Maine Nature News

Vol. 2, nos. 30/31 Tuesday, July 29/August 5, 1997

Quick jumps: | This week's reports | Wild blueberry report | Nature humor | 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.

Wednesday, July 23, 3:00 pm. Camden Hills (Map 14) On top on Megunticook about 20 percent of the blueberries were ripe on most bushes, but on some bushes as many as 50 percent of the berries were ripe. Also today, I noticed that the wintergreen is in bloom; now if I can just catch the berries when they ripen. A.G.

Saturday, July 26. E. Orland (Map 23), Great Pond Mountain. Half way up the mountain the blueberry patches were full with ripe berries. W.D.

Sunday, July 27. Milbridge (Map 31) A nice long observation of a green snake, the first I've seen of this species in a long time. It was about a foot long, and did not stick out its forked tonngue to smell the visitor/intruder, like garter snakes do. It was on rocks near the seashore, amidst vegetation. As soon as I moved again, it slithered swifly away, becoming hidden in the bushes. Later, another green snake was observed about a mile from the first location.
Crows, a white throated sparrow, and a vireo (?) were all heard in the woods near shore. Sandpipers, traveling in flocks of about 20, were seen feeding on the sand fleas and other insects in the exposed seaweed at low tide.
Hare bell, plantain, skullcaps, and yellow hawkweed are in bloom. Beach peas, goose tongue, sea rocket, sea spinach as well as wild blueberries and beach plums are some of the edibles growing abundantly now, despite the dry spell.
A big harbor seal was observed sunning on a small rocky shoal. It apepared to have a bird sitting on its back! The heads of other seals were seen in the water. All of these seem to keep at least a half mile distance from human activity.
Eider ducks, one male and 3 females, were seen floating a couple of hundred yards offshore in the ocean. One had a fledgling sitting on her back.
It is fascinating to see how much salt accumulated at the edges of evaporating tide pools that had washed up high on rocks, but are not reached by the daily tide. F.W.

Monday, July 28. Stockholm (Map 68) Black fly severity level 2. M.S.

Tuesday, July 29. E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam. White lilies bloom abundantly here, the water is low, the blueberries nice and ripe, the ground dry.
[see also Nature humor below] W.D.

Thursday, July 31. Milbridge (Map 31) A ruffed grouse party, 2 adults and several chicks, were surprised by me during an early morning walk. (We were all surprised!)
Water lillies were beginning to open in the sunlight (I assume this is a daily phenomenon) in a freshwater pond. Sundews were observed in a bog. One appeared to have caught an insect and was digesting it. Only about 1/2" across,the "flower" of these plants is so much tinier than I had imagined from the pictures in plant handbooks. F.W.

Sunday, August 3. Black fly severity level 2. M.S.

Sunday, August 3. T3 R10 WELS (Map 50) Daicey Pond area, Baxter State Park. Raspberries and blueberries are just barely beginning to be ripe. Streams are low, boggy areas are fairly dry. But springs are still runing and the falls in Nesowadnehunk Stream are still a dramatic sight. Wildlife, except for red squirrels, was conspicuously absent. F.W.

Wild Blueberry report for July 23-August 5, 1997

Early ripe fruiting stage: Southern Piscataquis County (some areas)
Middle ripe fruiting stage: Hancock, Penobscot (some areas), Waldo, Washington Counties (most areas)
No reports: other Maine counties

A bit of Nature humor

Attracting and hosting motorhome migrators, we contributed more than our share to the season's severe air, noise, and enduring pollutions. Their invasion coincided with the introduction of two not-so-rare birds: a pair of pink flamingoes (tattooed with the names Babbitt and Madonna-The-Material-Girl) took a bow at the apron head of our drive on US 1. The birds' appearances may be commentaries on the profits and losses from tourism, as well as on our own consuming ways' harsh gobbling of Maine's not-so-rugged rural resources. The birds wander each day, sometimes apparently stabbing at fish, other days stirring up reeds and lily pads, or thrusting under the spruce nursery, and sometimes just moseying around the ditches along our river of brown air, the Acadia Highway. Luckily, these grotesque birds don't propagate like our higher species.
This morning a tall old walker with a Mass accent was staring 20' up into the roadside spruce where the flamingoes are perched and, when I exited the house, he asked me if that was where they were nesting now -- I'll check for plastic eggs. W.D.

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