The vibrant red plumage of Northern Cardinals is always a welcome sight on a cold day. Northern Cardinals molt their feathers once per year, usually in August or September, after nesting and before winter. To regrow their bright red feathers, they must eat fruits (and insects) high in carotenoids, pigments that give many plants and […]
Maine Native Plants
Using Native Plants for Cover at Your Bird Feeder
Want to attract more birds to your feeders this fall and winter? Try adding some cover with native plants. Birds need cover to hide from predators, and many species only forage near plants that they can quickly dart into. Cover is one of the most overlooked components of a bird feeding station, and native plants […]
East Point Audubon Sanctuary: A fall plant walk reveals parasitic plants
The trails at East Point Sanctuary in Biddeford Pool are a spectacular place to walk on a late summer afternoon. While it’s difficult to look away from the panoramic ocean views or abundant sea life, if you look carefully along the trailside, you can see some of Maine’s parasitic plant species. There are many parasitic […]
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 […]
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 […]
The May Tree and Shrub Sale is open!
With spring well on its way, we are eager to get our hands in the dirt and start planting. While we wait for our herbaceous plants to grow green and strong, we have opened our May Woody Sale, featuring everything from groundcovers to tree saplings! Place your order online and schedule plant pickups starting May […]
Here’s what bloomed in April at our sanctuaries
Believe it or not, flowers have been blooming all month at our sanctuaries in southern Maine. These earliest blooms can be divided into two groups: the earliest blooms, mostly trees or shrubs, geared towards wild-pollination, and the first ephemeral wildflowers, herbaceous species that take advantage of the lack of tree canopy and resultant sun in […]
Planting Staghorn Sumac
Spring snowstorms can be a challenge for everyone. For humans ready to put away shovels and snowblowers, storms can be a real annoyance. For early migrant birds looking to feed on insects, blizzards can be a real threat. In the thick of a snowstorm in late March 2024 I witnessed a large flock of American […]