About a year ago, on the way to work, I stopped to admire a Black-capped Chickadee that had landed in a small tree only a few feet away. It watched me while making its “chickadee-dee-dee” call, and I gazed back, feeling grateful that a wild animal had chosen to share space and interact with me. […]
Maine's Naturalist
Unplug at Borestone Mountain this September
After Maine Audubon took over Borestone Mountain from National Audubon in 2000, it took a lot of hard work to get the lodges back into the condition that visitors appreciate now. Two volunteers who played a big part in that were George Libby and Gary Roberts, and they started leading weekend trips called the “Borestone […]
Stories from the 2026 Loon Count
The 43rd Annual Loon Count is a wrap! More than a thousand volunteers headed out on the water and surveyed more than 400 lakes across the state from 7 to 7:30 am on Saturday July 18. Despite some wind, it was a beautiful morning for the Loon Count. We want to give a huge shout […]
Finding creative expression at Borestone Mountain Monson Arts retreat
Never in a million years would I consider myself an artist. But I came home from the Borestone Mountain Monson Arts nature journaling workshop, this June, having discovered a new way to communicate artistically through immersion in the natural world. This, in a nutshell, is the goal of this collaboration. For the fourth year in […]
Pelagic Adventure to Brier Island & Lurcher Shoals on August 16
It has been 30 years since Maine Audubon’s annual pelagic trip from Bar Harbor started, and the frequent feedback is: 1) people want better weather or 2) people want more opportunities to get offshore. We haven’t made in progress in controlling the weather, but we have partnered with FLUKES: International Whale Tours to offer an […]
Spreading our wings: Let’s explore a new Downeast area together
The work we do on behalf of Maine wildlife is often made more impactful when it’s done in collaboration with others. This summer Maine Audubon is embarking on a new partnership with Frenchman Bay Conservancy (FBC), a nonprofit land conservation organization in Downeast Maine. Since the late 1980s, FBC has conserved more than 25,000 acres […]
Small Wonders: Why nest on the ground?
Last week I found a large, speckled egg in the West Meadow at Gilsland Farm. It was an empty Wild Turkey egg, and its location in the middle of a meadow, rather than in the woods at the base of a tree, where turkeys nest, suggested that it had been someone’s dinner. To any bird, […]
Profile: Early Successional Forest Plant Communities
The Early Successional Forest is a familiar plant community that springs up in disturbed areas around Maine. This community represents an in-between stage from directly after disturbance to an established forest. They form on slopes, hills, and flats after natural occurrences like fire, or unnatural occurrences due to human activity. Although this habitat is often […]
Become an (i)Naturalist
Continuing our series highlighting different community science programs, May is a great time to learn about using iNaturalist. This is a database where you can submit sightings of any living things! iNaturalist is “an online social network of people sharing biodiversity information to help each other learn about nature.” You can contribute via the web […]