In the Right Place: Feeling the Pressure

Here you see one of my favorite Brooklin weather forecasters predicting bad weather on February 28. That night and the following morning it snowed fairly heavily.

Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 28, 2022.

He’s a herring gull that flew inland from our coastal waters to the more protected roof of this barn. (Five other members of his weather forecasting team were on the roof when I stopped the car in front of the barn, but they flew away, as you probably inferred from the telltale signs of gull visitations.)

Leighton Archive Image

Seagulls and many other birds take protective measures to avoid oncoming bad weather fronts and even earthquakes. Scientists are not certain how the birds sense future atmospheric conditions, but a leading theory is that the birds sense small changes in air pressure.

Leighton Archive Image

The thinking is that the birds have a built-in barometer-like mechanism in their inner ears and/or the air sacs connected to their lungs.

In the Right Place: On the Road Again

Yesterday’s snow was a beautifier, but it is not without a downside. Temperatures have been in the low single-digits all morning and parts of the plowed country lanes are heart-stoppingly slippery.

Cleated boots would help, but they get clogged with the soft snow once you get off the road.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 3, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Dreaming of a White March

Here we see part of a nearby Christmas tree farm yesterday with dripping spruce trees being defrosted by the day’s sunny warmth:

Those trees are being recovered by snow as this is being written. It’s been snowing steadily here since the wee hours of the morning, and we’ve accumulated about three inches of powder as of 8:30 a.m. :

(Images taken in Penobscot and Brooklin, Maine, on March 2 and 3, 2022.)

February Postcards From Maine

February was an unexpectedly good month — for a February. There were many clear days, several manageable snow storms, ice in the stiller waters, and a few unusually warm days balanced by a few very cold days. If you judge the month by your ability to enjoy the out-of-doors, this February would rank about an eight or nine — for a February.

The snow was no problem, as usual. Our snow plow operators always have cleared the roads, private lanes, and driveways soon after the snow arrived.

To be sure, there were a few stereotypically dark February days of fog, rain, muck, and simultaneous sun and snow flurries.

The woods alternated between frosted and unfrosted, while the streams surged with snowmelt.

The most prominent of our winter wildlife — the white-tailed deer and wild turkeys — seemed to thrive during this February. However a disturbing trend continued this month with the common eiders: Each year, fewer and fewer have been coming to winter in our unfrozen coastal waters and this year there were the fewest yet.

On the waterfront, commercial vessels were either being stored “on the hard” or fishing for scallops with added booms and masts to trawl with their dredging nets (usually called “drags”).

Of course, February includes Valentine’s Day, a time for spring flowers. However this February was when our annual “Christmas amaryllis” finally decided to bloom.

Finally, February, on her last day, left us with new snow gleaming in brilliant sunshine — she went out like a flying swan while we wondered whether March would come in like the proverbial roaring lion.

(All images in this post were taken in Down East Maine during February 2022.)

In the Right Place: Evidence

This is February’s last day and she’s offering us sunny gleams from the snow that she flurried last night.  She’s going out like a flying swan while we wonder if March will roar in like the proverbial lion.

After a purifying snowstorm such as last night’s, it’s fun to enter a narrow deer path and follow the split-hoof tracks in the new powder. However, if you stop and turn around, you’re reminded of how crude the evidence of humankind can be in nature’s special places.

(Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 27, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Command Performances

Yesterday morning, the snowstorm had ended, a beautiful winter’s day had begun, and our snow clearing entrepreneurs had plowed the driveways and country lanes early. For many of us, this was a familiar prologue for a performance of “Being Out.”

There were people on snowshoes and skis in the fields and on trails, people walking the secluded lanes, and people simply “driving around for a look.” Days such as yesterday should not be wasted; they may become memories of a vanishing time.

In the image above, you see the crossroads of Great Cove Drive and WoodenBoat Lane; and, if you look closely, you’ll see the tracks of two snowshoers who recently clomped through a stand of ancient apple trees on the WoodenBoat campus.

In the image below, you’ll see the sun trying to reach the inviting wooded curves of Hope Lane:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 26, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Stunner

Yesterday’s much-vaunted “winter storm” turned out to be a dull event with little wind and not nearly the largest amount of snow predicted, at least at our place. It looks like we got about three inches of snow.

