In the Right Place: Osprey Nest Report

Great news: June is alive and well! As those of you who follow these posts know, she is the youngest nestling in Ozzie and Harriet’s osprey family. Until recently, I sometimes have gone 10 days without seeing her on my one-hour visits every two or three days. That’s June in this image between her two brothers, David and Ricky, with Harriet on the right:

Now that she is slightly larger, June has started to rise from the nest’s deep bottom and give brief peek-over-the-edge appearances. Nonetheless, she still is being pushed around by her larger brothers when she gets in their way.

Harriet leaves the nest much more frequently now that the nestlings are almost ready to fledge; she often takes 15-or 20-minute trips to destinations unknown. Harriet doesn’t appear to have been fishing while absent (she doesn’t return with a fish); often, she is wet from taking a bath in a nearby pond or Great Cove. Here she is being greeted by David and Ricky upon returning to the nest:

Ozzie still is bringing fish to the nest for the family. The nestlings are able to tear off pieces and eat by themselves now, although Harriet sometimes still will tear off a piece and feed it to one of her offspring, a maternal instinct that requires deft maneuvering of her sharp beak. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 11, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Visiting the Water Nymphs' World

This image appeared yesterday in my monthly column in the Ellsworth American:

To read the column on a natural way to cope with our surly “civilized” world, click here: http://www.5backroad.com/montly-column

In the Right Place: Threatening Trends Department

You see here one of our small streams yesterday – I should say what was one of our streams; it’s totally dry now.

Drought and abnormally dry conditions continue to spread in Maine and the rest of Northeastern United States, according to this morning’s U.S. Drought Monitor:

Lack of meaningful precipitation has caused, among other concerns, significant declines in river and streamflow levels in Maine. Here’s the USDM’s map of the State, showing moderate drought and abnormal dryness in most of Maine:

If this trend continues, it seems, the flows from residential water wells may be threatened in August. (Photograph taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 13, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Discovery and Mastery

July is a time when many young birds, often not fully formed, are compelled by an unknowable instinct to climb or jump out of their birthing nurseries and enter into a dangerous world. It is then that they discover and begin to master one of the most enviable experiences – unassisted flight.

Above, you see a fluffy fledgling downy woodpecker resting on a spruce yesterday after a choppy flight in which the tree could not be avoided:

Below, you’ll see a stumpy-tailed song sparrow after a short aerial maneuver that seemed to make him proud:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 8 [sparrow] and 12 [woodpecker], 2022.)

In the Right Place: The Odd Couple

Here you see a 19½-foot Caledonia named Ned Ludd leading a 16-foot catboat named Shenaniganz:

They’re in the channel between Naskeag Point and Harbor Island at low tide on a calm day last week. The boats are being sailed by students in the WoodenBoat School’s Open-Boat Cruising class.

The next day, the same boats were grabbing good breezes together In Great Cove:

That WBS class was supposed to have sailed two Caledonias; however, a mast on the second Caledonia (which is named Swifty) apparently broke and Shenaniganz was substituted. She’s a fast catboat and reportedly had no problem staying with Ned. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 7 [Harbor] and 8 [Cove], 2022.)

In the Right Place: Wonder Weed

That looks like a dandelion seed head on the left in the image below; however, it’s actually about the size of a tennis ball. I think that this plant is salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius) and, if so, the plant’s unopened bud on the right soon will become an interesting pink or purple flower.

Salsify is a wild root vegetable that’s native to Europe, but has become naturalized in North American fields. It’s also known as the oyster plant or vegetable oyster, reportedly due to its taste when cooked; but, many reportedly think that it tastes nothing like an oyster.

According to some of the claims that appear when you search online for information on salsify, eating this plant will stimulate hair growth, lower blood pressure, boost immune systems, improve digestive health, increase metabolism, and help bone density.

Just saying …. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 10, 2022.) Click on image to enlarge it.

In the Right Place: Obsession Confession

Many of our larger marsh ponds are starting their summer shrink, which crowds their leafy inhabitants, as you can see from this image taken yesterday:

The contrast between the circular pad leaves of the water lilies and the arrowhead-shaped leaves of the green arrow arum plants becomes more apparent at times like these.

I’ve been photographically monitoring the above arrow arum colony on a weekly basis for several years now. I think I’ve become obsessed with the wild beauty of the plant, especially its graceful, subtly-veined leaves, which are extraordinarily photogenic:

This native wetlands plant (Peltandra virginica) is part of the large arum family and also is known as tuckahoe and duck corn. It grows to about three feet tall and its leaves can reach up to 18 or more inches in length. Muskrats eat the plant’s stalks and leaves, while ducks love its seeds. Native Americans pulverized the plant’s roots into flour for making bread.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 7 and 9, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Different Strokes for Different Boats

Here you see two WoodenBoat School creations basking on the campus in Thursday’s sun. These boats may look somewhat similar at first glance, but they were made using different traditional hull-building methods.

