If you’re like us, you like to combine your birding with discovering a new, spectacular place. A few weekends ago, we achieved that goal when we led a birding outing for members of the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM) to the Perham Stream Birding Trail, located in Madrid, Maine. Madrid, in case you’re a Read More
Something Fishy Going On
A week following a spring storm that left much of Maine blanketed in snow, we found ourselves at our son’s Bates rugby match vs host Bowdoin College. The wind had a bite to it, but the pitch was gleaming green. Soon, it, along with the players, turned muddy brown, and the air was filled with Read More
Robins in Every Yard
Before the big spring snow, on a recent morning walk around our neighborhood with our dog, Loki, spring seemed to have arrived overnight. “Pip-pip-pip”—the calls of American Robins seemed to sound from every yard. The lawns were just starting to regain some green among winter’s leftover brown matted grass but the robins didn’t care. They Read More
Consider the Bird Economy
Turn to any media outlet and you’re bound to hear news about the economy. As the countdown to November continues, we suspect this will intensify. Inflation, interest rates, GDP, stock indices, bond returns—it’s gonna keep coming at us fast and furiously. But what we won’t hear much about, at least from traditional news outlets, is Read More
Fifteen Years of Owl Hope Pays Off
Fifteen years is a long time. It represents hundreds, maybe as much as a thousand trips to one of our favorite local birding spots. Our visits aren’t specifically to look for owls, but just about every time we’re there, we say the same thing: “This is the perfect place for a Short-eared Owl.” If we Read More
Mysterious Murmurations
The mild temps on Saturday, December 16, had us wondering: is this really the Christmas Bird Count time of year? (It felt a little like Breeding Bird Atlas time!) But indeed, there we were, traipsing through the streets of our Gardiner neighborhood and beyond, binoculars around our necks, as part of the Augusta area Christmas Read More
Deciphering the Mystery of How the Turkey Got Its Name
To birders like us and, hopefully, you, the most well-known bird in the world may seem to be the Steller’s Sea-Eagle, given what a media darling it’s become. Well, it’s not. Neither is it a hummingbird, crow, peacock, the Perplexing Scrubwren, nor is it that famous, non-existent bird, the “seagull.” It is, in fact, the Read More
The Day the Lobsterman Saw Birds Fall from the Sky
There was a lot of hype leading up to Lee. First is was a hurricane, then a tropical storm. Thankfully, harm of all sorts registered as a minimum. The same is true for vagrant bird sightings, as we’ve written about previously here at our Natural Resources Council of Maine blog. But there was a storm-related Read More
How a Loon Learns to be a Loon
During the last waning days of summer, we sat on a deck overlooking a beautiful lake where Common Loons thrive. We heard them calling through the night and watched as they meandered in the ripping waters just past the dock. And we observed the loon parents as they helped their young one to become a Read More
