Maine Nature News

Vol. 2, no. 35, Tuesday, September 2, 1997

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

Saturday, August 23. Orrington/Holden (Map 23) The following species were observed on the butterfly walk Aug. 23 at Fields Pond Nature Center:
BUTTERFLIES: Clouded sulphur; Orange sulphur (alfafa butterfly); Common woodnymph; Ringlet; Monarch; Silver-bordered fritillary; Viceroy; Painted lady; American painted lady; Cabbage.
WILDFLOWERS: Turtlehead; Black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta); Queen Anne's lace; Goldenrod (many varieties); many varieties of clover; Meadowsweet; Hawkweed (many yellow; 1 orange); vetch; fleabane; New England aster; other assorted asters;Yarrow (Achillia millefolium); Thistles; White daisies (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum); Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi); St.Johnswort; Shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa).
FRUITS: Bearberry; Elderberry; Crabapple; various cherries; various dogwoods; highbush cranberry; currants; bunchberries; shad (serviceberry); note --the blueberries have already been eaten.
BIRDS: Blue jays; loon; chickadees; mourning doves; bobolink; catbird; red-eyed vireo; cedar waxwings; phoebe; red-breasted nuthatch.
OTHER ANIMALS: Green treefrog (Hopping around on oak tree leaves); small garter snake. P.S

Wednesday, August 27. Orono (Map 23) Around an Orono pond there were recently metamorphosed bullfrogs, pickerel, leopard, & green frogs. J.K.M.

Monday, September 1. Mount Desert Island and environs (Map 16) Southwest Harbor. Very little wildlife noted on this hike of the Western mountains on a foggy, drizzly 65 degree morning: herring gulls on Long Pond; in the woods -- an American toad, blue jays, and red squirrels.
Thompson's Island. Little eyebright blossoms here and there. Goldenrod abounds. Sea lavender at last stage of flowering.
Trenton. Black-eyed Susan prominent on the mainland. A few eyebright flowers noted even in poor soil. F.W.

Monday, September 1. Orono (Map 23) This week I noted a profusion of a nondescript wildflower. Not definitely recognizing it, I brought a sample indoors for identification. It had a very subtle perfection: a dozen or more tiny down-facing yellow-green blossoms, each like bells, lined the stem. A smaller number of tiny green cup-shaped blossoms, facing upwards, clustered at the bottom of the stem, or flower axil, directly below the bell-like blossoms. The plant is common ragweed! The Audubon field guide explains that the upper flowers are male, the lower are female, and that "pollination is by wind, as indicated by the drabness of the flowers, which do not atteact insects." Now I understand both the purpose of the two kinds of flowers and also why this plant is such a prolific source of windborn pollen -- the cause of its bad reputation among humans! F.W.

Wild Blueberry report for August 27 - September 2, 1997

Middle ripe fruiting stage: Central Piscataquis County; Penobscot County (most areas)
Late ripe fruiting stage: Hancock,Waldo and Washington Counties
No reports: other Maine counties

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