Nonetheless, today turned out to be a stunner, albeit a cold one: minus 2 with a windchill of minus 14 at 6:45 this morning when I went out to take the images here.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 25 and 26, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Sickness

Here you see the usually well-mannered Patten Stream in Surry running amok on Wednesday due a warming snow melt.

Yet now, as this is being written at 7:30 this morning, it’s snowing and 14 degrees (F). We seem to be caught in a pernicious winter cycle of snow, freezing weather, thawing warmth, and melting rain.

The precipitation has helped most of Maine and other parts of the nation recover from water scarcity. However, more than half of the United States (including parts of western Maine) remains dangerously dry this winter and a potential source for continual harm to human and other animal and plant life.

I’m posting yesterday’s official Drought Monitor Map to help you focus on our environmental sickness:

The map illustrates the reported data as of February 22 by showing the areas that have no drought problem (white) compared to those that are “abnormally dry” (yellow), in “moderate drought” (tan), in “severe drought” (burnt orange), in “extreme drought” (red), and in “exceptional drought” (brown).

(Photographs taken in Surry, Maine, on February 23, 2025.)

In the Right Place: Squeezing

February weather continues to resemble a concertina squeezed by a madman. Yesterday, Maine reached record warm highs in the 60s (F degrees) in some places. The ice tunnels encasing the spring-fed streams melted, and we finally saw the gurgling water:

As this is written at 7:30 a.m., it’s 14 degrees with a windchill of 01 degree. And, much of Maine is under a winter storm warning for tomorrow afternoon or evening, when up to a foot of snow and significant winds are expected. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 23, 2022.)

In the Right Place: At a Crossroad

Here you see yesterday afternoon’s fog starting to envelop this familiar connected house and barn. When it finally hides the unoccupied structure, the fog’s work will amount to an act of kindness.

It will ease the journey of regular passers-by who hate to watch this once-lovely home die a slow, lonesome death – while the home, itself, appears to be embarrassed by having to die that way in public. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 22, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Two and Only

Today being the only “Twosday” (2-22-22) we’ll ever see, we offer you two winter seascapes that will never recur exactly the same: two of our local scallopers caught in the ever-changing glow of yesterday’s setting sun:

The first image is of Dear Abbie:, owned and captained by Scott Keenan. The second is of Tarrfish, owned and captained by David Tarr, who also dives for “diver’s scallops.” Here they are together::

(Images taken in Naskeag Harbor, Brooklin, Maine, on February 21, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Get the Lead Out

Very disturbing news about the health of bald and golden eagles in the United States was published in the February 17 issue of Science. The prestigious Journal reported that, “Unexpectedly high frequencies of lead poisoning” were found in the birds in a comprehensive study of 1210 of them. The field work for the national study took place during the years 2010 to 2018 in 38 states, including a Maine bald eagle testing site.

Bald Eagle, Leighton Archive Image

Chronic lead poisoning (as measured in the bone) was found in 46 to 47 percent of the eagles. Acute lead poisoning (as measured in liver, blood, and feathers) was found in 27 to 33 percent of bald eagles and 7 to 35 percent of goldens.

Golden Eagle, Leighton Archive Image

Acute poisoning was generally higher in the winter when the eagles commonly scavenge carcasses of deer and other animals. “Use of lead in ammunition during hunting seasons corresponds directly … with the feeding” of bald and golden eagles. “Our data show a continent-wide temporal correspondence between acute lead poisoning of eagles and the use of lead ammunition.”

This study may be powerful enough to convince the powers that be to ban lead hunting ammunition and lead fishing tackle.

In the Right Place: Crowing and De-Crowing

We seem to have more than the usual number of American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) here this winter. Many of Maine’s inland crows come to the coast for the winter because there usually is more accessible food here than inland.

In other seasons, these tough birds usually are territorial and hostile to strange crows. However, in winter, they roost overnight with “foreign” crows in community trees. The practice is thought to be a defensive maneuver – more eyes, ears, and beaks – against their arch enemies, the nocturnal great horned owls and other large owls that can see the crows easier in winter’s leafless trees.

It’s not only owls that these birds need to fear. They’re not protected by federal and state migratory bird laws. This can be a problem for birds that are considered by many to be pests that harm orchids, corn fields, and other birds, not to mention being loud mess-makers when they congregate near humanity.

Many states, including Maine, allow crows to be hunted for sport and pest control under regulations that apply to when and how the birds may be killed. There is no limit on the number of crows that may be shot in Maine’s designated seasons; and, hunters are allowed to shoot them here with lead shot and shotguns capable of holding more than three shells.

