Maine Nature News

Vol.  10, no. 26   Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Quick jumps:  This week's report | From the Press | Home page

Sunday June 19.  T1 R9 WELS (Map 43); T2 R9 WELS (Map 51) The sun is just starting to come out as I arrive in the Katahdin region. After checking into my cabin on Millinocket Lake I head up to Baxter State Park for some kayaking on Upper Togue Pond. Put-in point is the Togue Pond Beach Area.  From here I paddled out the small cove around a point of land and there it is, off to my right:  Katahdin, the mountain of the people of Maine. Bold and beautiful as ever. Snow can still be seen in some of the deeper ravines close to the summit. 
    The only wildlife I see is one Loon. Its call even that more haunting while in the present of Katahdin.  The spruce and fir forest smells real nice as we paddle along.  Black flies are a level 1 on the water and a 3 while on land.
    From here it's time to pay a visit to the pond where all the moose are:   Sandy Stream Pond (T3 R9 WELS/ Mt. Katahdin Township (Map 51).   After he short walk one finds a lone bull in the pond.  Its antlers are all covered with velvet. He spends about 20 minutes in the pond, then comes a shore just as a cow and her calf start to swim from one end of the pond to the other.  She splashes her calf with water 3 or 4 times as they walk near the shore line. While this is going on I can't see him, but the big bull is snorting and blowing from the woods just in back of me.  The cow and calf then swim back to the point where they first came into the pond. 
    Sitting at Big Rock there are foot steps on the board walk behind me.   Must be some more folks coming to see the moose.  To my surprise as I turn around it's a cow moose.  It looks at me and takes a few drinks of water then disappears back into the forest.  As I leave the pond I see another cow moose feeding near the first viewpoint area.
    As I leave the park four deer (does) cross the road.  Back at the cabin as day turns into night a chorus of Loon cries echoes up from the lake.  Time now for a good night's sleep. as tomorrow will be the longest and hardest hiking day of my life.  S.Y.

Monday, June 20.  T3 R9 WELS, Mount Katahdin Township (Maps 50, 51) The day is here and if all goes well in a few hours I will be on top on Maine.  Or maybe I should say at 5267 feet on Katahdin's Baxter Peak. The hike starts on the Chimney Pond Trail out of the Roaring Brook Camping Area at 7:30 am.  From here it is a 3.3 mile hike to Chimney Pond, with a nice viewpoint a little ways past the halfway point of Basin Pond and Katahdin's North Basin. The rushing waters of Roaring Brook and the smell of the forest are real nice.
    Black flies are at a level 1 and sometimes a 2. 
    9:15 am finds myself at Chimney Pond.   From the pond you look right up at Baxter Peak and off to the left the famous Knife Edge. After a 45 minute break it's time to go up the Saddle Trail.  Moose droppings can be seen on the trail, along with a little snow in a few spots as you gain elevation. The last 0.3 mile is hard going, requiring climbing over large rocks with a lot of loose footing to go along.  This are is know as the Saddle Slide.   From here you enter the Tableland, a somewhat flat area where all kinds of white arctic flowers are in bloom.  Very nice.  The temperature is in the high 50's with a 15-20 mph breeze.   Not all that bad.
    From here it's off to the summit across the Tableland.  Many of the rocks are now pinkish in color. I catch just a quick glimpse of a butterfly as it goes past.  Could this have been one of the butterflies that only breeds on this high land and is endangered here in Maine?
    At12:10 pm I am now on the summit!  What a view!  They go on forever and ever. Two Ravens are soaring around.  Chimney Pond looks like a puddle as you look almost right down on it.  With a pair of binoculars I find Sandy Stream Pond, and a moose is swimming in the pond!
    It's now 5:45 pm and I am almost back to the trail head.  I am a very slow down hill hiker but being slow today will pay rich rewards.  I hear a noise and see some movement right next to the trail!   It's a big buck!  Antlers all covered in velvet! THREE FEET TO MY LEFT!   It's eating maple leaves.  By the shape of the antlers I would guess that maybe it will be a 7-pointer when full grown this fall.   It sticks its head out through the branches and just looks at me while a take a picture of it, just feet away.
    Two other hiker come along, see what's going on and make the comment that they have "never been that close to a moose"(!)   I try to tell them it's a deer, but they say no way can a deer get that big.  The deer then comes down on the trail and just continues to eat leaves, paying no attention to me whatsoever.  Baxter State Park truly is "Nature at Peace".  Back at the cabin I see a mother duck swimming with 8 little ducklings. Two Canada Geese also swim by, along with a muskrat.  S.Y.

