Please e-mail Frank
Wihbey, Editor: menature@maine.maine.edu Vol. 3, no. 29, Tuesday, July 21, 1998
Quick jumps: | This week's reports | Wild blueberry report | 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.
Thursday, July 16. Gray (Map 5) I suspect I'll have plenty of mosquitoes to keep me company -- this damp weather has brought them out in droves! C.R.
Saturday, July 18. Southwest Harbor (Map 16) Beech
Mountain. Forest floor is dry, though small streams are still running amply where there
might have been empty streambeds by this time in other years — a sign of the copious
rains earlier in the month. Cries of hawks could be heard, but no sign of peregrine
falcons on the Beech Cliffs this year.
Cicadas were singing in the heat at the mountain summit. Grasshoppers flew around on the
rocks, loudly clicking some body part as they flew. Ant colonies were noted here and there
on the slopes. Deerflies were around, but not numerous. On the occasions when they came
near me, I only had one bother me at a time. ("One to a customer"!)
Blueberries are at the middle fruiting stage.
I noted few purple loosestrife plants in the areas I passed on Mount Desert Island, though
the percentage along Route 2 on the mainland was more like 50-50 for loosestrife versus
cattails in roadside ditches and swales. F.W.
Tuesday, July 21. Orono (Map 23) Today I noticed that funnel-weaving spiders had set up their webs on the tops of hedges. Usually I have seen them on the ground, amid grass leaves, on dewy mornings. Perhaps I just was not observant before? Today there was no dew. Conditions are drier. Is that why they wove them higher, or is this a coincidence? F.W.
Maine
Wild Blueberry Report for July 15-21, 1998
Unripe fruit stage: Aroostook County
Early ripe fruiting stage: Southern Penobscot County (most areas), southern
Washington County
Middle ripe fruiting stage: Hancock County (most areas), Waldo County, York
County
No reports: other Maine counties