In the Right Place: Common Scents

The speckled hoods (spathes) of eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) have been emerging from the watery bogs here for about a week, which is a little early. The cluster shown here was photographed yesterday morning.

Skunk cabbages are among the first wild plants to emerge and flower during our spring. They protect themselves from the icy conditions by generating their own heat through a process called thermogenesis. Their tiny flowers emerge inside the spathes, growing from a fleshy internal bulb called a spadix and usually not seen by humans. These flowers produce a gagging odor that smells like rotting meat to us, but apparently smells delicious to many pollinating insects that crawl into the spathes.

The large, beautiful skunk cabbage leaves usually start to mature in May here, but it looks like they may be earlier this year. Here’s a May 25, 2022, image:

You should be careful not to barge through these leaves and break them, unless you’re looking for a way to keep people at a distance. (Primary image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 18, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Shout-Out Time

We’re going through a foggy snow melt now and hoping that we’ve seen the last of the big (plowable) snowstorms. It’s time to give a shout-out to our snow-plowing neighbors who did their usual excellent job in preparing and clearing our snowy roads and driveways during the unusually heavy snowfalls throughout the first half of March.

This image of a International 4900 using her wing plow to trim the road shoulder was taken on March 1:

This image of a Ford 350 clearing our driveway was taken on March 15:

We in New England have to fight the urge to take snowplows for granted, since they go about their jobs so professionally, often in the darkness of night. A little online research reveals that the first snowplow was a horse-drawn vehicle used in 1862 in Milwaukee. These plows were difficult to maneuver and created large piles of snow that blocked sideroads and sidewalks, which is one of the reasons cities constructed underground and elevated railways.

The first motorized snowplow was used in 1913 in New York City, and was followed there and elsewhere with the use of steam shovels, cranes, and snow-loading conveyer belts that transported snow into dump trucks. From that point, equipment evolved to a variety of sophisticated vehicles with highly maneuverable plows and talented drivers. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 1 and 15, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Good Environmental News

Our streams are gorged with water from melting snow. Here you see Patten Stream flowing robustly into Patten Bay yesterday. This is good environmental news, for a change.

Unlike last year, Maine in 2023 has been free of drought problems and has had ample ground water and stream flows. At about this time last year (March 22, 2022), about half the State was experiencing either abnormally dry or moderate drought conditions. Even parts of the Downeast coast were suffering from abnormally dry conditions and low stream flows last March.

(Image taken in Surry, Maine, on March 16, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Absorbing

Our lumbering nor’easter finally departed without a goodbye sometime last night after two days of blowing fat snowflakes in every direction.

The storm’s moody presence at times seemed to absorb all sound and color and make me feel like I was watching an old, silent black-and-white Downeast documentary, until the plow showed up:

(Images taken [in color] in Brooklin, Maine, on March 15, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Benign, But Not Over

It’s snowing again this morning, after we just got plowed out from yesterday’s 3-to-4 inches of powder.

Aside from a couple of half-second power snaps that did nothing but sting the computers, it’s been a benign storm that apparently has caused no significant problem here – except, perhaps, if you’re a Wild Turkey trying to make your rounds:

But, it’s not over: “Beware the Ides of March,” the soothsayer says. By the way, March 15 also was the day that Maine became the 23rd state; it was in 1820 as part of the infamous Missouri Compromise, although our northern borders with Canada were not finalized until 1842. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 15, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Calm Before the Nor’easter

Here’s this morning’s gray calm before the predicted nor’easter that might deliver us five inches of new snow and include wind gusts of 40 or more miles per hour:

When that image was taken, it was a warm 36°F with Northeast winds of 7 mph – however, the wind gusts were already at 24 mph.

We haven’t seen a deer in the field all morning. They seem to know when to hunker down. To brighten things up a bit, however, here’s an image of one of yesterday’s white-tails:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 13 [deer] and 14 [field], 2023.)

In the Right Place: Grand

Yesterday was dazzling, today is dreary, and tomorrow will be disturbing. And so it goes in Downeast Maine.

