In the Right Place: The Slow Worsening

Our fire pond, seen here, remains lower than usual. It rained some last night and this morning, but not enough. The hope is that November will be a very wet month. Down East  Maine’s long-time drought has led to weak streamflows, low pond levels, dry woods and some dried up wells. The situation has been worsening slowly.

This week, part of Maine’s North Woods also was declared to be in extreme drought:

I hope I’m not Henny-Pennying you by reminding you to be extra careful with any campfires or even backyard grills or firepits that can generate flying sparks. (Photograph taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 4, 2026)

In the Right Place: A Month’s Difference

This is a very good year here for winterberries, our birds’ winter survival food. The shrubs were lush with leaves early last month, as you see above. Now, many of the leaves are gone and the berries have become more accessible to our feathered friends, as you’ll see below:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 6 and November 4, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Transition Time

Here you see the Fishing Vesel CAPATAIN MORGAN off-loading her lobster traps at the Brooklin Town Dock in Naskeag Harbor yesterday. I’m told that she’s already collected half of her 800 traps from nearby coastal waters.

The traps with their gear stored inside will be trailered to a winter storage area and the vessel likely will transition to “dragging” (dredging) for Atlantic scallops during the winter. As a bonus, here’s a “trap trailer” that was at the Harbor yesterday:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 3, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Aphrodite, I

We return to the fascinating subject of historic sea vessel architecture because the famous wooden yacht APHRODITE has returned to the renowned Brooklin Boat Yard for major renovations. Here you see her as she arrived in the main shop yesterday. Her renovations will take all winter, I’m told.

We’ll have plenty to say about her as we monitor progress on her over the winter, but here are a few basics. She’s well named: Aphrodite, of course, was the ancient Greek goddess of love, beauty and pleasure. APHRODITE was built by the Purdy Boat Company in 1937 for the wealthy Wall Street financier John (“Jock”) Hay Whitney.

Jock wanted something suitable to ferry him back and forth on the Long Island Sound between his home to his Manhattan office, as well as a pleasurable and unique salon for entertainment. Among the reported guests abord were Fred Astaire, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Shirley Temple, Henry Ford II, Nelson Rockefeller, and Sir Laurence Olivier.

APHRODITE is 74 feet long and features a gleaming black hull, varnished Philippine mahogany planking, and a distinctive beavertail (torpedo) stern that is helpful for wake control and cruising in following seas. She now is used for luxury cruises (such as sunset champagne sails) through Ocean House, a luxury resort in Rhode Island.

In prior years, she was equipped with twin 1500-hp Packard airplane engines, which thrusted her to a top speed of 38 knots (40 mph). After extensive deterioration, APHRODITE was completely rebuilt at the Brooklin Boat Yard in 2003-2005, when twin 1000-hp diesel engines that produced the same top speed were installed.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 2, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Not Shoddy

Here you see last night’s sundown afterglow over Great Cove – not great, but not shoddy. November eased in yesterday like another of the many mild and sunny days that we’ve been enjoying since summer. In fact, historically it was unseasonably warm here yesterday, reaching a reported 53.5° (F).

A little on-line research shows that the historical high for the early days of November around here has been in the mid-to-high 40s. (For example, Bangor’s historical November high average is around 46°.) Statistically, early November marks the beginning of a wet and transitional month here, with about a 30% daily chance of precipitation. We need that precipitation to ease our long-lasting drought. Some significant rain would be worthy of thanksgiving.

(Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on November 1, 2026.)

October Postcards From Down East Maine

October of 2026 was a month of exceptional sights and conditions. We had a spectacular perfomance by our fall leaves, dramatic sunsets and moonrises and Halloween brought us goblins —among other interesting sights. Yet, we continue to suffer from long-term severe drought that has dried some wells and increased the chances of wildfires.

COLORAMA

This October probabbly will be remembered here for giving us one of the most colorful seasonal transitions that we’ve had on the coast for a long time.

IN THE BLUEBERRY BARRENS

When the red and orange pigments in blueberry leaves are chilled in October, magic happens.

UNDER THE TREES

Not to be outdone. the reds and golds of this year’s deciduous tree leaves were magnificent.

