When I started the giveaway and decided to draw a winner at the end of the month, I forgot that I was going to be away during that time because of the upcoming holiday. I will announce the winner upon my return which will be around the 6th of July. We have family here and we will be spending lots of time at our camp at Nicatous Lake. Weather doesn’t look too promising but I’m sure a good time will be had by all anyway. Enjoy the holiday weekend and stay safe.
Tags: giveaway, holiday, Independence Day
It has been a rainy and cool spring here in Maine. We have had over 5″ of rain in our area from Friday through Monday with temperatures around 60° and the winds were blowing a gale. This is a strange weather system. Most of our weather patterns come from the north, the west or even from the south, but this one is coming at us from the east. The low is stuck right over the ocean and as you look at the weather map, the rains are moving from east to west. Today is Tuesday and guess what?! It’s still raining. Isn’t this supposed to be the second day of summer???
Needless to say, last weekend was not quite so much fun at camp. A trip to the outhouse or the woodpile meant coming back into the cabin looking like a drowned rat. While sitting in my favorite chair looking out at the waves in the lake and the rain spatters on the sliding doors, I mused about a photo that my brother had sent me last week from Texas.
My brother lives in North Dakota and is a long-distance truck driver. He has driven pretty much all over the lower 48 (although he has never been to our part of Maine). He is fortunate to have his wife as a traveling companion during his many “road trips”. Last week he sent me the photo to the right of his wife that was taken at a roadside rest in Texas. I simply can’t imagine stopping at a roadside rest where there was a sign that read “Watch Out For Rattlesnakes”!! What a scary thought—that a snake could visit you during a bathroom break!
Yikes!! As the photo floated through my mind, the wind, the rain and the cool weather suddenly didn’t really seem so bad. The weather may be frightful but we never have to worry about crossing the path of a rattlesnake on the way to or inside of the outhouse. 
I snuggled down in my chair next to a cheery fire in the woodstove and read a good book. Rain…no big deal! Rattlesnakes — indeed!
Tags: rainy weekend, rattlesnake, weather, wind
It’s been almost a year now since I started this blog. It’s been fun to share Maine (well, mostly Maine), my thoughts and travels with other folks. I thought that the perfect way to celebrate this anniversay is to give something away so taa…daa!!
One lucky reader will win the “Moose Watcher’s Handbook” by Bill Silliker on June 30th.
This book has lots of large color photographs of moose. It gives the top moose watching locations in North America, and tips on how to photograph moose. The author, Bill Silliker, was a renowned photographer who traveled far and wide to photograph wildlife. His specialty was moose, which he photographed from Maine to Alaska. His photography is featured in many publications and he wrote many articles and books. I remember him, fondly, from the times that he spent with us at Kidney Pond Camps at Baxter State Park where my husband and I worked as rangers.
It’s easy to win. All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment on this post with your email address OR blog address (so I can contact you if you win). If you link back to this post from your blog, please let me know. If the lucky winner has linked back, you will win an additional surprise prize.
That’s all there is to it. The winner will be announced on June 30th. Good luck to all.
Click on any photo to enlarge.
Yesterday we woke up to SUN!! Most of this week has been pretty wet and cloudy so the sun was very welcome. Thunder showers were predicted for the afternoon but hubby and I decided to take a drive to Greenville, Maine for lunch or an early dinner, depending on the time that we finally arrived. We left home at about 9:30 AM on a leisurely drive through the countryside. While driving through Abbot Village, we decided to take the long way to Greenville—the REALLY long way—and go west for a while toward Bingham. The map shows the route of our sojourn.
Our first stop was a rest area at Wyman Lake. The skies were starting to cloud up quite a bit and the wind was really blowing but we were still seeing some sun. Wyman Lake is 13 miles long and fed by the Kennebec River as well as hydroelectric development.
We traveled just a few more miles when the rain started and the temperature started to drop. It dropped from 65° to 48° in a matter of minutes. The weatherman did say rain but wasn’t that supposed to be LATE afternoon. It was only 12:15 PM! This road is known for its beautiful views but here is what we saw from a scenic overlook that touted great views.
