Editor's Column
Notes, Announcements & Reflections

Hello!

I hope everyone has their power back now.  This was some of the worst wind I remember.  There isn't a leaf left on a tree here now.  Since the beautiful leaves are gone I think it's time for a little snow.  I've heard a few reports of snow here and there around the state.  We had our first flurries in Talmadge yesterday. 

Wreath makers are thankful for our cold nights.  The waxy protective coating on evergreens forms best when temps go down into the 20°s for several nights in a row.  The tips I've been looking at the last week look green and healthy.  We shouldhave a good year. 

The full moon is coming up on Sunday, November 5.  The weather looks clear for Sunday night.

The skunks seem to have moved on.  I think they've gone to KB's over in Rangeley.  It's been very quiet here this week.  There are a few partridge but no other wildlife.  The moose and deer around my farm have gone back into the woods.  I did hear of two bull moose in Waite that were sparring on Bingo Road but I don't have an official report

Til next week,

Robin Follette, Editor
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Tuesday, October 31, 2006 Vol. 11, No. 42

tree frog October 13 Pembroke (Map 27)
A spring peeper in my yard. I don't know if the late season made him this bright color. The characteristic cross on his back is barely visible. Their numbers in my area seem to be increasing FG

Thursday October 26 Oquossoc (Map 28)  At the same place where I earlier had seen the 3 moose, I stepped under a tree and had a mixed flock of boreal chickadees,red breasted nuthatches and golden crowned kinglets crowd around me.  KB

Saturday, October 28  Caribou (Map 65)  The flocks of migrating robins that had been gorging themselves on the abundant roundwood berries disappeared overnight, and now there isn't a single one in sight.  As overnight temperatures dropped into the 20's the three chipmunks whose presence we've enjoyed all summer have been seen less and less frequently.  None were seen yesterday, and only one of them appeared at a feeder today, and then only very briefly. 

Huge flocks of sea gulls (mostly herring gulls and great black backs) were being seen lately on the local millpond, along with up to 4000 Canada geese.  Earlier this year a huge new lumber storage building was built at the S. W. Collins Company on the north shore, and the gulls have also taken to congregating by the hundreds on its gently sloping roof.   We wonder what it is that attracts them there.  Could it be that the silver-colored metal roof looks a lot like water to the gulls flying overhead?  Or is it somehow  warmer for the gulls to sit there instead of on the pond?  In any case, there are far fewer of them there today, and none at all on the pond, as if they, too, had decided to head south.  C.B.K.

Sunday,October 29, Rangeley (Map 28)
I'm getting real good at finding skunks. Walking my dog under a street light, I saw this "shadow" movings towards me, I thought that odd, and at 10 feet I realized it was a skunk. A few minutes later I came across more skunk tracks, and then some coyote tracks. The coyote was trailing or just walking along behind the skunk in the same trail . I noticed a dark shape off to my left, and through the blowing snow a coyote ran off.  KB

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