Let’s remember yesterday, which is when the images here were taken. The sun, in its favorite big blue sky, poured so much shine on our melting snow that the glare made you wince; but, you couldn’t not-watch:

Fortunately, the woods were dappled delights to the eyes, and virtually all of the ice was gone from the country lane surfaces:

Today, we’re in a mostly cloudy prelude to another winter storm that’s predicted to begin tomorrow with increasingly heavy snow and winds that could exceed 40 mph.

Nonetheless, yesterday was grand and there will be others like it soon. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 12, 2023.)

In the Right Place: American Victorian

Here you see Brooklin’s iconic Beth Eden Chapel in Friday morning’s sunshine. This one-room church and meeting place was completed in 1900 and dedicated as “a house for the worship of God favoring no one denomination.”

It’s not used much now, but it was once the center of a small community of hard-working people. They went there to offer prayers; celebrate christenings and weddings; join in rousing hymn-sings; weep at funerals, and discuss important matters.

Named in 2001 to the National Register of Historic Places, the Chapel is listed as an example of late Victorian architecture with interesting wood siding composed of wave-cut shingles and clapboard.

There are mature maple trees on both sides and, sometimes, you can see the shadows of the trees on the Chapel’s south side while looking through the windows at the maples on the north side:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 10, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Surprise of the Week

This bobcat came surprisingly close to our house early Thursday morning to sniff the scents of the night’s traffic under our birdfeeder.

I assume that he’s our old friend Robert, whom we’ve shown here before. He probably was hungry and having trouble hunting in the snow-clogged inner woods. Bobcats don’t do well in snow, and our snow has not fully melted.

These little felines usually try to avoid humans and often hunt in the half-light of dusk and dawn, when their remarkably good eyesight is an advantage. As with some of our white-tailed deer, Robert’s coat appears to be starting to change from its fall/winter tawny-gray to its spring/summer reddish-brown. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 9, 2023.)

In the Right Place: March of the Proverbs

This image of a captive African Lion appeared yesterday in my monthly column in the Ellsworth American.

To read the column about March proverbs, click here: http://www.5backroad.com/montly-column

In the Right Place: Positioning

This image of a small colony of herring gulls illustrates what had been a mystery to me until recently. These birds were sleeping and resting at Naskeag Point during a snow flurry on chilly Tuesday.

Note that most of them are sleeping with their beaks tucked under their shoulder blade (scapula) feathers. This is a very vulnerable, sensory-dulling position, especially for a large bird that can’t take off like a rocket when a predator comes by. Why would they take that increased risk?

It turns out that head-tucking significantly lowers birds’ respiratory and metabolic rates as compared to untucked sleeping, according to thermal imaging research. This means that tucking creates significantly less heat loss.

Now look at the image again. Note that not all of the birds are tucked in. One advantage of sleeping and resting in a group is that there is a likelihood that a few in the group will be awake at any given time and will be readier to give a warning.

(Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 7, 2023. Brooklin Weather today at 7 a.m.: partly cloudy; temperature 34°F; north-northwesterly wind at 11 mph with gusts of 20.)

In the Right Place: Indecision

Here you see today’s indecisive morning from Flye Point Ridge– she didn’t know whether to rain, snow, or let the sunshine in.

That’s one of our favorite red barns, well-sited high over Herrick Bay. It apparently is not a “working barn,” in the sense that it stores grain or shelters farm animals, but it’s a picturesque reminder of days gone by.

By the way, the word “barn” reportedly is derived from the Old English word “bere,” which specifically meant barley but generally meant grain.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 8, 2023. Brooklin Weather today at 7 a.m.: part cloudy; temperature 35°F; north-northwest wind at 8 mph with gusts of 21 mph.)

In the Right Place: Consequences

There are hidden consequences of snowstorms: Accumulated snow sometimes makes it difficult for wild turkeys to find natural ground food; plowed snow sometimes makes it impossible for outdoor people to do what they have to do:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 1 [turkey] and 5 [portable toilet], 2023. Brooklin Weather today at 6:15 a.m.: part cloudy; temperature 29°F (wind chill = 21°); northwest wind at 7 mph with gusts of 15.)