Traveling on in a pouring rain, we soon reached Jackman, another sleepy little town—ok, Maine has LOTS of sleepy little towns—it’s one of the reasons that we live here. :-) We drove through Jackman just to see if there was much change since the last time we had been here (there wasn’t) and then retraced our route for about a mile so that we could take RT 15 toward Rockwood. Driving on RT 15 is supposed to be another beautiful drive with beautiful vista’s but with the rain and haze, we were not able to see them. When we traveled about half way to Rockwood, the sky cleared and the sun came out. The temperature started to rise too. Ah weather in Maine!
We entered Rockwood and drove along with beautiful views of Mt. Kineo and the Moose River. We made our way to the landing which has really changed since we were there in earlier years. I’ve shown a photo of a Kineo shuttle boat leaving as we arrived. We passed this pretty little maroon log church that is on the way back up to RT 15 from the boat launching area and I decided that it was definitely something that I wanted to photograph so we turned around and went back. We parked next to a beautiful apple tree that was in full bloom and as I was getting out of the truck to take photo’s of the church, I realized that the tree was filled with not only blossoms, but also cedar waxwings!! Looking closer, we also saw small hummingbirds darting around the succulent blossoms. I was SO glad that we returned to take a photo of the church because we would have missed the waxwings in the apple tree.
Meanwhile, our thoughts turned back to food and we headed for Kelly’s Landing at Greenville Junction. We didn’t know it yet but there would be one more stop before we finally made it to Kelly’s. We were driving on RT 15 and spied a “flying moose”. Nope, you don’t have to go back and read that again—we really found a flying moose. Photo’s and story are below. How can anyone resist a flying moose—even with a growling stomach. 
We finally made it to Greenville Junction and Kelly’s Landingwhere we had a delicious meal of baked stuffed haddock. Kelly’s is located on the shore of Moosehead Lake and you can eat inside or out. We choose to eat inside even though the sun was still shining for the moment.
We left Kelly’s and drove through downtown Greenville and then headed home. Now the clouds were coming back in. A trip to Greenville isn’t complete until we visit the Indian Hill Trading Post so we stopped even thought the sky was looking ominous. While inside one of the sales clerks spoke of a severe storm warning for the area so we decided not to spend too much time in the store. It was time to head home!
Looking for moose is a pass-time that I never tire of. We saw two that we didn’t get a photo of earlier in the day but we did find two more as we headed out of Greenville toward Shirley. Quite honestly, it is more common NOT to see a moose in this spot. The spot is right next to the place that they keep the sand and salt for the roads in the winter.
Unfortunately, for this photo op, the rain was pouring out of the sky and it was lightening and thundering. These photo’s were taken from inside the truck and they are not all that good because of the rain drops falling.
We drove the last forty-five miles home in a driving thunder shower. The trip to Greenville that we originally started to take would have been approximately a 100 mile round trip. The trip that we actually did was closer to 200 miles. It was a great day though. We drove in area’s that we used to tent camp in when we were younger and saw towns that we hadn’t seen in years. We got home just as the rain stopped again. Temperatures during the day had ranged anywhere from 48° to 74°. Ah, Maine—if you don’t like the weather just wait a minute.
I hope that you have enjoyed this trip through some of the inland places in the state. Many times folks forget that there is more to Maine than the ocean and the coastline.
As we settled in for the evening, the rain showers continued off and on. At dusk the sun appeared again and we were lucky enough to witness a pretty rainbow. It just doesn’t get much better than this!!
Tags: Maine, Moose, rainbow, scenic views, Sunday drive
On a recent trip to camp, we found the bones of a moose about fifty yards off the road. We will never know how it came to die but due to the proximity to the road, we can probably assume that it was hit by a vehicle. Logging trucks travel this road frequently and at a pretty good speed.
