Maine Nature News

Vol. 2, no. 36, Tuesday, September 9, 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 30-Monday, September 1. Edmunds/Eastport (Maps 27/37) The following berries were found & eaten in the Eastport/Cobscook Bay area on the weekend of Aug. 30-Sept. 1. Eating codes are offered as well. When in doubt, berries were checked in Peterson Guide to Edible Foods to PREVENT THE EATING OF POISONOUS BERRIES.
Blueberry Delicious
Huckleberry "
Raspberry "
Blackberry "
Shadbush "
Chokeberry Edible
Witherod "
Chokecherry "
Bunchberry Not worth eating
Mountain Cranberry "
Pin Cherry "
Black Cherry "
Honeysuckle "
Partridgeberry "
Wild Sarsaparilla Yuck!
Juniper "
Apple Unripe, hence Yuck! Spitoo!
Rose Hip "
American Highbush Cranberry "
Mountain-Ash "

These were found, but declined as known poisonous, or unknown, but possibly poisonous: Blue Bead (Clintonia) Lily; Mountain Holly; Bitter Nightshade; Canada Mayflower. This was a berry nice weekend of camping despite the unpredicted rain! J.K.M.

Saturday, September 6. Orono (Map 23) Members of an unfamiliar species of flightless beetle, about 2" long, with a small head, and large abdomen, are noted here and there in the lawn -- mating, trundling along, or eating plants. They are a very pretty, electric dark blue. Their backs are iridescent, making an interesting play of subtle color. F.W.

Tuesday, September 9. E. Orland (Map 23) Toddy Pond near the dam. Here and there are the first bright read branches of fall. Just as rarely, though increasingly, the loons get airborne, presumably in preparation for distant gatherings; neighbors have said loons have been congregating on Alamoosook Lake. Our loon chick is almost adult-sized and -colored, though paler. The mallards, too, seem to be doing some practice flights--a dozen or more mallards remain here. Tourist noise and pollution is reduced on US 1, but was still a large presence last weekend. We see a single blue heron on this and the opposite shore much more than we used too. It is as if it is becoming tamer. Someone said they turn pink with the heat of FL when they migrate there. So, perhaps the bird finds company in two pink, plastic relatives perched in a spruce by the road. The lake is low, but gaining with these rains. White lilies still decorate near the shores. Berries have been ripe on various shore trees for most of the last month. W.D.

Tuesday, September 9. Stockholm (Map 68) I roam over only 20 acres of old and second growth, in which soil is both wet all Summer and mostly dry. Although I've enjoyed a smaller than usual raspberry crop, I look in vain for blueberries. (The only Blue-colored berry I've seen is the fantastic berry on the Bluebead Clintonia!)
I've gotten too lazy in my black fly reports, since their bites became infrequent. Here's a simple update of Sunday's black flies, since I stopped Monday hikes and reports on August 3:
Dates: August 10, 17, 24, & 31: Severity levels averaged: 1. M.S.

Wild Blueberry report for September 3-9, 1997

Late ripe fruiting stage: Hancock, Lincoln, Penobscot, Waldo and Washington Counties
No reports: other Maine counties

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