On the left, the smooth hull on the Whitehall Pulling Boat is “carvel-built” with cotton and marine putty caulking between planks, and she probably will be used as a rowboat:

By the way, that 12.5-foot Whitehall is up for sale at what appears to be a bargain price of $1,700.00, according to a note inside her hull.

The hull of the other boat, a Chaisson Dory, is “lapstrake-“ or “clinker-built” with overlapping planks fastened tightly by rivets, and she is designed to be used as a small sailboat as well as a rowboat:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 7, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Osprey Nest Report

Below, you’ll see (from left to right) David, Ricky, and Harriet, yesterday. They and Ozzie, the male parent, are doing very well.

 I haven’t seen the family’s third born, June, for a week. She’s by far the smallest and most timid. Let’s hope that she has been hunkering at the bottom of their deep nest when I’ve been monitoring the family. Here you see Harriet again with the two first born, but with David on the right:

David is the largest and boldest nestling, which is normal for a first born. He’s already flapping his big wings in the breezes, a practice that seems instinctual. He also is the first to rise and eat the fish that Ozzie brings to the nest:

In fact, David is a very self-centered bird; he often complains to his parents aggressively about the indignities of having to stay home all of the time:

Harriet still seems to spend most of her time on the nest, but takes regular breaks to bathe, gather sticks and moss for the nest, and (it seems) just to “stretch her wings.” After her bath, she returns to the nest sopping wet and spreads her feathers to dry:

I’ll keep my eyes out for June. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 5 and 7, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Low-Rider

Yesterday’s post about the American Eagle coming to Great Cove at dusk Monday was titled “High-Rider” because – shortly after the Eagle moored, as you see here – the low-riding J&E Riggin also came in under almost full sail. High- or low-, both vessels are easy-riders.

The 120-foot Riggin is on a six-day schooner race tour, according to her schedule. She moored overnight in the Cove near the 90-foot Eagle, which also was on a race tour. Both schooners raised sails Tuesday and sailed north into Eggemoggin Reach:

The Riggin was built in 1927 as an oyster dredger, which may account for her low profile. She was built for Charles Riggin of New Jersey, who named her for his two sons, Jacob and Edward (“J&E”). In the 1940s, she was sold, equipped with an engine, and sent out for deep sea fishing.

She was sold again in the 1970s and converted to a passenger vessel. In the process, her inboard engine was removed to make more room for cabins. Now out of Rockland, Maine, the Riggin still cruises the area waters without an inboard engine; she relies on her diesel-powered yawl boat to push her when she’s not under sail.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 4 and 5, 2022.)

In the Right Place: High-Rider

The American Eagle arrived at Great Cove at dusk on July 4th and overnighted here, becoming transformed by yesterday’s dawn light into a gleaming symbol:

She’s on a seven-day 4th of July and schooner race tour, according to her schedule. We got a closer look at her later in the morning before she sailed off:

She sailed out of the Cove into Eggemoggin Reach at about midday:

The Eagle is a 90-foot, high-riding schooner out of Rockland, Maine. She was launched in 1930 as the Andrew & Rosalie, the last fishing schooner built in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In 1941, during World War II, she was renamed American Eagle. She fished until 1983 and then went through difficult times until she was totally renovated in 1986 as a coastal tourist cruiser. She has since become a National Historic Landmark.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 4 and 5, 2022.

In the Right Place: A Small-Town 4th

Today was a perfect summer’s day: sun, blue skies, temperatures in the mid-70’s (F), good breezes rustling lush leaves, and – best of all – Brooklin’s Independence Day celebration.

That celebration is regionally famous for its fun and diversity. It began with rousing music by the Brooklin Band. They played in the dappled light under the maple trees on the Friend Memorial Library lawn, across Bay Road from the General Store.. Listeners, young, old, and in-between gathered in the shade on the Library lawn and steps, eventually turning into a crowd.

Starting at 10 a.m., there was a parade of flags, firetrucks, floats, , classic cars, and people who just decided to march down the middle of Naskeag Road because they were in the mood. Leading the way was a color guard of veterans marching with Old Glory and a prisoners of war flag, followed by a veterans’ organization truck.

After the Stars and Stripes passed (often to applause), there came a banner celebrating the 75th anniversary of Brooklin’s Fire Department, as well as that Department’s big Engine 2. Other fire trucks were interspersed in the parade, including one from nearby Sedgwick.