Moose are the largest members of the deer family and have very few predators. Their main predators are bears, wolves, and humans. This one seems to have been a fairly large moose (hard for you to tell by the photo) so it is improbable that it was taken by a black bear (the only kind of bear here in Maine). Black bears will usually hunt smaller moose. We do not have wolves in Maine but they usually hunt the sick or weak animals. FYI, the wolf attacks in packs and bites the rear legs and neck of the moose. Attacking in this method is called ham-stringing. The moose can’t walk if the wolves can injure the legs of their victim. We do have coyotes here in Maine and they travel in packs like the wolf so it seems probable that they could use the same method as a wolf to take down a weakened moose, but I don’t know this for a fact. Moose aren’t defenseless when attacked by a predator as they can kick with their front and rear legs with deadly force. In the case of this moose, we can probably assume that it was killed with human intervention.
The remainder of the bones were scattered hither and yon all over the immediate area. Once an animal has died, scavengers are the next in line to feast upon a carcass. Scavenging is a carnivorous feeding behavior that happens with the remains of a dead animal. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by contributing to the decomposition of dead animal remains. Scavengers that come to mind in our area, are of course, the bear and coyote. Other area scavengers are raccoons, red fox, crows, turkey vultures, rodents, and birds of prey.
Nature is not always pretty but in the world of wildlife, it is survivor of the fittest.
On a related note, this is the nest of the Canadian geese that I posted about on May 18th. Sometime during the week after the goose laid the eggs, a scavenger found them. What we don’t know is if the goose abandoned the eggs first or if a scavenger scared her off the nest long enough to have a meal of goose eggs. Scavengers of eggs that are laid by loons or geese are raccoons (not probable in this case because this was on a small island), sea gulls or terns, weasels, or mink. Sad, but I repeat, nature is not always pretty.
Tags: birds of prey, goose eggs, moose bones, scavengers
We just returned from a great weekend at camp. The weather wasn’t wonderful but it wasn’t awful either. At this time of the year, activity is just beginning around the lake. The more hardy of us—or is it foolhardy?— head out just as soon as the ice is out and the roads open and others make Memorial Day weekend their summer starting point. Still others will show up around July 4th. It’s always enjoyable to visit with friends and neighbors that we don’t get to see in the winter.
While we are at camp, we love to poke around to see what wildlife we can find. I put up my hummingbird feeders and within an hour, I had one visit the nest. This weekend, we found loons, common mergansers and some Canadian geese in the lake. So far, the loons don’t seem to be nesting but we always enjoy hearing their haunting calls. We have seen many mergansers on the lake but I don’t remember the male being so colorful. A little later in the season, it is fun to watch the mama merganser with about ten to fifteen little ducklings in her wake. We will save some photo’s of them for another post.
The Canadian geese were the most entertaining this weekend and I would like to share them with you. While checking to see if the loon was nesting on a favored nesting island, we discovered this little family. The momma and pappa were carefully watching over the six young fluffy gosling’s. As we were edging closer to the shore they all moved to the other side very quickly so the photo is from the back end. Sorry about that but sometimes wildlife just doesn’t want to cooperate.
We continued down the lake to one of our favorite fishing spots but just as we arrived, two geese flew in front of us and settled not too far away. They were doing a lot of squawking and not moving too far away. We continued fishing—not too far from the shore, when I spotted what looked like a pile of fine feathers. Upon closer observation, it had some sticks piled under the downy feathers and one egg. The nest didn’t have much definitation and we wondered if the babies had already been born and one of them didn’t hatch or if the eggs had been stolen by a predator. 
We continued to fish (with no luck, I might add) and two other adult geese showed up. They were a noisy bunch and we soon drifted away from the area.
The next evening we decided to fish the same area. This time as we drifted by the goose flew off the nest (still had not lost the flight feathers, evidently). We weren’t able to see her on the nest when we came around the corner but she sure saw us. We quickly drifted by and much to our surprise, the nest was filled with eggs. Now instead of one their were six big eggs. I took a photo as we drifted by to show the difference from the day before. Photo is a bit fuzzy but we didn’t want to stop to take the picture. Our little goose must have been very busy from the time we first saw the nest until the next evening. Note how the nest is so much more defined.
