Buffleheads are back on MDI! A small flock was seen this week in Bar Harbor near Bar Island. These birds are right on schedule after nesting and raising their young far to the north. Most of the wintering buffleheads left here at the end of April or first part of May. These just seen in …
A big black bug flew into a friend’s back one evening recently and really startled him! The bug looked menacing and he had no idea what it was. After it arrived at my house in a sealed jar, I identified it as a toe-biter or giant water bug. This is a wide, flat bodied insect …
Fall is creeping in slowly and dramatically with its brilliant colors and late blooming flowers. Take time to enjoy it and get out on the trails or drive along the roads to find something interesting. Some friends out on a hike recently found an odd looking plant which they later discovered to be beech drops. …
During the fall migration many hawk watchers gather on Beech Mountain. Because MDI is on a flight-line that thousands of birds use to fly south each year, it is well worth visiting the high spots on this island where you can watch the “show.” The National Park has rangers posted at some of these to …
There is nothing more fun loving than a family of otters. A column reader got to see and hear four of them swimming along by a local harbor near shore. She sent me a nice photo of them. Otters love the water and are often seen swimming about or even sitting on a dock drying …
A yellow-crowned night heron is being seen regularly these days in Norwood Cove in Southwest Harbor. This is considered a rare visitor here on MDI and then only in late summer when it does come to visit. Night herons always have sort of a ‘hunched over’ appearance as they fish patiently near quiet waters. There …
Earlier in the summer season midges, gnats, no-seeums, and mosquitoes and black flies all too familiar when you are outside. Conditions in August are usually better. Midges are like mosquitoes without the beak and they do not bite. Sometimes at the edge of a pond you see them swarming in large numbers as they look …
My e-mail frequently has photos of plants and wildlife attached for identification. Some I recognize right away and others often send me on a search and I often seek help from ‘my expert’ friends. Just recently I received a photo of a flower taken in the Long Pond area. It turned out to be an …
Summer is doing is best to make this island beautiful and very interesting. I had a message from a column reader telling me she had seen 17 egrets together at the Tarn. That must have been a special sight in Maine. You expect large numbers of them in the south but not usually here in …
Hamilton Pond at the corner of Norway Drive and Rte. 3 is the place to visit this week. There is a spectacular display of a special carnivorous plant in bloom. Purple Bladderwort blossoms are bright pink and I have never seen the pond so beautiful. You can get nice overall views of this blooming right …
