In the Right Place: An Eyeful

It’s snowing as we speak, but not everyone is inside. Majestic Bald Eagles still fly; crazy photographers still pursue them. The eagles have the advantage.

They have inner, third eyelids that slide horizontally every few seconds like windshield wipers to clear the eye of snow and sleet (their nictitating membranes). They also have a bony ring around their eyes that gives them the large, overhanging eyebrows that produce the “eagle stare” (their sclerotic ring). This image was taken during a former snow storm, but we’ll soon be going out to try to find another eagle. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Epics

Here we see (and wish we could hear again) the Bagaduce Chorale being led by Director Bronwyn Kortge in its annual winter concert in Blue Hill on Saturday.

The Chorale’s next (and last) performance will be Sunday, December 17, in Ellsworth. It’s a must-see for anyone who loves Christmas choral music. This year, the Chorale is accompanied by an orchestra in performing, among other works, two “Epic Glorias”: one by Francis Poulenc and the other by Karl Jenkins.

Director Kortge leads the ensemble with her usual energetic grace:

Soprano Katelyn Parker Bray gives an extraordinary performance in each Gloria:

(Brooklin, Maine)

Director Bronwyn Kortge Soprano Katelyn Parker Bray

In the Right Place: The First

Our first transformative snow storm of the season began yesterday afternoon and continued through the night. It was fairly tame; we went to Blue Hill for a performance and dinner and had no trouble driving in it.

Judging from our deck, we got about six inches. Here, we're looking southwest over our north field toward Great Cove and Eggemoggin Reach early this morning:

To our east, the Spruce and Balsam Fir Trees got a good coating.

To the north, the River Birch Trees seem sugar-coated.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Coastal Living

It’s reassuring to come home on a winter night and see the welcoming lights of the Brooklin General Store (and our Library, which we’ll talk about on another day).

We’ve had a general store as the heart of the village since at least 1872, except for a worrisome 16 months that ended in June of this year. During those prior months, the rickety old store, shown here, was razed.

It was replaced by this spiffy one in the summer, thanks to publicly-spirited neighbors:

The importance of an all-year/every-day general store to coastal villages cannot be overstated, nor can the difficulty of keeping such a store going nowadays. Our General Store is more than a local place to get basic groceries.

Among many other things, it’s a place for fishermen and other early workers to have coffee, breakfast, and conversation beginning at 5 a.m.; it’s a café for residents and workers to get together for lunch; it’s also a nearby spot to get gas, oil, and air for the car, and it’s where you easily can pick up some beer, wine, or desert on the way home -- until 8 p.m.

The General Store's parking lot and the Library lawn across the street also are congregation points for July 4th parades and other public ceremonies.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Irony

A few vibrant Beach Rose leaves have extended their visit into December to remind us of Autumn. They’ll leave soon and then the plant’s bright red rose hips will take center stage.

These hips are packed with Vitamin C and antioxidants and harvested for food and cold remedies. Nonetheless, Beach Rose (Rosa rugosa) is designated by Maine as an invasive species.

The irony is that it was imported from Japan more than a century ago to stabilize erosion along New England beaches – which it does well, but it also turns into large, uncontrollable, and thorny barriers that are almost impossible to remove without harm to the shore. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Cold and Sweet

The burbling of this woods stream could be heard a quarter mile away yesterday. Overnight and morning rain added to its vivacity.

The stream is one of our favorite places and a popular hidden waterhole for wildlife, especially deer. The cascading water is cold, sweet, and even aerated at this point. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Gravity

Sunday’s Super Moon left us a reminder of its power over our coastal community. We’ve had high tides of more than 12 feet for the past three days. Yesterday, the tide reached 12.9 feet, more than a foot higher than shown in this image of WoodenBoat’s pier taken before the tide peaked in Great Cove.

A 12-foot tide often is visible to the naked (and patient) eye; it comes rolling in at more than two (vertical) feet an hour. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Places: Thinking Small

Taking the path less traveled by has become for many a metaphor for making a difficult, life-changing choice. We think smaller and more literally: To us, that choice is easily and often made in pursuit of a little tranquility. Apologies to Robert Frost.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Super

Here we have last night's full moon rising over Bar Harbor; it was the first and only true Super Moon of 2017.

Super Moons, which often appear larger than other moons, must be at their fullest at the same time that they are closest to Earth (at perigee); Here, the moon is above Blue Hill Bay.

This December moon is known as the Full Cold Moon, because it comes when the real cold starts; it’s more ancient name is the Full Long Night’s Moon. Here, the moon is high above Brooklin.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Shadow Tales

We’re sneaking up on a Hooded Merganser as she glides in and out of late afternoon shadows; she rises slightly in the water to trim her feathers and suddenly sees us through the cattails.

Click. Splash-Splash; Flap-Flap-Flap. She leaves us golden ripples. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Pathways

As the sun sinks fast behind Deer Isle last night, its glitter path finds Great Cove.

(Brooklin, Maine)

Postcards From Maine: The November Collection

November, historically, has been celebrated for the completion of the fall harvest and the arrival of month’s enormous full moon, called by many the Harvest Moon. Early European settlers alternatively called that moon the Beaver Moon because it comes when the beaver traps had to be set before the marshes froze. This year, the actual full moon was not visible to us due to cloud cover, but the next day's moon was -- and it seemed full to us:

Some of our original European settlers famously held a festival after their first really successful harvest. This event was idealized and later enacted as Thanksgiving with a capital “T.” Nowadays, thoughts of the harvest and freezing marshes usually give way to celebrations of well-being and friendship, watching too much football, and eating too much food. We watched our marshes freeze and thaw periodically and celebrated the harvest by devouring too much turkey dinner with neighboring settlers.