In the Right Place: Inconvenient Beauty

Here’s the morning view from Great Cove ridge yesterday after the latest snowstorm.

Here’s another view from within a stand of spruce and balsam fir trees:

It’s a beautiful inconvenience.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 5, 2023. Brooklin School Weather Station report today at 6:15 a.m.: clear; temperature 35°F; wind gusts of 25 mph from the west-northwest.)

In the Right Place: Scalloping Season Report

Here you see Fishing Vessel Tarrfish in today’s early morning light, stoically bearing ice and snow from yesterday’s significant storm.

In the summer, Tarrfish harvests lobsters. In the winter, she not only “drags” for Atlantic sea scallops with a bottom-skimming dredge, she also is a scallop diving platform for her owner/captain, David Tarr. He dives from her in a wet suit and air tank, hand-harvesting the more expensive “divers’ scallops.”

As of yesterday, the scalloping season “has gone well” with both price and catch being “decent,” according to David. Some well-fished areas are beginning to get shut down by the State to protect against over-harvesting, as usual, and the recent stormy weather has slowed harvesting down, he said. The State dragging season will end this month, but the diving season will continue through most of April.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 5, 2023. Weather data at 7:30 a.m.: clear; snow accumulation 12.5”; temperature 25°F [WC = 19°]; wind gusts from the west 7 MPH.)

In the Right Place: Bearding the Lion, Part II

This March lion is still roaring at 5:15 p.m., as I write this second post. It looks like we have about 8 inches so far. The temperature is 27°F (wind chill = 19°) with Northeast winds gusting up to 14 miles per hour. The views from the home office have been spectacular all day:

The deer have to dig for food, but you can tell how well insulated they are by the snow on their backs — it’s not melting.

A few through-the-window images follow:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 4, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Bearding the Lion

Last night’s snow continued into the morning light here and is turning spruce branches into Santa Claus beards. I think that I’ve had enough of March’s roaring lion act; I’m beginning to wish that she would get an early start on her imitation of a bleating lamb soon.

For you weather fans: at 7:30 a.m. when these images were taken in falling snow, the temperature was 32°F (wind chill = 23°) and the wind was gusting up to 16 miles per hour.

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 4, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Fashionably Late

March delayed a day then came in yesterday like the lion we have come to expect, delivering a significant snowstorm that we document here:

We seem to be getting a lot of late snowstorms. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 2, 2023.)

In the Right Place: Cub Scouting

March came in like a lion cub yesterday. February 28th’s snowstorm gave birth to yesterday’s sunny, crystallized morning:

(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on March 1, 2023.)

February Postcards From Maine

February this year brought freezing Arctic winds down from Canada to create the coldest days we have ever had during the year’s second month. The icy air swooped over our warmer (but still cold) coastal waters and created “sea smoke” that rose from the waters, “sea mist” that crystalized on boats and coastal trees, and “sea ice” that rose and fell with the tides.

But February, being our most fickle month, gave us a wide variety of weather — unusually warm and sunny days, dank and foggy ones, and gray and snowy ones.

At times, our woods became crystalized, our larger streams became ice-caked, and our small brooks became solid.

Nonetheless, our fellow winter mammals seemed to glory in the February weather. Their coats remained sleek, their eyes were clear, and (unfortunately) their appetites for more easily-obtained garden plants and bushes increased.

On the waterfront, February means Atlantic scallop fishing. A good number of our lobster fishing vessels converted to scallop dredgers and braved the varying weather, tying up at the Brooklin Town Dock when they had to. Of course, many other fishing and recreational vessels continued taking their winter vacations “on the hard” during the month.

Despite its weather, February is the proud host of Valentine’s Day when we see hearts everywhere and get candy and flowers delivered by strange romantics.

Finally, February is the last month in which we can enjoy the sometimes sensational moods of winter sunsets. This February, we had a celestial bonus: the moon appeared at dawn on several days and was caught by the sun’s early light.

(All images in this post were taken in Down East Maine during February 2023.)