In the Right Place: Poignancy in Brooklln

It’s that sad time of the year after the WoodenBoat School’s sailing classes are ended. WBS staff are manning the moorings raft and winching up anchors, chains, ropes and buoys for storage:

Marvelous waterborne creations are being pulled from where they belong, cleaned and scattered around the WoodenBoat campus to dry in the sun – where they become lovely landscape sculptures:

These bringers of joy will be rested until next summer, when they’ll be set free again like spirited horses that are at their finest responding to an understanding touch.

 (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September15 and 22, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Toxic Treats (for the Eyes Only)

We’re entering the best time to go hunting for wild mushrooms in Down East Maine. They can be beautiful and fascinating. Some are delicious, others are sickeningly toxic, a few are potentially fatal if ingested. Those that are harmful to eat were historically called “toadstools” and associated with toxic toads and witchcraft.

Thus, IF YOU’RE NOT A WITCH AND YOU’RE NOT ABSOLUTELY SURE THAT A MUSHROOM IS SAFELY EDIBLE, LIMIT YOUR ENJOYMENT OF IT TO CELEBRATING YOUR LUCK AT FINDING SOMETHING SO INTERESTING – AND DON’T LET YOUR DOG SNACK ON IT, EITHER!

Below, you’ll see a yellow version of a mushroom that I think is a fly agaric (Aminita muscaria), a toxic mushroom featuring a bright yellow or red cap with white wart-like spots. The name “agaric” refers to a capped mushroom; “fly agaric” is a recognition of the practice by older European cultures of putting pieces of the mushroom in milk or water to stun or kill flies. Don’t eat an insecticide.

I’m reasonably sure that the mushroom below is one of the Russula (“red”) fungi. My guess after some research is that it is a Russula emetica (aka “the sickener”). Human consumption of it is reported to result in rapid gastrointestinal irritation, nausea, and vomiting. Don’t eat anything called “a sickener,” unless you’re a slug like the pne eating this Russala.

Both of these mushrooms are a joy to see while walking through the woods. Leave then there for others to enjoy.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 20, 2026.)

In the Right Place: The Buck Schleps Here

Above, you see one of the young white-tailed deer bucks in “our herd,” which refuses to recognize the validity of our title to their territory. One of the herd does is shown below:

As you see, these animals appear to be in magnificent shape. Soon our meadows will be mowed, and we’ll get to see more of them.

The two bucks that I’ve seen this past week already have shed and/or rubbed off the protective “velvet” covering for this year’s antler models. Bucks, does and this year’s fawns are transitioning nicely into their grayer and thicker winter coats. They’re also browsing more heavily than they did in August. Now is the time to gain weight and build up reserves for the winter.

Nonetheless, since about 2009, the winters have been getting milder and mostly without blizzards or other severe snowstorms. This is part of a warming trend that has been projected to continue and accelerate. The deer love the trend; skiers and snowmobilers, not so much.

Maine government trackers report that average temperatures in the state have risen by more than 3°F since 1895, and winters are now warming faster than any other season here. This has made our winter weather about two weeks shorter than it was in the early 1900s. According to the Maine State Climatologist, temperatures here are projected to warm an additional 2 to 4°F by 2050, and potentially up to 10°F by 2100.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 19 and 9, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Windjammers, XIV

The day after the annual WoodenBoat Sail-In, the schooner HERITAGE hung round as the lone schooner in Great Cove, much to everyone’s liking. Here you see her sitting there like a monument to Maine sailing – a grand heritage embodied in the HERITAGE:

Below, you’ll see her leaning into the wind as she takes off and heads south toward Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. She was on a 6-night coastal adventure that included the WB Sail-In with about 10 other schooners, according to her schedule. She homeports in Rockland, Maine.

The HERITAGE is big-boned and the longest vessel in Maine’s windjammer fleet at a reported 145 feet of overall length (92’ on deck). She’s longer overall, but not really larger than, the venerable VICTORY CHIMES  (bless her tortured soul). The three-masted CHIMES was estimated at 132 feet in overall length, BUT was a documented 127.5’ on deck.