Early Light on Spruce and Maples

Red Maple Making a Statement Before Getting Bare

Paper Birches Losing Their Gold Reserves

Katsura Tree Leaves Become Flourescent in Fog

Tamaracks (Larches) Soon Will Lose Their Needles

A Bird Bath with a View

While Wild Apple Tree Leaves Were Not Spectacular, Their Fruit Was

LANDMARKS

North Sedgwick Baptist Church

The Near-Mountain Called Blue Hill

Mount Desert Island, as Seen from Amen Ridge, Brooklin

Conary Cove, Blue Hill

Friend Memorial Library in Brooklin Being Expanded Again

The Old Flye Point Barn (Now a B&B), Brooklin

A FEW MORE FALL FLORA

We have to pay a bief homage to the best berries and hips of October, as well as to our favorite porch flowers:

Winterberry

Multiflora Rose and Chokeberry

Asian Bittersweet (Nasty, but Dazzling)

Store-Bought Chrysanthemums

WOODS, STREAMS AND PONDS

The woods were a bit dry, the stream flows were weaker, and the ponds lower. But, their inherent beauty remained.

Mixed Soft/Hard Woods

Spruce Stand (and Deer Yard in Bad Weather)

The Mouth of Blue Hill’s Mill Stream at Low and High Tide

The Mouth of Surry’s Patton Stream at Low Tide

WoodenBoat Lily Pond and a Private Fire Pond

FEATURED FAUNA

White-Tailed Deer Showing Off Her New Winter Fur Coat

Diving Ducks from Canada: Buffleheads and Red-Breasted Mergansers

This Great Blue Heron and His Shadow Likely Will Migrate South in November

Impresswive Beaks: Great Blue Heron and Ring-Billed Gull

Impressive Legs: Lesser Yellow Legs Sandpiper

Impressive Beaks, II: Double-Crested Cormorants

Painted Turtle Headed for a Winter’s Nap at the Bottom His Favorite Pond. (Probably the Last PT sighting of the year.)

ON THE WATERFRONT

AT THE BROOKLIN BOAT YARD

The BBY Pier and Docking Floats in Center Harbor. (The Floats Soon Will Come Out for Winter.)

Work in Progress

Work in Progress, II

Winter Storage in Progress

AT BROOKLIN’S ATLANTIC BOAT YARD

Winter Storage in Progress

AT BROOKLIN’S WOODENBOAT SCHOOL

Removing Mooring Buoys in Great Cove for Winter Storage

Boat Shed Winter Storage in Progress

Boat Shed Winter Storage Completed

AT NASKEAG HARBOR

The fishing vessels in Brooklin’s working harbor were busy harvesting lobsters in October. Some fihermen started to pull traps up for the winter. Others are preparing to transition to Atlantic scallop dragging (dredging) and diving during the winter.

MONTHLY EVENTS

FALL MOWING

Many fallow fields are mowed in the fall to prevent shrub and forest regrowth and allow wildflower meadows to prosper in spring and summer.

HALLOWEEN

We had our share of wierdness and pumpkin mania.

IN THE SKY

Sunset Over Eggemoggn Reach

Sunset Afterglow Over Great Cove

A waxing morning moon earlier in the month, the full October Hunter’s Moon and the waning moon:

October’ Hunter’s Full Moon Rising Over Great Cove

WE’RE HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME — WISH YOU WERE HERE!

(All images in this post were taken in Down East Maine during Octpber 2026.)

In the Right Place: It’s Halloween!

Coincidentally, an increasing number of strange visitors from away have been seen here lately. This guy had just sipped the piping-hot chowder at Marlintini’s:

This woman was doing her daily exercise on Parker Point Road to get slimme:

Trick or Treat? Be Happy. (Images taken in Blue Hill, Maine, on October 28, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Our Beautiful Paradox

We got some rain last night, the first after quite a few wonderfully moon-lit nights and gloriously sunny days. The beauty of this fall in Down East Maine masks its dangers, which are illustrated by this lovely scene of the mouth of Mill Stream on Wednesday afternoon:

The Stream is being swarmed by Blue Hill Bay’s high tide. The saltwater Bay has swallowed the freshwater dam there and reached more than 12 feet in height. At the same time, the Stream’s water flow is historically low.