Tuesday, June 21.  T2 R9 WELS ,T3 R9 WELS (Maps 50, 51) Up at the crack of dawn today to see the first rays of the summer sun rise over Millinocket Lake.  With no rain now for a couple of days. the pine pollen has put a layer of yellow on everything.  With my legs a little sore from yesterday's Katahdin hike, today will be a day for kayaking.  The first paddle is on Lower Togue Pond.
    Black flies are a level 1 with a light breeze blowing out of the southwest.  No wildlife is seen while I'm on the pond, except for a few tiger butterflies.  Loons are not seen, but can be heard of in the distance.  A nice little island in the middle of the pond with a sand beach makes a perfect lunch spot. Great view of Katahdin from this spot as is anywhere on this pond.  I think the views from this pond are the best in the region.  The Abol Bridge view of Katahdin from the Golden Road would be a close second.
    From here it was off to Kidney Pond.  Some people just ending their paddle say a cow moose has just swam the whole length of the pond.  After putting in I paddle down the small narrow stream that flows out of the pond hoping to see a moose or two.  None are around, but a large beaver den -- and farther down stream its dam -- are rewarding enough.  This is another nice spot with a much different view of Katahdin, along with a number of the other peaks in the Park. 
    A small island in the middle of the pond is home to a pair of loons. They are making a lot of noise which can be heard all over the pond.   From a great distance away I watch with binoculars as both loons dive, surface, then disappear on the island.  They do this time after time.  Maybe the eggs have hatched and they are feeding their young.  Let's hope so.
    Well my time in the Katahdin region has come to an end.   It's time to go home.  In all my travels on foot or on the water I have never been to a place that is so hard to leave.  The raw beauty of this place is just amazing. What is also amazing is that one man, Governor Percival Baxter bought all of this, 200,000 acres, with his own money just to give to the people of Maine and asked nothing in return except to keep it "Forever Wild".  Every Mainer past, present and those to come should thank this man for his wonderful deed.  I know I have many times over.  S.Y.

Wednesday, June 22.   Jackman (Map 39) Black fly severity is 1. For some reason, black flies have not been a problem so far this year.  T.C.

Black fly Activity Report to Maine Nature News
Period ending Wednesday, June 22, 2005:
Town                     County    Map no.      Severity
Kennebunk            York          3               2 (decrease from last week)
Kennebunkport     York          3               2 (same rating but a slight decrease from last week)
Palermo                Waldo     13                3 (aggressive)
Observer: J.G.

Friday, June 24.    Madison (Map 20) Black fly level: I am in Madison and I give it a 2!  A.

Sunday, June 26.   Cornish (Map 4)  I found this weird thing hanging from a leaf on my oak tree . I have no idea what it is.  Do you have any ideas?  If you do please let me know.  K.B.

Sunday, June 26.  Gray (Map 5) Turtle Cove, Little Sebago Lake.  The pine pollen levels are highest I've seen in years. The accumulation is 1.5 inches in some spots on the shore and it has started to rot and give off a very foul odor. This frog doesn't seen to mind the smell.  J.J.

Sunday, June 26.    Brunswick (Map 6) It's a hazy, hot, humid afternoon but with all the rain we have had it's to hard to sit home and do nothing.  Seeking some relief from the heat I head out to do a kayak paddle on the tidal New Meadows River.  A nice breeze is blowing upriver from the ocean, so it's not that bad once I'm out on the water.
    While on the water I am treated to a number of different wildlife shows.  Five Snowy Egrets are sitting in a tree and later walking along the river backings.   Ospreys are too many to count as the afternoon goes. Some are diving to the water surface to catch fish, but not always coming up with one.  A lone Bald Eagle flies by. Herring Gulls, along with Black Back Duck and Laughing Gulls are also seen.  Double Crested Cormorants are in the water and sitting on some of the rocks.  A nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  S.Y.

