As we enter peak monarch butterfly season, here is the latest on the status of these majestic and vulnerable insects. Monarch butterflies migrate north in a relay race, with three to four generations successively laying eggs and passing the baton to their offspring. In Maine, you will start to see the final generation in late […]
Insects
Weighing in on insect populations
Insects are possibly the most overlooked and undervalued animals on the planet. Without them, our entire ecosystem would not survive. So we were concerned, a few years ago, to hear that insect populations are in decline, possibly even crashing. According to one study, 40 percent of the world’s insect species are in danger of extinction. […]
Spring means it’s time to start surveying Maine streams
It�s officially spring so that means it�s time to check on your local streams, explore water quality, and find bugs! We�re kicking off a new Stream Explorer season and recruiting community scientists who can help survey large aquatic insects (macroinvertebrates) in Maine streams. If that sounds interesting to you, there are two ways you can […]
Raising Awareness About Neonics In Maine
Maine Audubon is working with experts and activists to find avenues to pesticide policy reform. Neonicotinoids, or neonics for short, are some of the most widely used and promoted pesticides on the planet. They kill insects, all of them, and are sprayed from planes, coated on seeds, and otherwise broadcast throughout virtually every cultivated (i.e., […]
Guest blog post: Stream Explorers Opens Doors
�The door will be opened to those who are bold enough to knock.� (Tony Gaskins) My name is Aroha Walsh, and the Stream Explorers has done many things in the past few months that inspire me to be a better person. The Stream Explorers program aims to test the pollution in streams by looking at […]
Tracking an Invasion at Gilsland Farm
All the basic information about the Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) is right there in its name: “emerald” refers to the hue of its iridescent body; “ash” for the family of trees that these jewel beetles feed and lay their eggs on; and “borer” for the tunnels young beetles dig through the bark, eventually leading […]
Nanotagging Monarch Butterflies — Very, Very Carefully — at Fields Pond
Once inside the front door of the Nature Center, summer visitors to the Fields Pond Audubon Center have been greeted by a display of Monarch Butterflies.� Beginning as either eggs or small caterpillars, we collected these from the plethora of milkweed plants that grow all around the Nature Center.� To date we�ve raised and fledged […]
Let plants thrive in July
Happy summer! It’s late July, but don’t believe the hype about summer being mostly over. Ecologically, there are still three important months left of the growing and blooming season before we get to fall. Each of those months is special and important is its own way. July’s focus should be letting plants thrive while birds […]
What is an Insect BioBlitz?
What’s one of the best ways to spend a beautiful Saturday in July?� Catching �bugs� at Fields Pond!� And that’s exactly what more than two dozen of us did on Saturday July 13th at the Fields Pond Insect BioBlitz.� Armed with nets, magnifying lenses, and clear jars, we documented everything from beetles to butterflies, mosquitoes […]