Our freshwater stream flows have been lowering during a long-term drought, while our seas have been rising as part of a long-term Climate Change. Meanwhile, we’ve had relatively few soil-satisfying rainfalls. While we’re being awed by this fall’s beauty, wells are going dry, wildfire threats are increasing, coastlines are eroding and many people don’t seem to care about their environment. Yet, (Images taken in Blue Hill, Maine, on October 28, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Mazurka, IV

MAZURKA, the 1955 Trumpy yacht that we’ve been following, has been moved from Brooklin Boat Yard’s big shop to the launching area. The finishing crew is working on her varnish and other finer surfaces. I hear that she’ll probably be ready to be driven to her winter home in Virginia by Monday,

The renowned BBY has worked on the 79.5-foot for about a month, sometimes with up to 15 craftsmen going at it at a time. The biggest problem was old, rotting wood on her bottom and in the bow/stem area, apparently.

Yet, she’s not fully restored. She’ll need more restoration internally, perhaps next fall. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 28, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Punky Duckies

Red-breasted mergansers have been arriving from the north to overwinter in our saltwater coves. Here you see three pretty females showing off their punk haircuts in Great Cove on Sunday:

The males usually arrive first, while the females remain behind in Canada raising the young. Those females and young form social groups that migrate and often hunt together in the fall and winter without any mature male companions.

Red-breasted mergansers are among the fastest-flying ducks. One reportedly was clocked by a chase plane at 100 mph. They often hunt in convoys that swim and dive in formations to herd small fish into a mass that is easy to prey upon. Their long, thin bills are lined with saw-like serrations that allow them to get a good grip on wriggling, slippery fish. .

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 25, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Getting a Glow On

Here you see October’s bright full moon at 4:30 a.m. yesterday. Its extraordinary luminescence is making Great Cove shine and the fall landscape glow. This month’s full moon traditionally is called The Hunter’s Moon, one of its Native American names. It occurred after they harvested the crops (making deer more visible) and when meat was starting to be stored for the winter.

Much of the full moon’s luminescence comes from its Tycho region, the moon’s most dominant reflector that reportedly was named after 16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho (“TIE-coh”) Brahe. The Tycho is a crater impact area in the moon’s southern highlands. It features a central peak, terraced walls, and an array of bright streaks from ejected rock and dust that stretch thousands of miles.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 26, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Thin, but Still Great

Here you see a young great blue heron fishing in Patton Bay on Saturday. He may decide to take his chances and not migrate south for the winter, A few GBHs have been overwintering here in recent years as the weather has become warmer and cove waters have not been icing-over completely.

These painfully thin birds are very tough and self-reliant. Great blues are built like spears and have few qualms about fighting a bald eagle on the ground for a dead fish. They can thrust with their pointed bills and do real harm, while the eagle has to stand on his best weapons. In the air, however, the eagle has the advantage.

(Images taken in Surry, Maine, on October 24, 2026; sex assumed.)

In the Right Place: Why Us?

Here you see the weak flow of Blue Hill’s Mill Stream at it’s mouth at Blue Hill Bay yesterday. Below, you’ll see the weak flow of Surry’s Patton Streat at its mouth at Patton Bay that day:

Down East Maine remains in severe, long-lasting drought and wells continue to go dry. The latest U.S. Drought monitor for the week ending October 20 reports that: “Maine was the only state in the [Northeast] region to experience deterioration, with a slight expansion of severe drought (D2) in the north amid persistent moisture shortages.” That Northeast region contains 12 states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania; Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia. Here’s the official map of Maine:

Why Us? One report says that: “Maine is experiencing a more severe, multi-year drought than much of the rest of New England because of an accumulated precipitation deficit of up to 1 to 2 feet dating back to June 2025, combined with a failed winter snowpack runoff and dry soils that block quick absorption.”

In the Right Place: Lest We Forget

Here you see one of our red maples when it was in full leaf Tuesday. Below, you’ll see that – by Thursday – many of those leaves (and one from a nearby sugar maple) had gone the way of most leaves here:

Today, that red maple is mostly bare. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 20 and 22, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Delightful Diving Duck Department

Here’s a welcome sight: buffleheads have been arriving in Great Cove recently. They’re among the last waterfowl to migrate here from Canada and they probably will overwinter in the Cove or nearby.  They’re North America’s smallest diving duck at about 12-to-16 inches in length.

They also are the most interesting duck to watch, in my opinion. They often feed by diving as a group – now you see them, now you don’t. They disappear for about 15 seconds feeding off the bottom and then pop up individually like bobbing corks here and there: plink, plop, plink ….   Then, they re-form their little close-order flotilla until they decide to dive again or fly in formation to another nearby feeding spot. They apparently eat mostly crustaceans and mollusks in the winter.

