In the Right Places: Fruits

It’s Labor Day, one of our more unusual holidays. This originally was a day for protesting 60- and 70-hour work weeks. In 1894, it was declared a federal holiday in honor of American workers, many of whom never got the day off. In time, however, Labor Day seemed to become better known as the last unofficial day of summer, a day to relax. That brings us to the image below, which was taken here Saturday (September 1).

It’s shows a very relaxed sailor in a handmade wooden boat of vintage American design. That boat and the joy it brings is a reminder of an age when very hard-working and very talented people built and sailed vessels and undertook other types of difficult work that contributed to the exceptionalism of America. We like to think that we’re still benefitting from the fruits of that hard work. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Pecking Order

We witnessed an unusual event yesterday in a dark patch of woods: two female Pileated Woodpeckers were chasing each other, circle-climbing the same tree, and attacking each other. It didn’t look like play. Probably was just a political squabble.

These are our largest Woodpeckers – about 16.5 inches long – assuming that the larger Ivory-Billed Woodpecker is extinct.

“Pileated” means “crested” or “capped.” Pileateds mate for life, but there was no male in sight or hearing distance. (The male’s territorial challenge is a loud, maniacal laugh.)

(Brooklin, Maine)

August Postcards From Maine

Our August sun seems to rise over Great Cove slower than other months so that we can savor the best of times. Our August woods and fields seem to sing "Summertime, Summertime!" Our August skies seem to remind us to use August fully and well; change is about to happen.

We can learn from the wildlife: August is a time that they seem to live to the fullest. The yearling buck proudly displays his first real antlers; Goldfinches, Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds,  and Red Squirrels gorge themselves; Painted Turtles bask during the month's easy days. This August, the Monarch Butterflies returned in good numbers and bred well -- a beautiful encouragement.

Dogs and Cats work hard at their summer jobs in August here. They retrieve valuable sticks, serve as all-seeing boat lookouts, and  -- in the case of Jethro, the popular Harbor Cat -- diligently guard the Harbor Boathouse.

August also is a good time to watch Schooners perform in Great Cove. The big vessels come and go, often parading silently, sometimes giving us an encore magic act in which they appear and disappear.

But, August in Great Cove is not just for big Schooners. In fact, it's mostly a place where colorful small boats sail in sun and fog, sit patiently on their reflections, or become floating classrooms for the sailors who attend the Cove's famous WoodenBoat School.

August also is a time to walk the Maine woods and fields and to appreciate wild pond flora and fauna. It's for picking ripened Blackberries and popping them into your mouth when there is no hygiene-minded person around; for Black-Eyed Susans to try to soak up all our sun; for remembering not to pick the pretty purple Bull Thistle; for Queen Anne's Lace and Goldenrod to become poignant reminders that fall is on the way; for fading wild Fragrant Water Lilies to offer their last nectar to passing Honeybees, and for multi-colored fungi to suddenly appear like little lights in darkening woods.

We began these Postcards with the sun rising over the sea and we finish after the sun has disappeared into the sea. It will be dark within two minutes, but we'll leave a light on for you.

(All images taken in Down East Maine during August 2018.)

In the Right Place: Windjammer Watch XIII

This is the Stephen Taber bearing down on us during a prior summer’s day:

All the following images of her were taken here yesterday in Great Cove,  where she sheltered for a few hours during a rain squall.

The 110-foot Taber was built in 1871 and is a National Historic Landmark that now hails from Rockland, Maine. As with many 19th Century cargo cruisers, the Taber was built with a flat bottom to “ground out” and discharge her cargo without the need for a pier.

She does have a centerboard to lower during cruising but has no motor; her motorized yawlboat pushes her in light air.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Boning Up

Antlers in the deer family (White-Tailed Deer, Moose, Elk, etc.) are like cars: new models are issued annually. This White-Tail yearlingis proudly showing off his first real “rack,” a 2018 sports model that is small and still covered with “velvet.” Deer antlers are made of bone that is fed by blood within that hairy velvet; the bone starts to grow in the early spring and is among the fastest-growing tissue in the animal kingdom.

Most bucks, young and old, are reclusive when their antlers are growing and full of sensitive nerves. By September, however, their racks usually have turned to hard bone and we see more bucks in the open; we also see scars on the trees where they have rubbed their velvet off.  Most antlers here will be shed by February. They are the only mammal bone structure that regenerates itself annually.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Basking and Piling

What’s more boring than watching Painted Turtles dry?

Perhaps watching them grow by replacing shell plates (“scutes”).

As for drying, why do Painted Turtles bask and why do some, but not all, pile on each other when doing so? It seems settled that they use thermal rays to help regulate their temperatures. However, some scientists theorize that Painted Turtles also must bask to obtain needed vitamin D and/or to kill parasites.

