On Saturday we hosted the Big Sit at Maine Audubon's Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth. Over the course of the day, more than 30 people came by to help us count as many birds as we could. Ultimately, we counted 62 species of birds (see the full list), which was 10 more than last year. …
Maine's Naturalist
Nature Moments: Bouquets & Biodiversity from Your Lawn
In this installment of Nature Moments, Bowdoin professor and biologist Nat Wheelwright asks what would happen if we stopped -- gasp! -- mowing our lawns. Mowing lawns costs time, burns fossil fuels, and produces a biological desert. When Nat let his own grass grow, three dozen flower species …
WHERE ARE THE BIRDS?!
Over the last two weeks or so I've received daily calls asking "what has happened to our backyard birds?" Even on the MAINE Birds Facebook Group (membership required) there is a thread titled "Where are all the back-yard birds ? No birds at feeders for days !!" that has 345 comments of people mostly …
Introducing Nature Moments with Nat Wheelwright
We're really excited about a new partnership with Bowdoin College professor (and Maine Audubon board member) Nat Wheelwright. Each of Nat's 90-second "Nature Moments" videos -- which we'll share here over the coming months -- introduces one or more animals or plants, describing its natural …
2017 Bar Harbor Pelagic Trip Summary
Maine Audubon's annual pelagic out of Bar Harbor ran on Sunday, September 17th this year. In the week building up we'd been monitoring wind (which was calm) and seas (which had dissipated) from the hurricanes moving over the Atlantic. We even used a larger boat this year, Bar Harbor Whale Watch's …
Rare Bird Alert: Fork-tailed Flycatcher
Fall is upon us and birds are migrating. While many of us think of birds leaving for the winter, this also means the potential for vagrancy and rare birds showing up almost anywhere. Hotspots, like Monhegan Island, have already seen rarities like Say's Phoebe, Painted Bunting, and Red-headed …
Head Harbor Passage 2017 Trip Report
On 26 August, we ran our inaugural trip to explore the waters of Head Harbor Passage and it was awesome! The bottlenecked water from the extremely high tides off Eastport literally create a whirlpool, known as the Old Sow, where a variety of 'bird food' (especially krill) is brought to the surface …
Are you seeing fewer birds in the summer?
Each year I receive a number of phone calls or inquires from people worried about the lack of birds at their feeders in the summer time. Fear not! This is generally a good thing. Below, I'll use some eBird data to illustrate some of the changes in a bird's frequency or abundance throughout the …
Trip to Borestone Mountain
As we head into our summer trip season I wanted to share one of my favorite locations in Maine with everyone: Borestone Mountain. This is one of Maine Audubon's eight sanctuaries and at 1,600 acres, the largest. Located in Elliotsville, Borestone is north enough to be getting into some higher …