You
are invited to participate. Your reports are always welcomed! Tuesday, September 17/24, 1996
Quick jumps: | This week's reports | Reports from the press | Weekly black fly reports for May-June, 1996 | Downeast Birdline -- transcript of current telephone message | Publication announcement: Biological Diversity in Maine: An Assessment of Status and Trends in the Terrestrial and Freshwater Landscape |
You
are invited to participate. Your reports are always welcomed!
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, September 13. Orono (Map 23) Orono Bog, Penobscot County, observed only one cranberry amongst countless small cranberry plants in the area I traversed. B.G.
Sunday, September 15. Otis (Map 24) Saw three slugs on a coral fungi. B.G.
Monday, September 16. T24 MD BPP (Map 25) Shadagee Road, Washington County, about four miles in from Rte. 9, saw a cow moose with a pair of twin calves. B.G.
Tuesday, September 17. Orono (Map19) The spiders mentioned in my three reports during July -- which build webs on the side railings of the Ferry Hill bridge, Maine Street, Orono -- continue to provide new surprises. This morning all their webs are covered with water droplets from the very fine drizzle and heavy mist in the air. (I hear that this is how spiders get a drink of water. ) This made the webs more easily visible and emphasized the extraordinary number there are now: an average of 15 per railing bay X 50 bays = approximately 750 webs on the West side alone (triple what there were in July)! I made a point to check out the East side, and there were many there also. (I never noticed them before because the web strands are too fine to see, even the relatively short 25 foot distance across the road.) One possible encouragement is the hatch of an enormous number of flies, a species with five-eighths inch long, transparent wings and a slender, half-inch black body (too big to be black flies?) . Many were caught in the webs. (Spider banquet today: food AND drink!) F.W.
Wednesday, September 18. Otis (Map 24) A flock of robins were in the yard (probably dining on the few meager worms my compost has added to the garden). I have not seen robins in the yard for a couple months. B.G.
Thursday, September 19. Orono (Map 19) Wildflowers in bloom in fields and road edges include: Queen Anne's lace, lady's thumb, New England aster, New York aster, and staghorn sumac. In fruit are: bur cucumber, milkweed and pokeweed. F.W.
Friday, September 20. T3 R10 WELS/Mt. Katahdin Township (Map
50) Staghorn sumac is in fruit at about 2500 feet altitude
(compare this with those at flowering stage, at lower altitudes.)
Birds noticed on the Mountain were the ever-present chickadees
(only below timberline), and the more adventuresome ravens, which
soared on air currents at all atlitudes. One buzzed by me at
close range (curiosity?) as I walked on an open boulder-strewn
mountain spur. A blue jay was heard, but not seen, first calling
and then sounding the jay alarm. Two other furtive species were
seen but not positively identified: possibly a grey jay and a
species of sparrow, in the birch-spruce zone.
Grasshoppers were noted on the Tableland, altitude about 4000
feet, and even higher on the Mountain face. Sedges, alpine
azalea, diapensia, mountain cranberry and Lapland rosebay all
survive and even flourish up in that harsh environment. The
sedges were turning to an attractive tri-color autumn appearance.
In the late afternoon, on the lowest slopes of the Mountain, near
Katahdin Stream Campground, I surprised a ruffed grouse. It did
not flush precipitously into the air, as they usually do; but the
ruff around its neck was in prominent display, as if in warning
or alert. So I was able to finally get a good long look at one of
these large, remarkable-looking, but skittish birds. F.W.
Saturday, September 21. Orrington (Map 23) At the Fields Pond Nature Center, I found a dead Short-tailed Shrew on Sat Sept. 21. J.K.M.
Saturday, September 21. Falmouth (Map 5) A couple of tufted titmouses with several white-breasted nuthatches were observed in a hedgerow. B.G.
_Bangor Daily News_ Sat./Sun. Sept. 14-15, 1996 pages D1-2
"Busy bees; University of Mine researchers
seek out native insects to replace expensive, imported
[honeybees]"
by Sandra Cooke
"To bee or not to bee? The answer is easy for Maine
growers of low-bush blueberries, cranberries, and other crops
that bear fruit only if pollen gets from one plant's blossom to
another's. In order to stay in business they need bees: No bees,
no crop. The real question , suggest two University of Maine
investigators, is how to make sure that, in spite of problems
ranging from parasitic mites to environmental challenges, enough
of these important pollinating insects will be on hand when
they're needed in the future.
'We're concerned about having sustainable pollination in Maine
for blueberry production,' says Associate Professor Francis
Drummond of the University of Maine's department of Applied
Ecology and Environmental Sciences, who has been studying the
problem with postdoctoral researcher Constance Stubbs.
For instance this year's Maine blueberry crop, like many before
it, was pollinated almost entirely by European honeybees. Those
bees were rented by the billions from out-of-state beekeepers for
the crucial May-June weeks of blossom on the barrens.
Recent problems, however, such as Africanized honeybees or the
devastating epidemic of bee mites now taking a toll on many
hives, could make those commercial unavailable, or impossibly
expensive to rent. And without a fallback strategy, Maine growers
could be hard hit by a honeybee drought.
'Relying on one insect for all your pollination needs is probably
not that sustainable. Our major focus has been to look at
alternatives to the honeybee -- not to replace it but to
supplement it and make sure growers have other sources of
pollination,' explains Drummond. Those alternative sources, he
and Stubbs believe should include native Maine species that are
uniquely suited to the job. ...
Field tests this summer in which she compared commercial
bumblebees' performance on low-bush blueberries with that of
honeybees were 'very promising,' though it's not yet known how
many bumblebees would be needed to pollinate an acre of berries.
Less promising were the researchers' results when they tried
commercial management techniques with the Maine blueberry bee.
This native pollinator, which actively prefers blueberry blossoms
to other flowers, nests in solitary burrows like the alfalfa
leafcutter. But unlike the Western bee, the blueberry bee
'doesn't like to be managed in high densities,' says Drummond.
When large numbers of blueberry bees are released into nesting
areas, 'they tend to disperse -- almost to repel each other.'
Instead, the study has turned to conservation techniques that
help the bees become more plentiful in the wild while doing
things their own way.
Stubbs has spent considerable time sampling bee populations on
the barrens and attaching the blueberry bee equivalent of
condominium apartments -- 'nesting sites' of wood blocks drilled
with 14 holes -- to nearby trees. Blueberry bee populations
increased in two out of three fields where the extra nesting
sites were provided, she found. ...
Another bee-friendly management ploy would be the presence of
other flowering vegetation, weeds, around blueberry fields to
give native species forage before and after blueberry bloom. ...
One of the challenges to the study has been that, by contrast
with all that is known about the commercially important
honeybees, knowledge about native wild bees is scarce. 'We
estimate that about 40 species of native bees pollinate low-bush
blueberries,' says Drummond, 'yet we only know the life cycles of
a couple of these.'
For instance, another native species that the researchers hope
can be managed by conservation is the wild bumblebee, which
pollinates just as awesomely s its commercial cousins. Stubbs'
work with this species includes a Bumble Bee Hot Line where
participating growers can call to report the first appearance of
bumblebees in the spring and the last sightings in the fall, or
the location of bumblebee colonies that can be examined when the
season is over."
Downeast Birdline -- transcript of current telephone message
Downeast Birdline -- transcript of current telephone message
Maine black fly report in map form
Weekly black fly reports for May-June, 1996