This does not explain why some Painted Turtles allow others to pile on them and block part of their needed sunlight. Others appear to avoid piling by basking vertically:

But many join a turtle scrum, and there is no consensus as to why. Some scientists think that turtle piling is a defense against predators (more eyes and ears), but others claim that piling makes them more vulnerable. Some think that the pile is the result of competition for the best basking spot. Others think that it might be a social function.

There’s so much that we don’t know about the world around us. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Salty Dogs

It’s not unusual for boats around here to have four-legged crew members. Most are dogs, rarely there’s a cat, and more rarely there are both. Thus, we’re not surprised to see a considerable amount of advice on the Internet as to how to handle a canine sailor when at sea.

This includes what to do if Fang or Fluffy slips or jumps overboard, which apparently happens more that one would think. Getting a wet, rapidly peddling dog back into a boat, especially in a choppy (or worse) sea, can be very difficult and dangerous.

Necessity being the mother of invention, there are now canine life vests that supply added pet buoyancy and have handles that can be grasped or hooked. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Sailsmanship

You may not believe this, but it’s true: the J.&E. Riggin was in Great Cove yesterday during another of its four-day “Knitting Getaways.”

The schooner’s website claims that KG passengers learn “how to intuitively create a top down sock the way our foremothers did it.” Mim Bird, an expert knitter, is on board to instruct. At first, we thought that it was profane to populate this 1927 windjammer, a National Historic Landmark, with sock stitchers.

But, then we met some of the happy passengers (male and female), as they came ashore yesterday for a little exploration:

It appears that knitting while sailing along the beautiful coast of Maine on a 120-foot, spoon-bowed, historic schooner is a bucket list trip for some.

(Brooklin, Maine) [The sailing image of the Riggin is from a prior summer; others are from yesterday morning.]

In the Right Place: Yet Another Warning

At least 114 dead and dying seals have been reported found in Maine so far this August, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Experts from the Marine Animal Lifeline and NOAA are studying the disturbing situation, which has recurred from time to time since 2003.

Most of this month’s discoveries have been Harbor Seals found south of Rockland; avian flu and distemper have been found in a good number of these. Researchers at the Shaw Institute in Blue Hill blame manmade, immune-suppressant toxins, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls).

These toxins reportedly are widespread in our waters and make sea mammals dangerously susceptible to diseases. Apparently, many of our seals are inundated with these toxic time bombs, even though they may look as healthy as our local seals shown here.

Reports of dead or dying seals seen south of Rockland should be made to Marine Animal Lifeline at 207-851-6625. Those seen north of Rockland should be reported to Allied Whale at 207-288-5644. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Windjammer Watch XII

This is the Bonnie Lynn becalmed in Great Cove yesterday morning waiting for a fair wind that didn’t come.

She’s a 1998 modified version of a Trade Rover Schooner, the late-20th Century working sail vessels designed by Merritt Walter.

Bonnie is 72 feet long overall and has Brigantine-like rigging that can accommodate a square sail on the foremast. She’s equipped with a 220 horsepower diesel engine and has a steel hull.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Department of Defense

Most American Crows here are still maintaining family territories that they defend against other crows. Unlike most birds, Crow youngsters often stay with their parents to defend the territory and help raise the next brood.

Soon, the Crow atomic family territoriality will disappear and those birds that don’t migrate will congregate. Many inland Crows will come to the coast in late summer and fall, seemingly sensing that impenetrable snow will not cover food-rich tidal zones.

The wintering Crow families will create roosting areas and huddle there during the cold nights. Why? The leading theory is that Crows sense their increased vulnerability in leafless trees.

Their primary predators (other than humans) are Great Horned Owls and other large raptors. Owls can see and attack Crows better during winter nights. The more Crow eyes and sharp beaks available, the better that species can warn and defend itself in winter. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Summertime

The four opening lines of a once popular song come to mind in a strange way lately:

It's summertime summertime sum sum summertime
Summertime summertime sum sum summertime
Summertime summertime sum sum summertime
Summertime summertime sum sum summertime summertime.

This silly but melodic 1958 song, “Summertime, Summertime,” was a one-hit wonder by an obscure group called The Jamies. Here’s the strange part: the song celebrated the joys of summer’s arrival; however, many of us could use a reminder now that it’s STILL summer.

There’s often a new coolness in the air now, the fields are turning white, gold, and brown, and there’s talk about school and football. But, remember: it’s summertime, summertime, summertime until September 22. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Windjammer Watch XI

Vela is the August classroom for the Coastal Cruising Seamanship course at the WoodenBoat School this year.

She’s a 50-foot gaff-rigged sloop out of Sedgwick, Maine, that was launched in 1996.

She’s captained by Havilah (“Haddie”) Hawkins II, a fourth generation schoonerman. He designed Vela and is teaching the course.

The sloop is a broad (14-foot beam) vessel with an open deck that allows the helmsman a full view.

