Early Saturday morning in mid July, on the shores of hundreds of Maine lakes, people are getting coffee and tea, studying maps, prepping their boats, dusting off binoculars, and meeting up with neighbors who they may only see this one time each year: They are getting ready for the Annual Loon Count. For four decades, […]
News & Notes
A Snapping Turtle Story: Good luck, Muddy!
In September 2022, a nest full of baby Snapping Turtles hatched here at Maine Audubon’s Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in Falmouth, Maine. We kept one of them, the biggest and the muddiest, to spend the winter in our Discovery Room, so it could teach us all about the early life of these ancient creatures. The […]
Good News for Wildlife in Augusta!
The First Session of the 131st Maine Legislature is still in full swing, with hundreds of bills still left to be decided. We’ll keep you updated on all the wildlife-related bills, but we wanted to let you know about some good news about a pair of bills we’ve been working hard on. SUCCESS! PROTECTING ENDANGERED […]
Backyard Bird of the Month for June: Baltimore Oriole
If you have apple or plum trees in your backyard, you have probably already seen Baltimore Orioles in them. These striking orange and black icterids return to southern and central Maine in mid-May, and usually head straight for blossoming fruit trees to forage for insects. They will also visit feeders stocked with orange slices or […]
Growing endangered species at home (and at school)
In our work to conserve wildlife and habitat, Maine Audubon will always devote special attention to species of wildlife which are rare, threatened, or endangered.� Our partners at the state and federal government are responsible for designating, or �listing,� these species.�� As I write, our conservation team works on conserving Piping Plover and Least Terns, […]
The next step of Muddy’s journey!
Early last September, a nest full of baby Snapping Turtles hatched here at Gilsland Farm in Falmouth. We found as many of them as we could and moved most of them to different locations near the pond and the Presumpscot River, where they could safely crawl to the water.� We kept one of them, the […]
Behind the scenes at Borestone Naturalist Weekend
Just south of the North Woods, and at the doorway to the 100-Mile Wilderness, sits Borestone Mountain Audubon Sanctuary. Maine Audubon’s largest and northernmost sanctuary, it sprawls out over the slopes of the namesake peak from the old Bodfish station on the Canadian Pacific Line, near the sanctuary’s entrance, to the shores of Lake Onawa […]
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. […]
Talking fishing lead-free with the Crappie Hippie
Our very own Laura Williams was a guest on the Fish Nerds Podcast last month, talking about lead-free fishing. The podcast host, the “Crappie Hippie,” originally scheduled her for ten minutes but they had so much fun, it turned out to be the focus of the whole show. Podcast host John King (aka “the Crappie […]