(Lead from ammunition and fishing tackle left in the carcasses of mammals, birds, and fish seems to be poisoning high percentages of bald and golden eagles. But, that’s a tragic story for another day.)

Leighton Archive images of Maine crows are shown here.

In the Right Place: Damage and Delight

Soon after posting yesterday’s description of the morning’s high winds and warm temperatures, a cyclonic burst twisted this 70-foot fir down into our garden. Other trees in the area suffered similar fates.

Then, within about an hour, the sun came out and the unseasonably warm temperatures started to plummet into the cold snap that continues now. (11 degrees [F] at 7 a.m. today.)

Nonetheless, yesterday afternoon had its delights, as you’ll see from this image of Blue Hill Bay with the eponymous Hill in the background:

(Images taken in Brooklin on February 19 [tree] and Blue Hill February 18 [Hill], 2022.)

In the Right Place: State of the Month

We’ve been getting March weather in February. Here you see our local woods yesterday morning, where nothing was moving except the trees.

They were swaying in wind gusts that exceeded 30 miles per hour. Moreover, the temperatures were unseasonably warm, approaching 50 degrees (F). The snow was melting fast, often revealing long layers of slippery ice.

As I write this morning, things are worse. It’s raining and near-constant winds are gusting above 40 mph, while the temperature is at 51 degrees and rising. It’s not a good thing to have tall spruce, fir, and pine trees swaying wildly while the ground is thawing quickly.

If past is prologue, a cold snap will occur soon and deliver a body blow to the poor awakening trees. In the meantime, I’m not going to take a morning walk. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 17, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Character

I posted a long-view image of this structure during a snow flurry last month and one of my barn-loving FaceBook friends asked if I had a “closeup in clear weather” of it. I did not, but yesterday I was on Flye Point where the building is and took this image.

It does have character. The structure apparently originally was a barn and has been there many years. If any of you knows how long, please let us know. It has undergone changes over time and, I think, it’s now a summer residence or several summer apartments.

Here’s the snow flurry image for perspective:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 16 [sun] and January 25 [snow].)

In the Right Place: False Prophets

Seeing American robins in Maine now does not mean that spring is soon to come.  We have plenty of these hardy thrushes overwintering in the State, especially here along the coast.

They’ve been sighted in 70 to 100 percent of recent reported Christmas Bird Counts along the coast up to Eastport, according to the literature. Flocks of them will denude crabapple trees of their frozen fruit in a short time and some even go crabbing in the rockweed at low tide.

(Leighton Archive Images shown here.)

In the Right Place: Being Too Obvious

Yesterday, we had a delightful little Valentine’s Day snowfall that covered the fields with fluffy snow. This sunny morning, about eight of the white-tailed deer that had been sheltering in the woods moved to the edge of our north field and surveilled it for the longest time, but didn’t step out as usual.

Perhaps they were worried about being too obvious in their dark winter coats browsing in the brightly lighted field.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, om February 15, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Brilliance

To the women who love birds, I offer this image of a handsome fellow because it’s Valentine’s Day and he’s the color of love, joy, and passion. He’s posing to get the attention of a female to whom he’ll swear his faithfulness, but only for a year.

Leighton Archive Image

Yes, he’s a Northern Cardinal, a dashing bird that usually starts breeding in March, but already is fighting other males over nesting territory. That’s where his control will end, though. He won’t mate until and unless he’s chosen by a dusky female – and those female Cardinals are very independent and demanding birds. Here’s one:

Leighton Archive Image

Female Cardinals are one of the few female birds that will sing back to good looking males who come courting. Research also shows that the females try to pick the reddest male Cardinal available for a mate, since brilliant color is an indicator of good health and successful lineage.

In the Right Place: Not Bad

Most of our snow has been melted by unseasonably warm temperatures combined with recent rains. Yet, we’re in a bit of a cold dip as this is being written and light snow flurries are predicted.

We’re almost at the midpoint of this short month and I must say that it hasn’t been bad so far – for a February. We’ve had more than our usual share of dazzling days, including the one shown below from last week. (The image is part of our monthly documentation of this vista).

As many of you know, that’s Mount Cadillac brooding in Acadia National Park in the distance, Blue Hill Bay and its islands in the middle ground, and a fallow field on Amen Ridge in the foreground. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on February 9, 2022.)