The CHIMES was a "bald-headed" (no topsails or topmasts) Chesapeake ram schooner built in 1900 for cargo carrying with a relatively short bowsprit. The HERITAGE, as you see, was well endowed up front when she was built for tourist cruising in 1983.)

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 16, 2026.)

In the Right Place: This Is Serious, Folks

Maine has become an example of the dangers of global warming. Here you can see from the water mark on the boulder that our pond water levels are down by more than a foot. Maine is suffering more from long-lasting drought than any other state on the east coast, according to yesterday’s weekly U.S. Drought Monitor.

In Brooklin and other Maine mid-coast areas, that drought is “extreme,” the government’s second-most dangerous category:

In addition to lowered ponds and lakes, streamflows and well levels are low. If this keeps up, wells will dry up and many Mainers will have no residential source of drinking water. Hovering above all of this is the increasing dangers of wildfires, rising sea levels and increasingly harmful storms.

We had rain yesterday afternoon and last night, but it wasn’t nearly enough and much of it couldn’t sink into the hardened ground. I’m beginning to realize why a perfected artificial intelligence might decide to take over the world and rid it of incompetent, greedy and vicious humans who continue to make bad things worse.

(Photograph taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 15, 2026.)

In the Right Place: That’s Entertainment! (For Some)

The leaf opening acts before Fall’s big performance can be charming for those who enjoy outdoor venues. Here you see a quick-change act by what I think is wintergreen, Maine’s state herb:

Below, you’ll see a peony trio doing close harmony in September’s spotlight:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 12 and 15, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Windjammer Sail-In (and Show Off)

The Annual WoodenBoat Windjammer Sail-In occurred yesterday afternoon. Due to other commmitments, I got to Great Cove late for the full parade. Some ‘jammers already were achoring and/or rafting up for the night:

MARY DAY calling it a day

MARY DAY and others rafting up

Thankfully, the captains of several beauties apparently felt that the show must go on a little longer. The finale was spectacular:

LADONA sailing; MARY DAY anchored

STEPHEN TABER going west; LADONA going south

GRACE BAILEY going north; LADONA and WoodenBoat staff and students going south

MARY DAY watches GRACE BAILEY strut her stuf

GRACE BAILEY up close and personal

LEWIS R. FRENCH with foresail down

J&E RIGGIN calling it a day

STEPHEN TABER passes behind MARY DAY

STEPHEN TABER gets a good breeze

STEPHEN TABER one of the last to stop parading

WoodenBoat staff and students always get the best seats:

As night fell, the moon rose and the rafted widjammers celebrated a very good day:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 15, 2026.)

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In the Right Place: Lucky Us

A rainbow ended in Naskeag Harbor last week, imaginatively speaking.

Of course, the place is a port of gold, metaphorically speaking.

And notice, lyrically speaking –  

     Somewhere over that rainbow,

     Way up high,

     There’s a house that you heard of,

     Once in a tourist guide.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 11 and 14, 2026. Apologies to songwriters Harold Arlan and Yip Harburg.)

In the Right Place: Horsepower Heights

Here you see the near mountain called Blue Hill looming behind the horse stable reportedly used by Bagaduce River Equine Rescue. Below, you’ll see the western mountains of Mount Desert Island looming behind Brooklin’s Amen Ridge as the field receives its fall mowing by horsepower of a different kind:  

Note that the leaves have not started turning colors yet, but some have that “almost-there” look. (Images taken in Blue Hill and Brooklin, Maine, on September 11, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Having a Hoppy Day

Our grasshoppers are now on their last legs:  The females are laying pods of eggs and soon will die with the males. The eggs will hatch in the spring, when our joint will start jumping again. Maine reportedly is home to about 35 species of short-horned grasshoppers. What probably are the two most common are shown here.

First, you see above the red-legged grasshopper. It’s a brownish green short-horn with reddish legs and red shin bone (lower leg) segments. It mostly basks and hops in fields, pastures, and gardens.