Creative floats also were interspersed throughout the parade with themes such as the brown-tailed caterpillars and their moths; prom night; role reversals with lobsters cooking a human; a Brooklin Food Corps takeoff on a John Lennon song, but now named “Give Peas a Chance,” Candy Land that also was Balloon Land, and a just-married announcement

Classic and semi-classic cars and trucks paraded in random order interspersed within the parade:

After the parade, there was the usual friendly get-together of full-time- and summer-residents, neighbors catching up on the news and meeting tourists on the Town Green. Among other things, there were children’s games there, including the renowned Dead Chicken Toss, the Huge Greased Pole Climb, and the Wet Sponge Toss.

There also was more music on the Green, classic car displays, and delicious food in the form of roasted chicken meals with corn, potato salad, coleslaw and watermelon, as well as hot dogs. The food lines were long, but efficient volunteer servers kept them moving quickly.

It was a Happy 4th in Brooklin this year,

In the Right Place: Ditched

Tawney-hued wild daylilies are starting to congregate along our roadsides and elsewhere. They soon will become cheering crowds waving at passing vehicles.

They’re native to Asia, but came here with our earliest European colonists and have since naturalized themselves in North American.

These emblems of high summer are called daylilies because of their trumpet-shaped flowers that often are opened by the touch of the sun and wither overnight. They also are commonly called ditch lilies due to their proclivity to colonize roadside ditches and other sloping surfaces.

Notwithstanding their descriptive names, these tawny wild flowers are lily look-alikes, not members of the lily family (Lilium). Unlike true lilies that grow from delicate bulbs, these wild daylilies (Hemerocallis fulva) grow perennially from tough roots and runners. That means that they can be invasive; think twice about replanting them.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 2, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Political Sailing

We awoke yesterday morning to see this sight: the Schooner Stephen Taber and its apparently sleeping passengers moored in Great Cove, just off of Babson Island. She was on a privately chartered cruise, according to her schedule:

By the time that I could get to the shore late that morning, she was gone. However, here’s one of my archive images of her under full sail, when she’s most impressive:

Leighton Archive Image

The 110-foot Taber was built in 1871 and is a National Historic Landmark that hails from Rockland, Maine. Curiously, she was named after a once-famed, but now forgotten,19th Century New York politician.

As with many coastal cargo cruisers in the 1800s, 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 as a keel during cruising, but has no motor; her motorized yawl boat Babe pushes her in light air.

(Primary image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on July 1, 2022.)

June Postcards From Maine

Summer comes to us in June. It brings stampeding stratocumulus clouds and awakens wild flowers in our fields, including pea-podded lupins, blue- and yellow-flagged irises, and millions of daisies and buttercups.

With the arrival of full-leaf canopies, our woods become delightfully dappled in June, but they can begin to dry out. This year, the mossy-banked wood’s streams dwindled early, making us worry about a possible serious drought by August.

June is when ferns in the darker, boggier parts of the woods catch the light as if to illuminate the bashful lady’s slipper and jack-in-the pulpit plants hiding there.

The runoff from the woods’ streams often leads to ponds where native fragrant water lily plants have been sleeping within the murky bottoms. Their pads begin to rise to the surface in late May and early June and, by the end of June, they have formed galaxies around their bursting, white flowers.

Around the edges of the ponds, there often are sprays of graceful arrow arum with some of their leaves drooping into the water as if pointing out, with a delicate finger, the rising new lily pads. These pond edges actually are a series of small kingdoms in which green frogs reign and bellow warnings to potential intruders.

June is when many of our feathered summer residents give birth and start to teach their eager nestlings how to survive in the wild. Female ospreys occupy the penthouse suites and spread their wings to shade their young from the sun, while calling for their mates to bring the family food. Their mates obey and bring fish to feed the family.

In the lower regions, male red-winged blackbirds screech at any intruder that comes near their nestlings hidden among the cattail roots; the sparrow-like females often leave their nest to encourage their mates’ belligerence. Tree swallows take over bluebird housing, flying in with gobs of insects to feed their young and flying out with gobs of that food after it had been digested. Mother mallards don’t have to teach their ducklings how to swim, but they do have to teach them where to swim when they are vulnerable.

On the waterfront, June is when the schooners and other sailing coastal cruisers come to our Great Cove to moor overnight and to provide their passengers with the opportunity to tour the WoodenBoat School here. They arrived and departed in this June’s rain and shine: the red-trimmed/gray-hulled Lewis R. French; the red-sailed/green-hulled Angelique; the white-trimmed/gray-hulled Mary Day, and the wood-trimmed/white-hulled Ladona.

On the working waterfront, June is when most of our fishermen (male and female) begin the summer coastal water lobster season at our Naskeag Harbor. It’s when they load their traps, lines, and buoys onto their vessels to take them out and set them in their favorite spots.

There also is an educational waterfront in Great Cove, where the WoodenBoat School’s sailing classes begin in June. Sometimes, there was no wind worthy of raising a sail, a time for actual and metaphysical reflection.