As you probably know (or guessed) bufflehead ducks are named after the males’ over-sized heads, which are shaped somewhat similarly to the foreparts of American bison:

Female buffleheads are not swellheads like their jaunty mates and usually are sedately dressed in tailored browns and grays with a white beauty mark on their cheeks. The girls often are vastly outnumbered by the guys in bufflehead groups and that seems to be just fine with everybody concerned.

(Primary image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on October 21, 2026; the male portrait is a Leighton Archive image taken in Brooklin.)

In the Right Place: A Bath with a View

A little miracle happens here on some October mornings. The sun rises over the ridge and greets us through a veil of spruce. As it does, it enflames the maple leaves and magically illuminates our birdbath. The birdbath becomes a liquid crystal ball that predicts a wonderful day. It’s a lovely invitation to come out and play.

If you get close and peer down into the birdbath, you’ll see – simultaneously – fallen leaves under the water and fluttering leaves in the trees above – a message about the day that’s open for personal musing:

 (Images taken in Brooklin. Maine, on October 21, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Mazurka, III

MAZURKA seems to be coming along nicely at the renowned Brooklin Boat Yard, as you can see.  The legendary 75.5-foot Trumpy luxury yacht may be finished there by next week.

As you may know from our reports, MAZURKA is at BBY for maintenance and restoration, especially of her bottom and bow/stem areas which were rotting. She was built in 1955 by John Trumpy and Sons during their heydays producing distinctive (and expensive) wooden yachts in Annapolis, Maryland.

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

In the Right Place: Seeing Red

Here you see the fall view from the summit of the Salt Pond Blueberry Barrens. Those Barrens contain rocky fields of lowbush blueberries on a 38-acre tract conserved under the stewardship of the Blue Hill Heritage Trust.

Across the street (State Route 172), privately owned lowbush blueberry fields also are turning scarlet and crimson while their surrounding woods are holding their own color carnival:

As you may know, low bush and high bush blueberry leaves turn to hues of red and purple in the fall due to the high levels of anthocyanin and carotenoid pigments in the leaves. The low bush plants usually are more obvious because they’re often managed near access roads in large fields that are mowed or burnt every two years to stimulate plant growth and fruit yields.

(Images taken in Blue Hill, Maine, on October 15, 2026.)

In the Right Place: A Zoom with a View

Here you see a fall view of the near-mountain called Blue Hill from across Blue Hill Bay. Below, you’ll see an image that zooms in on the Hill’s almost 1000-foot summit:

Neither image shows the walking trails on the Hill that can give hikers spectacular views of the beautiful area.

However, there is that large, unnatural growth on the summit that can be a scene-stealer, albeit a very beneficial one. It’s a multipurpose communications tower that reportedly hosts line-of-sight communications equipment for WERU-FM (a noncommercial local radio station) and various commercial cellular and communications carriers (T-Mobile, etc.).

In addition, that tower and other nearby equipment are used by local fire, emergency, municipal, and two-way radio/broadcast spectrum users. In days of yore, the Town of Blue Hill built and manned a fire lookout tower on the summit, which no longer exists. Given our drought, perhaps modern smoke detecting scanners should be considered for the summit.

(Images taken in Blue Hill, Maine, on October 17, 2026.)

In the Right Place: Go with the Flow

Here you see the mouth of Mill Stream flowing into Blue Hill Bay at low tide. The Stream’s once-robust flows powered several sawmills and provided freshwater to a blacksmith forge and other structures in the Town of Blue Hill. The forge structure now houses that gray restaurant atop the bridge, which has a lower floor at the Stream’s edge.

Mill Stream is no longer a robust source of freshwater and may be on its way to becoming little more than a ravine or ditch. The groundwater along the Maine coast also is lowering significantly and some wells have gone dry. The level of the salt water in the Bay, however, is rising yearly. And, we’re in the clutches of a drought that won’t let go despite a series of rainy days.

Whether or not you’re a Climate Change denier, you have to admit that all objective records show that our climate has been changing and affecting our fresh and salt waters in ways that are potentially harmful. If you are at least curious about the current freshwater situation here, study the latest weekly U.S. Drought Report map of Maine for the week ending last Wednesday:

(Photo taken in Blue Hill, Maine on October 15, 2026.)