Below, you’ll ee the Carolina grasshopper (aka Carolina locust and “road duster”).  It blends in with the surfaces of dirt roads and usually goes unnoticed until it flies up, opens its yellow-bordered black wings and flutters erratically like a drunken butterfly that has to keep making emergency landings.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 1 and 8, 2026.)

In the Right Place: As American as an Apple -- Not

As you can see, our “wild” and “feral” apples are extraordinarily abundant, despite our persistent drought. Long-established trees seem capable of making the best of dry spells. Their unharvested fruit is ripe and starting to drop with rustling tumbles and plumping thuds.

These are not domestically cultivated apples that you’ll find in the supermarket. They’re mostly of two types. Many are cider apples planted by Mainers many years ago and abandoned to the encroaching weeds and woods. Others arose from seeds “planted” and fertilized by birds, bears and other wildlife.  In 2018, based on a survey, the U.S. Forestry Service estimated that there were more than 11 million of these wild and feral apple trees in Maine. There may be more now, red, green and mixed.

Henry David Thoreau, an ardent wild apple eater, considered them “the noblest of fruits.” Yet, all apples had immigrant ancestors here. Very early explorers and settlers brought domestic apple seeds here from Europe – primarily the Spanish into our west and southwest and the more northerly Europeans into our east and northeast areas. The delighted North American wildlife were glad to spread the joy.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 8 and 11, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Fishy and Worrisome

The ongoing, turbulent debate about the destiny of menhaden (pogies) will affect wildlife, fishermen and consumers along the east coast. Public hearings on the subject will be held later this month and the issues are discussed in my column in the current edition of the award-winning Ellsworth American newspaper. This image of Maine menhaden fishermen appears with the column:

To read the column, use this link: https://www.5backroad.com/montly-column

In the Right Place: Theme Day Department

Yesterday must have been “Two-Mast Wednesday” in Great Cove. Here you see two WoodenBoat School boats out in the overcast day. The one with white sails is OSPREY, a custom-built Calendar Islands ketch designed by Clint Chase. The double ender with tanbark(ish) red sails is an unnamed Mackinaw Boat designed by Nelson Zimmer.

Below, you’ll see a two-masted boat (skiff?) that was out in the ambiguous weather also. I’m not sure how to characterize its type, maybe a cat-boat-rigged ketch with unstayed sails. It’s apparently privately owned and unnamed, with an outboard motor just in case. There is a hint of origin: it’s foresail bears the logo of Brooks Boats Designs, according to an AI search.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 9. 2026.)

In the Right Place: Behold but Beware

Here you see a mushroom that could shelter at least a 5-leprechaums. It’s not only unusual in size for its type, but interesting and scary in other respects. It’s over 6 inches in diameter. (I always carry a 1-inch diameter quarter [25¢] for measurement.)

It’s also in the bolete family of mushrooms, all of which have miniscule pores (hair-width tubes) on the undersides of their caps to discharge spores. Many other mushrooms have bladed gills through which they propagate.

This brute was the largest of a colony of about 10 of the same type growing in moss in a stand of conifers. I picked one of the smaller ones and found that the pore surface under the cap was red and that, when scratched, it exuded a blue stain:

Based on that standard field test, the fungi’s overall appearance, and an artificial intelligence scan, I’m reasonably sure that these mushrooms were red-mouth (or red-pored) boletes (Neoboletus subvelutipes [formerly Boletus subvelutipes]). That’s probably so, even though red-mouths almost never exceed 5 inches in cap diameter, according to the literature.

Red-mouths are “mycorrhizal,” meaning they live in a mutually beneficial nourishing relationship with the roots of nearby trees. However, they also reportedly are toxic to humans and dogs. Behold but beware. (Images taken in Brooklin. Maine, on September 6, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Oldy Goldy

Here you see Canada goldenrod in Maine without a tariff or green card. Don’t tell ICE. Last month, this plant enjoyed a full flowerhead of gold:

September has turned its aging flowerhead gray, but it still has its long, straight rod (stem) after which its various kinds are named. While they last, the plant’s wooly gray (sometimes white) spent seed clusters will provide food for insects and birds. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 5 and August 17, 2026.)