At other times, it was cold. windy, and drizzly for those attending open-air classes and learning the ins and outs of a 12 1/2-foot sailboat or learning how to row and sail a 28-foot double-ended open boat in bad weather.

And, often, it was a glorious time when the new sailors captured and held the harmony that plays between wind and water on a sunny day.

Finally, June also has its glorious times in the gardens. Among many moments, it’s when lilacs reach their peak density and fragrance before withering poignantly; when peonies are opening to their fullest lushness; when cultivated day lilies begin their daily arrivals and departures; when the tight buds of rhododendrons explode into flowers, and when poppies behave outrageously.

(All images shown above were taken in Brooklin, Maine, dirung June 2022.)

In the Right Place: Peakness

Peonies seem to be at their peak in this area now. Here we peer into the soul of an unusual peach-colored peony in full bloom today:

For those of you who like your garden flowers big, dramatic, complex, varied, and long-living, peonies are a good choice. (Some reportedly still are producing flowers at the age of 100 years.)

Peonies (usually pronounced “PEE-uh-knees”) are named in honor of Paeon, the Greek god of medicine; and, indeed, their flowers and other parts have been used in Asian medicines and teas for centuries. The roots of white peonies are among the oldest known traditional Chinese medicines.

(Images taken in Brooklin and Blue Hill, Maine, in May and June , 2022.)

In the Right Place: Neat

One by one, the local fishing vessels are being loaded with their lobster traps at Naskeag Harbor, where the beginning of the coastal water lobster season has been unfolding for more than a week.

One of the things that is fascinating about this process is how neat and efficient most of the fishermen are in transporting and stacking their traps, each of which has been stuffed like a colorful pepper with coiled lines and bright buoys.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 27 [truck] and 28 [vessel], 2022.)

In the Right Place: A Beauty by Any Other Name

Here you see the small schooner Ladona sailing elegantly into Great Cove as the sun set Sunday evening. She was on a four-night cruise that featured live music, according to her schedule.

She moored overnight and awoke to a cold and windy morning with part sun. Her passengers disembarked and visited the WoodenBoat School campus.

As the wind increased, it started to rain . Ladona reefed and raised sails, weighed anchor, hoisted her jib sails while getting underway, and sailed north into Eggemoggin Reach.:

Ladona (usually pronounced here as “lah-DOE-nah”) is an 83-foot schooner out of Rockland, Maine. She was launched under that name as a racing yacht in 1922 in East Boothbay, Maine, and reportedly took first in her class in the 1933 Bermuda Cup. She still remains one of the fastest windjammers in the Maine fleet.

She reportedly was named after a Civil War gunship on which her original owner’s father had served, but research indicates that her name was misspelled – the Civil War vessel apparently was named Lodona. not Ladona.

Ladona, herself, performed Navy duty as a submarine coastal patrol vessel during World War II. After the War, she apparently trawled for fish out of Stonington, Connecticut, under the name Jane Doré. She was renovated in 1971 as a training vessel and named Nathaniel Bowditch, after the founder of modern sea navigation.

She kept that name when she moved to Maine in the 1980s and became a coastal passenger cruiser. In 2014-2015, she was extensively restored again, given luxury appointments, and rechristened with her original name, Ladona. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 26 and 27, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Osprey Report -- Breaking News!

Harriet has done it again: She and Ozzie have three nestlings, as you’ll see here if you look closely:

Of course, the first two born will be named David and Ricky to keep up Nelson Family traditions; the third will be named June in honor of the month of her birth. We have no idea of the sex of any of them, of course, but the names will facilitate further reports on their development. It is not unusual for the last born and smallest osprey hatchling to be bullied by her siblings and even mysteriously disappear.

Harriet has had three offspring each of the last four years that I’ve been monitoring the nest, which reportedly is the usual number of hatchlings that ospreys have. However, last year, the smallest one disappeared after about a month of jostling.

We know from their size and eye color that these new ospreys are a few days old. They are born with blue eyes, which turn red in a few days, and then turn golden when the birds mature. (Images taken on June 26, 2022.)

In the Right Place: Day Sailing

Here you see the schooner Mary Day weighing anchor while getting help from her yawl boat in light air on Wednesday.

She was in Great Cove after overnighting here. According to her schedule, she was on a four-day cruise to celebrate the summer solstice while also visiting Down East lighthouses.

Mary is a 125-foot schooner with classic mercantile coastal cruiser lines, but she was built in 1962 just for passenger cruises. (She reportedly has heat in every tourist cabin.) She was built in South Bristol, Maine, and named after the wife of the late Captain Havilah Hawkins, Senior, who designed the vessel and owned her for about 20 years. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on June 24, 2022.)