“Vela” means “Candle” in Spanish, although we’re not sure why the boat was christened with that name. 

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Air-Blown

Why do Double-Crested Cormorants spend more time drying their wings than other water birds?

Research has shown that, unlike other water birds, Cormorants’ outer feathers are designed (“morphologically adapted”) to absorb water and thereby repel air bubbles. This adaptation significantly reduces the buoyancy obstacle that diving birds have and allows Cormorants to dive deeper and swim faster underwater than other diving birds.

Cormorants are our most successful fishing birds, but their feathers get wetter than those of other water birds and need to be warmed and air-blown. Cormorants’ crackled blue eyes also contribute to their fishing successes – the eyes are adapted to allow the birds to see better within dark waters. See also the image in the first Comment space.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Ressurection

Much to our pleasure, we found Grayling moored in Great Cove yesterday morning. She’s the focus of many articles on boat restoration. She was built in 1915 in East Boothbay, Maine, with white oak ribbing, longleaf yellow pine planking, and a cypress pilothouse.

Designed as a double-ended fishing vessel, Grayling fished for mackerel and herring at first, but she became a sardine carrier in 1920. She trucked sardines to and from the cannery for 70 years and then was left to rot. In the 1990s, she was discovered, restored, and converted to a what she is now, a ketch-rigged yacht that sleeps 11.  The restoration work was by Brooklin's DN Hylan and Associates (now Hylan and Brown Associates).

She’s long (almost 65 feet overall) and thin (12.5-foot beam), which means she must carry significant ballast (10 tons) to militate against rolling.

She’s definitely not beautiful the way Sophia Loren in her prime was definitely not beautiful. It’s just that you can’t keep your eyes off her. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Two Mornings

We saw much of yesterday through a veil of fog and intermittent rain, which softened the glow from the fields that are thick with late summer wild flowers. The flowering yellow-golds are mostly Tansy in full bloom amid fading Black-Eyed Susans and emerging Golden Rod. The whites are mostly Queen Anne’s Lace in its prime.

This morning added sunbeams to the mix, luring the deer into the fields early to enjoy the rain-fed succulence. 

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Straps

It may be our imagination, but it seems that we’ve been seeing fewer snakes this summer, including Common Garter Snakes such as the one shown here. That snake is the most widespread and abundant reptile in Maine. (Turtles and Snakes are the only reptiles that we have.)

Maine is home to nine species of snakes and – to the tourists’ delight – none of these is venomous. (In days of yore, we had Timber Rattlesnakes.) Garter Snakes were named after “garter straps,” elastic devices once used to hold up socks and stockings. 

Adult Garter Snakes usually range in size here from 18 to 26 inches, but one Maine specimen was officially recorded at almost 44 inches. Garter Snakes prefer earthworms but will eat just about any living thing that they can get their small mouths around. The compliment is reciprocated by a myriad of larger predators that like to snack on this snake.(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Pink Passion Plant

The flowers and buds of Queen-of-the-Prairie (Filipendula rubra) are peaking into their cotton candy phase (inflorescence). This plant, also called Prairie Dropwort, was used by Native Americans as an aphrodisiac.

It’s native to the United States, but not New England, where it was introduced probably in the 19th Century. Some of it grows wild in our fields, but more forms of it are seen in gardens. The Queens soon will fade, so, we took this image to put in our stack of summer color memories that we’ll conjure back during our next gray February. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: More Fractured Thinking

How would Natty Bumppo travel the woods and waters of today’s Maine? As you may remember, he also was called Hawk-Eye in James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans. It’s fun to imagine Hawk-Eye today paddling a plastic kayak rather than a bark canoe and wearing a floppy hat rather than a skin cap.

It’s more fun to imagine Magua, Uncas, and Chingachgook in spiffy L.L. Bean outfits and florescent kayaks coming to Hawk-Eye’s rescue.

There is a connection to Maine. Many memories of how Hawk-Eye looked in his wooded milieu are based on N.C. Wyeth’s fabulous illustrations in the deluxe edition of that book. N.C., the father of Andrew, worked here in the summer; Maine scenery seems to have crept into many of his woodland and river illustrations. (Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Inside Story

The Wild Blackberries here are starting to turn dark and ripen. The black one shown here is now extinct, but it was delicious. It looks like this year will be a good one for the berries and those willing to brave their thorny thickets to get them.

Wild Blackberries are difficult to differentiate from Wild Black Raspberries when the berries are still on the vine. However, once plucked, you easily can see if the berry’s center is hollow like a thimble (Raspberry) or “corked” like a jug (Blackberry). The Blackberry stem/cork is edible, of course.

The plump Red Raspberries in stores are not wild and propagated by birds and other animals; they’re specially bred and cultivated by fruit farmers. (Brooklin, Maine)