Maine
Nature News
Vol. 11, no. 35 Tuesday, August 29,
2006
 Late July Hobbstown Twp
(Map 39)
This is a little late as it happened at the end of July, but the
picture is so cute, I still want to share it.
I was surprised to see the loon was still sitting on the nest at the
end of July. I had camped at Fish Pond near Spencer Lake in Somerset
County several times during July and watched closely, hoping to see a
chick hop out, but when I left, she was still sitting on two eggs.
I made a trip back up in 3 days to see if anything had happened and
also to pick blueberries (I got about 3 gallons in 3 hours!). The
mother was swimming and a tiny black chick was sitting on her back
(yeah!!)
and I decided to try to get a picture with my zoom lens from my
kayak. I kept my distance and the mother didn't seem disturbed.
After a while,she dove and left the chick alone on the surface.
At that point, it looked at my kayak and swam nonstop towards me! This
shows the chick as it reached the side of my kayak. I wonder if
it thought I was its mother! Anyway, I took a couple of shots and
headed to shore. LL
 Friday, August
25 T2/3 R 10 (Map 50)
After a disappointing morning at Sandy Stream Pond I spoke with a Park
ranger to ask about the moose. She told me that the moose have
moved on to their fall grounds already. Moose sightings in the
pond are now few and far between. We watched four common
merganser ducks (Mergus merganser)
diving for fish in Sandy Stream Pond.
After we left the pond we headed out the Golden Road to Ripogenus
Dam. The only moose we saw was the yearly cow pictured on the
right. She watched people closely while she ate. RF
Saturday,
August 26 Rangeley (Map 28)
About a week or maybe longer I've noticed the birds are flying around
at night and calling. Outside it feels like fall. The smells are
different, leaves are changing up here, even the sounds are different.
It all says summer is ending. I watched a turkey with her brood of nine
walk across the field yesterday. Later in the day they walked back. And
there are flocks of robins and sparrows. I've got 4 kestrels walking
around my lawn chasing crickets and grasshoppers. Reminds me of
chickens. Swallows left here the beginning of the month. KB
Saturday
August 26 Bangor (Map 23)
Sitting out back of an apartment complex which abuts the Husson fields,
I noticed what the major manicured field creates; a change in the
ecosystem that doesn't allow the birds to live well. There were
almost no birds there, in comparison to my hayfields and brushy wooded
strips in Windsor. The Husson fields weren't being used for
sports while I was observing but they were almost devoid of
activity. The contrast was evident, since, less than 12 hours
before on Friday I had observed eight to twelve species of birds
enjoying the fields in Windsor. PSH
Q&A
Q Monday, August 28. Lisbon
(map 6) In the August 22 Maine Nature News, C.C. makes a keen
observation about some monarch caterpillars: “I also noticed at least
some of the leaves they eat have been nicked the junction to the stalk
and hang loosely and wonder if the caterpillars deliberately do this
for some reason?”
A The answer is
yes, you have noticed a behavior known as “flagging”. According to the
Monarch Watch website: “5th instar Monarch larvae are voracious and
quickly consume entire leaves. In order to minimize the flow of the
milkweed's sap, they will sometimes chew a notch in the leaf's petiole,
causing the leaf to hang down. This behavior is known as
flagging”. ARS
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