In the Right Place: The Last PT Show?

It’s Labor Day, the political (albeit not astrological) last day of summer. Mornings are getting progressively chillier and foggier and waters are getting colder. Around here, the fresh waters also are diminishing due to drought. All that can be uncomfortable if you live in a pond like these September baskers:

The temperatures of painted turtle home waters here are almost certain to drop below 50°(F) in September or early October. That will flip the PT sayonara switches and tell them that it’s time to say “Goodbye cruel world.” They’ll take that last deep dive of the year to enter their winter dormancy until the waters warm in April or March.

PTs swim to the bottoms of their ponds, lakes and slow streams and burrow into the muck there. They don’t “hibernate” in a very deep sleep. They undergo “brumation,” a slowed state of being. They “breathe” oxygen by absorbing it from the water’s molecules. They won’t worry about the mid-term elections above, at least that’s what I’ve been told.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 5, 2026.) .

In the Right Place: What Have We Done?

Here you see the mouth of Patten Stream at mid-tide. Those who know this beautiful corner of the coast at all tide levels will notice something different – the stream flow is so low that you can’t see any waterfall or even narrow cascades of fresh water.

Although we’ve had some rain, the stream is struggling in our long-lasting severe drought. The situation is not quite as catastrophic as during our most devastating 1999-2003 drought. However, it may get to that level and already is alarming. Water tables (including some wells) are at or near all-time lows in some areas and Maine’s Drought Task Force reports that rivers, lakes, and coastal aquifers are severely depleted.

Paradoxically, our warming seas are rising and there is an increasing possibility of an aberrant storm that could overwhelm parts of our coast, especially in winter.

Nonetheless, the clear, reflective salt waters of Patten Bay are a briefly calming influence for those of us who are on the verge of desperation about our environment:

(Images taken in Surry, Maine, on September 5, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Cagey Stuff

In summer, the wild carrot known as Queen Anne’s lace is topped by a beautiful, flat flowerhead:

As fall approaches, Queen Anne’s lace turns into Queen Anne’s “mace,” as in the medieval combat club weapon. The flat white flower head puckers inward while drying out, as you ee here:

The inward curling continues until a cage-like sphere or “bird’s nest” forms to hold the developing seeds:

QAL seed propagation is next. The little seeds tucked inside the nest have tiny, hooked hairs that catch on the fur of passing mammals to be dispersed as the animals roam. The drying nest also is top-heavy and falls to the ground, where it tumbles in the wind to disperse seeds.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 27 and September 4, 2026.)

In the Right Place: WARNING!

Here you see an American crow perched at the top of a bare spruce as a sentinel (lookout). He’s loudly warning his family members that are feeding in the field below that I’m approaching: “ah-ah-ah! / caw-caw! / ah-ah-ah!”

These intelligent birds have a complicated vocabulary of at least 20 calls that can be intermixed with varying emphases to convey many different meanings. In captivity they reportedly have been known to correctly mimic more thatn100 sounds.

Crows often post sentinels while the rest of their group (often called a “murder” of crows) conducts a joint activity or is resting together. This is especially so in the winter when several families rest and feed together for safety; the greater the number of eyes and ears when they’re in leafless trees, the safer it is. Crows often post more than one sentinel when the rest of their murder is spread out.

Not only crows benefit from their early warning system. Other birds and mammals go on alert when they hear a crow sentinel’s warning squawks, especially squirrels and other small mammals. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 2, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Very Hip

Some of our beach rose bushes (Rosa rugosa) have withstood the severe drought we’ve been suffering from most of the summer, as well as the early influences of September’s cooler weather. They’re still producing delicate, spring-like flowers, such as this, while forming the robust, tomato-like rose hips that we expect in fall.

Those hips are known for containing extraordinarily high concentrations of vitamin C. Many people cook them into vitamin-rich teas, jams and syrups. (The hips first must be scraped out to rid them of the inner seeds that contain tiny hairs that can be irritating.) Overwintering birds eat them for survival; itchy hairs be damned.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 1, 2026.)