November also is the time when many lobster fishermen (male and female) haul up their traps and power home to spend the winter doing things on land. Some, however, tie-up at the Town dock to re-fit their boats with dredging equipment for the scallop season in early December.

This year, mild weather allowed us to see the extension of October colors into November. The delicately-colored Shadblow leaves were striking as were the golden Tamarack (aka Larch) trees and abundant (but invasive) bittersweet berries.

Many of the deciduous trees amid the coniferous woods delayed dropping their leaves until mid-November, when the canopy there opened and let light spill onto the trails.

In terms of wildlife, we rarely saw a buck White-Tail Deer during the month, perhaps because they sense November means primary deer hunting season here. However, we did see many does and fawns in the golden early-morning light of November. We also saw, among other animals, pesky local Red Squirrels and a Northern River Otter exploring a nearby pond, probably looking for a nesting site to use after mating in December.

This November was especially good for  mushrooms, including False Chanterelles and Red-Belted Polypores.

Our local community of American Crows loudly celebrates their prosperity everyday throughout the winter; but they don’t let strangers get close. They post sentinels high in the spruce and other trees to caw as soon as they see human or predatory movement and the flock disappears complaining raucously.

Perhaps the best thing about November, as far as Down East residents are concerned, is that it begins the winter sunset season, which can be breathtaking.

For larger versions of the above images, as well as many additional images of special moments in this November, click on the link below. (We recommend that your initial viewing be in full-screen mode, which can be achieved by clicking on the Slideshow [>] icon above the featured image in the gallery to which the link will take you.) Here’s the link for more:

https://leightons.smugmug.com/US-States/Maine/Out/2017-in-Maine/November-Postcards-From-Maine/

In the Right Place: The Show Goes On

A bank of rain clouds is sprinkling us and Great Cove last night as the sun goes down, but there’s a band of clearing sky beyond Deer Isle in the west:

As the sun disappears, a good wind comes and scatters the lower clouds, allowing some reflected light through while the rain eases off and stops:

The sky soon clears and the stars and planets shine brightly. The familiar profiles of the actors stay the same, but their moods and costumes continually change in this marvelous play. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: A Good Deal

We have a profusion of wild Winterberry fruit this year, which means a tough winter is coming, according to some folklore.

These little red berries are a major ingredient in nature’s winter survival kit for 49 species of birds, deer, raccoons, and white mice. The birds and other animals tend to visit this deciduous holly bush later in the winter because its berries contain less fat than other winter berries.

This is a good deal for us: We get more time to enjoy the Winterberry bush’s contrasting red sprays among gray branches and above snowy landscapes. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Good Vibrations

Here we have a Northern River Otter cavorting yesterday in the large marsh pond on Wooden Boat’s campus.

It’s a good sign for us, since these large weasels will not inhabit polluted areas.

Northern River Otters, which also commonly inhabit lakes and ponds, are specially adapted for hunting and playing in water: webbed paws; powerful undulating tails; ears and noses that can be sealed shut; unusual lungs that allow submersion for up to eight minutes; eyes that can see through dark water, and whiskers that sense vibrations caused by underwater prey. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Coming and Going

Here are the incoming tide swells being chased by wind gusts in Great Cove. Our November high tides have ranged from about 10 to 12 feet, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.

Thus, basically, if you stuck a six-foot measuring post into the low tide line, the top of the post would be under four to six feet of water in less than six hours. Of course, posts and/or sliding floats are no longer used to officially measure the tides.

NOAA uses sophisticated acoustical and electronic equipment to record tide heights along the coast, including Brooklin’s Center Harbor. Basically, the equipment sends signals continuously down a sounding tube that is within a protective pipe in the water; the time that it takes for the signal’s reflected sound to travel back and be received on the water surface is measured and converted into streaming linear data. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Dee-lights

Our Black-Capped Chickadees are starting to hoard food for the winter, when they will consume up to 10 times what they consume in summer.

There are seven native Chickadee species in North America, but the Black-Capped is our most common as well as our State Bird.

All Chickadees get their last name from their usual call: “Chicka-Dee,” which they vary based on circumstance. “Chicka-Dee” and “Chicka-Dee-Dee” usually mean they’re happy. The more “Dees” at the end, the more worried the birds are. Usually, the addition of five or more such suffixes (“Chicka-Dee-Dee-Dee- Dee- Dee!“) means that the bird is frantic due to the approach of a predator, such as a cat or a bird hawk. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Sweet

We’ve had a couple of good rains this month, enough to revive some of the mossy spring-fed streams in our woods from bone dry to chortling streamlets. November is averaging about half the precipitation we historically get and our summer and fall also were dryer than usual.

The resurgence of the springs hidden in the woods relieves a strain on thirsty animals that want a sweet drink during the day without too much exposure. This is especially true for the deer, which seem to realize they’re being hunted now. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Pardon the Irruption

All the conditions are right this 2017-18 winter for another Snowy Owl irruption in which many of these birds will leave Arctic Canada and take a winter vacation in the United States. That’s according to a recent report by Project Snowstorm, a Snowy research and monitoring organization in Canada.

Basically, the lemming population is surging in Canada, as it does about every four years. This plentiful source of rodents results in nesting Snowies producing more surviving owlets than there are hunting territories available for the youngsters up there. The homeless birds come south and the first stop for many of them is Maine.

This young male Snowy took up residence at nearby Trenton (aka Bar Harbor) Airport during the last irruption in the winter of 2014-15. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Celebrations

We have much to be thankful for. Some we’ll celebrate with silent awe; some we’ll celebrate with affection toward others. We hope that you also have much to celebrate.

(Brooklin, Maine)