Seem the nest building process goes on while the eggs are being laid.
Canadian geese are monogamous and find a mate in their second year of life. They spend the rest of their lives together. If one dies, the remaining one may find another mate. The female lays three to eight eggs and while both geese protect the nest during incubation, the female spends the most time on the nest. Adults lose their flight feathers and can’t fly during the incubation period which is 25-28 days. The offspring fledge sometime between six to nine weeks. They stay with the parents until the spring migration and then they return to their birthplace. We will try to get an occasional photo of these two from afar and hopefully will be able to get a photo of the newly hatched chicks. Stay tuned…
UPDATE – May 24:
Checked this nest this weekend and unfortunately, the eggs were all broken. Looks like a predator got them. This is what the nest looked like when we saw it last. I posted a bit about what may have eaten the eggs on another post. Click HERE to read it.
Sad but that’s nature. Hopefully, she will do better next year.
It’s spring in Maine and it is the time of year when folks thoughts turn to—fiddleheads!! What is a fiddlehead, you ask. As a native Pennsylvanian, it was a question that I asked when I first moved here. It’s hard to believe but that was over thirty years ago.
A fiddlehead, I was told, is a fern before it unfurls. EWWWWWWW! I thought. Why would folks eat those? Well, I have been here all these years and I still ponder that same question. I have tried them but I just can’t get over the fact that this is a fern and to me, it just doesn’t seem like something you should eat!! You grow ferns in your flower garden or as a house plant but eat them??!!
I will try to explain a bit about this Maine delicacy even though I am not a fan. The fiddlehead is nothing more than the young coiled leaves of the ostrich fern. Most ferns have fiddleheads but I am told that the ostrich fern is the most delectable. They can be found emerging in clusters of about three to twelve fiddleheads each on the banks of rivers, streams, and brooks. They can be identified by the brown papery scale-like covering on the uncoiled fern, as well as the smooth fern stem, and the deep ”U”-shaped groove on the inside of the fern stem. I got this info from the University of Maine, Bulletin 4198. Since I am not a fan of fiddleheads, I never have picked any. The hubby loves them so I buy them from the locals who know what they are doing (we hope).
Preparing them is pretty simple. Brush off that brown papery stuff (best to do this outside so you don’t have it all over the kitchen) and then thoroughly wash them with cold water, changing the water until it appears clean. Then all you have to do is add them to a small amount of boiling water and cook them for about ten minutes. If you prefer them steamed, they should be steamed for about twenty minutes. Serve them immediately with some butter and/or vinegar. The flavor is supposed to be more delicate if they are eaten soon after they are picked. The flavor resembles asparagus, another vegetable that I am not terribly fond of.
The season is short for these so they can be frozen for later consumption. Clean them and then blanch a small amount at a time in four to six cups of boiling water. Cool them in cold water or an ice water bath, then pack them into moisture and vapor-proof containers and freeze. Thaw and boil for 10 minutes before serving.
Well, there you have it folks. My almost unbiased review of the fiddlehead. If you love these or have a different way to cook them, be sure to let me know. Who knows—maybe I will even end up liking them some day.
Tags: fiddlehead, ostrich fern, vegetable
This is a follow-up to the April 12th post about the nesting eagles. Two eaglets were hatched last week. Click HERE to go directly to the eagle cam but please be aware that they are having problems with both the live cam and the still cam that is supposed to update every fifteen seconds. They have been trying to fix the problems, so far with little success. Still, it is worth taking the time to check it out. You may be lucky and find it working when you arrive.
There are other live feeds on this site that may interest you. The home page can be found HERE. The other birds include a nesting peregrine falcon, osprey and loon. Be sure to chek out this site for LOTS of information on the birds too. you can learn a lot about these birds by being able to see them in their natural habitat.
Tags: BioDiversity Research Institute, eagle, nesting, webcam
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