Sunday, June 26.  Gray (Map 5) Turtle Cove, Little Sebago Lake.  Check out these moths.  They spent about two weeks in my garage, and wouldn't leave. Their pattern is amazing -- looking exactly like baby turtles.   I just can't figure out how this would give the moth an advantage in Nature.  This is Turtle Cove though; (maybe there's something different about this habitat?)  J.J

Sunday, June 26.  Saco (Map 3) My winter back porch bird feeder was transformed into a nursery last week. (Look at all these baby spiders!)  These guys were spinning their kites and flying off to wherever when I got home from work.   J.B.

Sunday-Tuesday, June 26-28.   Windsor (Map 13) June's hottest weather seems to have mellowed a bit, temps Sunday in the mid nineties dropped a bit thunderstorms on Sunday evening June 26 didn't cool things much --- the rain was at least as warm as the 85 degree air at 9-35 P.M. We didn't see severe weather here, the lightning and thunder were pretty constant though. Monday started out at about 70 degrees and the temperatures climbed into the high eighties before a cold front came through late afternoon and began to quickly cool things down. On Tuesday the 28, we started out with a temperature of 58 and humidity of 100 percent! It is very close to raining, but much cooler.
    The black flies, not evident during the hot spell, came back at about a level 2 when the weather cooled. There are many young birds trying out their wings, adults are warily watching and calling to them. Some of the grass, now standing at 4.5 feet is browning, dry on the stalk. It seems much thinner than last year; less clover and taller timothy.
    The pollen from the locust trees is abundant.  Roadside lupines are quickly turning to seed pods. The horsefly population is expanding.  P.S.H

Monday, June 27.  Phippsburg  (Map 6) In the past week, I found a plant that I had not seen before. It is a One-Flowered Cancer-Root.  It lacks chlorophyll and is parasitic.  I wonder how rare it is.
    Also, this week I found a spider that remains a mystery. Maybe some of your readers and observers can help with its identification. My photos were not representative, so I tried to sketch this 3/8 inch spider.   I found it hanging, and probably sucking the juices of a large May (or June) Beetle.  In fact, it was the Beetle that attracted my attention as I walked in a field.  The beetle had been caught in some webbing spun on a yellow Hawkweed's hairy stem, and this spider was attached to it -- at first I didn't know it was a spider until it moved.  It has a large abdomen. The spines on the abdomen were quite noticeable, though I did not test to see how "sharp" they were.   I wonder if anyone can identify it?  The attached sketch shows first the dorsal and then the ventral side.  R.K

From the Press

Lupine lovers halt Acadia effort to eradicate 'non-native' plants

Abigail Curtis,  Of The News Staff,
Bangor Daily News  June 18, 2005, pages A1, A7.

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK - The purple, blue and pink lupine that brighten the state each June are as much a part of the coastal Maine landscape as lighthouses, rocky cliffs and shore dinners. Lupine that take root within the boundaries of Acadia National Park, however, might not be welcome much longer. "We're dealing with a showy, beautiful plant that's an icon of the state of Maine, but it doesn't really belong here," David Manski, chief of resource management at the park, said Friday. "It has its place and that's not Acadia."

Lupine, though as familiar here as pine trees and pounding surf, is a non-native species. It was introduced years ago as a landscaping plant and has never left. There was a strain of lupine that was native to the state of Maine, but that has become extinct, Manski said. Lupine are one of more than 200 non-native plants that live on the Mount Desert Island, almost a quarter of the total number of plant species. Some non-native plants, like apple trees, do not compete with native plant species. Others, like purple loosestrife, the aggressive wetland plant, do.  As for the lupine, the verdict is still out.  Park botanists began work two weeks ago to cut the plants at a spot where Ledgelawn Avenue meets the Park Loop Road.

