For our year-end message, the staff of Maine Audubon is pleased to bring you a reading of the poem, Metamorphosis/We Change, (inspired by "Flight from the City" by Jóhann Jóhannson), written by Samaa Abdurraqib. Samaa Abdurraqib (she/her) lives in Brunswick, ancestral land of the Abenaki people. …
News
Winter Bird Atlas Returns: Count birds this winter
It is almost time for the start of the Winter Season of the Maine Bird Atlas, a project by the Maine Dept of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to document the breeding and wintering distributions of Maine's birds. This five year project has just one breeding season (in 2022) left, and we are about to …
Give the Gift of Growing Native Plants from Seeds This Winter!
As we report and gear up for late fall and early winter, we often remind folks that fall is the best time to start your own native plants from seed. Maine native plants are beneficial and beautiful, and growing your own from seeds is economical, simple, fun, and rewarding. Maine Audubon is …
The Climate Action Plan: A Full Year of Progress!
It’s been a full year since Governor Mills released the Climate Action Plan (CAP), a blueprint for meeting Maine’s ambitious climate goals authored by the Maine Climate Council. One year isn’t a very long time, especially when much of the public focus has remained on dealing with the lingering …
Backyard Bird of the Month for December: Eastern Bluebird
An increasingly common sight during Maine’s winter is the bright sky blue flash of an Eastern Bluebird lingering in our backyards. The trend has been well documented thanks to long running surveys like the Christmas Bird Count (CBC), showing that just a couple of decades ago bluebirds were scarce …
2021 Annual Loon Count Shows Importance of Long Term Studies
Adults up, chicks down, but what does it all mean? As Maine Audubon releases the data from its 2021 Annual Loon Count, it underscores the importance of long-term studies and highlights the need to look beyond the one-day count to understand the data. The annual loon count takes place on the …
Bird/Glass Collision Project Wraps Fall 2021 Season with Record Numbers
Every morning between September 7 and October 31, 2021, more than 20 volunteers woke up early to hit the streets of Portland to search for birds that collided with glass windows. This monitoring program began just a year ago, during the fall of 2020, and so we were able to compare seasonal data for …
Sign Unveiling Celebrates Collaborative Project with King Middle School Students
Braving freezing temperatures, students and teachers from King Middle School joined leaders from Portland Parks, Maine Audubon, US Fish and Wildlife, and others to unveil a new interpretive sign about an ongoing project in Deering Oaks park early in the morning on Wednesday, November 17. A short …
Rare Birds of November 2021
Many birders affectionately refer to November as "rarity season" since it tends to be the month that brings the most rare birds to Maine and the northeast. November 2021 has been no exception, with the highlights (so far) being a Barnacle Goose in Rockland and an Ash-throated Flycatcher (above) in …