towhee. F.W.

Monday, July 14. Fort Kent (Map 67) Little Black Lake. Black fly rating: 1 With some cooler, windy days, there is little indication of black fly activity. Maybe they are about to disappear really early this year -- almost too good to believe. E.T.

Tuesday, July 15 [8:00 am]. Alna (Map 7) Black fly severity = 0. Lots of deer flies. A.G. _______________________
¹ Lester A. Swan and Charles S. Papp The Common Insect of North America (New York: Harper & Row, 1972)
² Malcolm L. Hunter et al. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Maine (Maine Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 838) (Orono: MAES, 1993)

Wild Blueberry report for July 9-15, 1997

Wild blueberries in unripe fruit stage: Penobscot, Oxford Counties.
Wild blueberries in very early ripe fruiting stage: Sagadahoc (some areas), Washington County (some areas)
No reports: other Maine counties

From the Press

Bangor Daily News Thursday, July 3, 1997, page B8

"Endangered birds nesting on islands"
The Associated Press

Birds that once were slaughtered to make plumes for women's hats in the last century are making a comeback in Maine. Wildlife biologists say a record number of endangered roseate terns are nesting on Maine islands this year. In a census completed in late June, wildlife biologists managing six islands for the National Audubon Society counted a total of 94 pairs of roseate terns on four of them, up 43 per cent over last year.

There are 38 pairs nesting on Eastern Egg Rock in Muscongus Bay; 45 pairs on Stratton Island, near Scarborough; 10 pairs on Jenny Island, near Cundy's Harbor; and one pair on Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge in Penobscot Bay, 10 miles south of Vinalhaven. After years of decline, populations of common and arctic terns also are on the rise. Audubon officials attribute their success to protecting the island from human disturbance, and controlling the population of gulls that eat tern eggs and chicks.

"We've been trying to expand their colonies from just a few islands to more islands," said Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist George Matula, "so we don't have all our eggs in one basket."

In 1885, common and arctic terns nested on 75 Maine islands. But by 1900, the slaughter of terns to make women's hats reduced their numbers to 16 colonies. The passage of the 1916 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, protecting sea birds from hunting, allowed the numbers of terns to increase, but gulls became a major threat by the 1950's. Roseate terns, which nest near common and arctic terns, have been on the federal endangered species list since 1987. That year tern populations crashed, with only 52 pairs of roseates counted in Maine, along with 2173 common terns, and 3170 arctic terns.

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