Have you looked out at your bird feeder lately and seen birds you hadn’t seen the previous day—perhaps not since the previous year? With most of us staying home these days and exploring nature around our yards, many people are seeing Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and Indigo Buntings that suddenly appear at their bird feeders Read More
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My Maine This Week: David Small
We hope you are all finding time to get outside and explore and photograph Maine’s environment — especially since warm weather and sunshine have arrived in the last week. We want to thank this week’s My Maine photographer, NRCM member David Small of Old Town, Maine, for continuing to share his gorgeous wildlife photos with Read More
Our Backyard Discovery Diary: Mockers, Rattles, Ruby-crowns, and Twitters
During Earth Week, staff at the Natural Resources Council of Maine sent “digital care packages” to our members and supporters, as a way to help folks stay connected to nature. Jeff’s organization, National Audubon, has also upped their online engagement opportunities, as have a number of other groups. But many of us—perhaps you?—are creating our Read More
Attracting Bluebirds Without Boxes
I’m delighted to report that we might finally have Eastern Bluebirds nesting in our home habitat. We’ve lived here in Poland Spring for over a decade, and have never put up a nest box. However, I am kind of a fanatic about retaining and promoting dead and dying trees on our landscape because “dead and Read More
My Maine This Week: Beth Comeau
“As I have been trying to get outside while also practicing social distancing, my usual places along the Maine coast are closed or were originally too crowded for me to feel comfortable. So, one recent afternoon, my husband and I took a ride down to Georgetown and passed a spot that we drive by quite Read More
Old Orchard Beach Piping Plover Project
The Natural Resources Council of Maine awarded grants to six Maine middle schools through our “Engaging Maine Middle School Students in Protecting the Nature of Maine” program, which we started in 2015. Each of the schools began their projects in early 2020, though due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools, of course, have gone to online learning, Read More
Quarantining with Birds & Nature
With our son’s school closed and our offices at the Natural Resources Council of Maine and National Audubon doing the responsible thing of instituting work-at-home policies out of concern about the coronavirus, we have found ourselves thinking about the implications of staying here at our house. We’ve all heard the stories of people being quarantined Read More
Eroding a Bedrock Law: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
In 1918, the U.S. signed into law a piece of legislation that has shown incredible resilience over the past century. In the midst of the horrific tragedies of World War I and the Spanish Flu, a bright light shown through that resulted in the signing of the world’s first large-scale treaty among nations to protect Read More
My Maine This Week: Bald Eagles by Garrett Noddin
New My Maine This Week photographer Garrett Noddin of Hallowell, Maine, shares his recent photo of not one but FOUR Bald Eagles (three immature and one adult), spotted recently on the Kennebec River in Hallowell. What a sight! Do you have photos of Bald Eagles or other Maine wildlife to share with us? If so, Read More
