Suddenly, it’s September and we’re watching out for school buses. At our Audubon centers we’re shifting from summer camp mode to welcoming busloads of visiting school students on field trips. This makes it a good time to take stock of our summer activities and success, and to appreciate our more than thirty seasonal employees. Here […]
News & Notes
Feeling the impact: End of season thoughts from the Loon Restoration Crew
Above photo: The 2024 Loon Restoration Crew. Top Row (left to right): Tracy Hart, Brooke Adam, Autumn Dorr, Anne Heissenbuttel. Bottom Row (left to right): Marley Cloutier, Oskar Mattes, Ethan Daly. © Oskar Mattes By Ethan Daly, Loon Restoration Team Technician The total impact of conservation work is rarely seen by those who make it happen. […]
Backyard Bird of the Month for September: Sharp-shinned Hawk
You may never see Sharp-shinned Hawks, but they certainly pass through your backyard. Sharp-shinned Hawks are some of the most significant predators of small birds, which make up the majority of their diet, so as you might expect, bird feeders make easy hunting grounds. Here’s a good clue to their presence, as well as that […]
Restoring Ecological & Multicultural Connections in Portland Schoolyards
Over the summer, our partners at Maine Association for New Americans (MANA) helped us recruit 12 teens to help us learn about and plant species from the K-5 Wabanaki Studies curriculum at Portland elementary schools. These new plantings will enable teachers and students to visit these plants as they grow and bloom during the school […]
Spot the Asters and Goldenrods Blooming in the Pond Meadow!
Late August is the best time of year to observe many species in the Asteraceae, the Aster family, as their flowers bloom and blanket the landscape in yellow and white. This is specifically true of goldenrods and asters, in the Astereae tribe of the massive Asteraceae family. These species often appear similar but are easier […]
Sprout Lewiston: Ending on a High
A special trip to Acadia National Park marked the culmination of this summer’s Sprout Lewiston, a four-week program for teen girls, run in partnership with Maine Community Integration in Lewiston. MCI “educates and empowers New Mainer girls and women to be confident in themselves, work together, and make positive changes in their communities.” To be […]
How to help monarchs this season
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 […]
What we did in July!
July went by in the blink of an eye, partly because we were so busy here at Maine Audubon. I wanted to give you all a small sampling of some of the many things that take place at Maine Audubon, so I asked colleagues to send me a snapshot of one fun thing they did […]
Summer Naturalist Weekend at Borestone Mountain: Walk, swim, hike, bird!
High on the shoulder of Borestone Mountain, draping down its flank toward Lake Onawa on one side and the 100-Mile Wilderness on the other, sits Borestone Mountain Audubon Sanctuary. Surrounded by miles of northern hardwood forest and itself full of stands of very old trees, the sanctuary is a haven for breeding birds and diverse […]