Workers used "weed-whippers" to contain the plants at that location, Manski said. Surprised reactions from park visitors and island residents led the park to curtail its containment program for the time being.  "There were very strong feelings," Manski said.  "We certainly were caught off guard. ...  Obviously, people love lupines, and with good reason, but in a national park, lupines are not part of the natural landscape."  On Friday afternoon, a lone hiker walked in the rain beside the patch of remaining lupine.  The purple blossoms glistened with droplets of water, their regal heads hanging heavy with the weight of rain.  Brown, limp lupine stalks rotted on the ground, a visual reminder of the park's first containment efforts.  Park staff have put down their weed-whippers and whackers and picked up scientific journals in order to research whether or not the lupine will threaten the native ecosystem.

"We want to find out what kind of ecological effects they might have," Manski said.  "I know they spread and they spread particularly along road shoulders and areas where there's open sun." Ann Judd, a member of the Garden Club of Mount Desert, said Friday that more research on the flower would be welcomed. "I would like to hear all the information on the case to eradicate lupine," she said. "We all love the beautiful blue color and the stands we see along the road and the hillside." Judd said that she grows lupine in her own garden, in part because butterflies flock to the blossoms. In a state that even has a festival dedicated to the popular flowers, it is hard for many to imagine that the familiar lupine is now controversial.

"I think they're beautiful," Anne Beerits, an organizer of this weekend's Deer Isle-Stonington Lupine Festival, said Friday.  "And they have a kind of a Maine mystique. ...  They're sort of an harbinger of early summer, and I think for people that live in seasonal communities like this, everyone really welcomes any harbinger of warm weather and spring."

©2005 Bangor Daily News. All rights reserved.
Bangor Publishing Company www.bangornews.com/
 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.

Full-Scale Migration; Frenzied fishway draws human spectators, hungry birds

Bangor Daily News, Monday, June 20, 2005, page B1
Robert J. Bukaty, Associated Press (Source:  AP on Yahoo)

NOBLEBORO, Maine -  Chuck Reinhardt stood in awe as he gazed down at the multitudes of silver-sided fish crowded into a waterway no more than 5 feet wide. After three to four years at sea, thousands of alewives were following their instincts on a journey back to the freshwater where they were born. The fish crammed themselves into a manmade brook on the final leg of their trip to Damariscotta Lake, reminding Reinhardt of a familiar scene before he moved to Maine.  "It looks like the Long Island Expressway," he said.

Each spring, tens of thousands of alewives pass through the historic Damariscotta Mills fishway, created in 1809 to allow the fish to bypass a series of waterfalls as they struggle upstream toward the lake, 54 feet above sea level.  The annual spectacle attracts hundreds of spectators.  It also attracts sea gulls and other birds in search of an easy meal. Ospreys hover overhead like helicopters before plunging down and grabbing fish with their talons, while hundreds of noisy gulls line the banks fighting over fish they've plucked from the water. Cormorants, along with an occasional harbor seal, strike from below, causing the water to erupt in a frenzy of fleeing fish.

Alewives may be appetizing to birds, but they're seldom found on Mainers' dinner plates. Lobstermen use them as bait, forking over $60 for their four-bushel allotment, and the fish have been used in the past as fertilizer. Still, a handful of people are known to eat smoked alewives, a bony fish with a sweet, white flesh.  All of the hoopla at Damariscotta Mills typically starts in May when the water hits 56 degrees, said Frank Waltz, who has worked the alewife run for 45 years.  Waltz, a familiar sight in his green waders and train engineer's cap, manages the fishery along with Dale Wright for Nobleboro and Newcastle, the two towns bisected by the stream that runs between Damariscotta Lake and the Atlantic Ocean.

This year's alewife run was delayed by a miserable stretch of cold, rainy weather. When the sun returned, it warmed the water and triggered a massive migration.   Shortly after sunrise on the last Sunday in May, Wright stood on the Mills Road Bridge smiling like a kid as swarms of fish passed underneath. "They came in the night before last. This is like Christmas to me," he beamed.

©2005 Bangor Daily News. All rights reserved.
Bangor Publishing Company www.bangornews.com/
 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.