A pair of Piping Plovers called York home this season for the first time ever since Maine Audubon has been monitoring the population starting in the 1980s. Short Sands Beach is a small quarter-mile-long stretch of sandy beach with Ellis Park set behind it. A pair of plovers decided that Ellis Park’s man-made beach volleyball […]
News & Notes
Plover Nesting Season Sets New High
Maine Piping Plovers have done it again by shattering past record numbers, reaching 191 breeding pairs that fledged 352 chicks. The prior record of breeding pairs—174—was in 2025. The most chicks ever fledged—252—was recorded in 2022. Yes, that’s 100 more! This year, plover productivity was 1.84 chicks fledged per pair, which is higher than the […]
Campers, thanks for a great summer!
Camp is over and school has started—it’s a bittersweet time. Campers, we’ll miss you! GILSLAND FARM After eight fun-filled weeks of summer camp at Gilsland Farm, it’s time to clean out the cubbies and put the sprinkler away. But first, we wanted to revisit some of our favorite moments from the summer. This year brought […]
Small Wonders: In praise of flies
There was a week last month when I was very into collecting dead horse flies. This is not a hobby that I had pictured for myself, but here we are. It happened like this: I was working outside, sitting on the Visitor Center patio at Gilsland Farm, when I heard a tiny ‘smack’ on the […]
Better walking thanks to new boardwalk at Hamilton Audubon Sanctuary
Hamilton Audubon Sanctuary in West Bath has received a lot of stewardship attention as of late! One major upgrade is a new boardwalk. Cole Epstein, Maine Audubon Seasonal Stewardship and Grounds Assistant, and I worked hard to haul a lot of timber into place for the construction of a 140-foot-long boardwalk. The area originally had […]
Another Super Summer with Sprout Lewiston students!
(Above photo: Sprout Lewiston students at Acadia National Park) On a humid morning in July, students from the Sprout Lewiston program met under a tent in the orchard at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth with Mihku Paul, a Wabanaki cultural sharer and regular partner of Maine Audubon. Mihku welcomed students in her language, Maliseet-Passamaquoddy, […]
Maine Audubon Honors Wildlife Champions in the Legislature
This week Maine Audubon held its first ever Wildlife Champion Awards event at Gilsland Farm. We gathered in the Ann and Jim Hancock Native Plants Education Center to honor six state legislators who helped pass important legislation related to wildlife and habitat during the 132nd Maine Legislature, which convened in 2025 and 2026. Wildlife advocacy […]
Natural Plant Community Feature: Sandplain Grasslands
Sandplain Grassland Plant Community The Sandplain Grassland is a rare plant community that occurs near the coast in southern Maine. They emerge on flat sandy plains, especially in places where ancient glaciers melted and the runoff deposited sand and gravel. The soil is very well-drained and acidic. Historically, these communities were more frequent, maintained by […]
Small Wonders: Alarm Calls
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. […]