The soil is powder dry on top, but a few inches below I find damp dark brown dirt. So different from the sandy clay at my own home. Hopefully perfect for growing the vegetable seeds and seedlings I so carefully planted today. A friend has loaned me her garden spot this year as my yard is too …
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Video: Bringing Nature Home
Native plants are a crucial part of the ecosystems that support Maine's birds and wildlife. Through our "Bringing Nature Home" initiative, Maine Audubon is empowering communities to plant and grow native plants and transform the landscapes around them. You can learn more about this work in the …
Nature Moments: Lichen Partnerships
Those splotches on rocks, tree trunks and twigs? Lichens! Lichens are actually a symbiosis between two major divisions of life, neither of which is a plant. And you can find them everywhere, as long as the air is not polluted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpnROtN-JhE Nature Moments are …
Best of the Best: Thank you Falmouth!
Maine Audubon is pleased to be chosen as the #1 Nonprofit Agency in Falmouth by the readers of the Forecaster. We're so grateful to our neighbors who voted for us in this category! The ongoing support we receive from the Falmouth community for our work on behalf of Maine's wildlife and habitat is …
Nature Moments: How to Build a Bird’s Nest
If you ever have the opportunity (and permits) to dissect an abandoned bird nest, you'll discover that female birds are ingenious architects of solid, well-insulated, camouflaged homes for their eggs. They're able to do it without practice or instruction, using found objects like rootlets, feathers, …
Road to Redemption: Maine’s Bottle Bill Turns 40!
On June 1, 1978, Maine's innovative "Bottle Bill" went into effect. Forty years later, it's hard for many Mainers to picture doing anything with their bottles and cans other than redeeming them for their deposit. But it's worth remembering that the path to this bill was long, winding...and lined …
Andy’s Note: Stop and Smell the Peonies
Happy June, friends. Did you know Maine has more total annual hours of daylight than Florida? This is the month where that little-known fact becomes a little easier to believe. There is so much going on in the natural world. Many species are focused on raising their families -- and we all have …
Nature Moments: Birdsong Baby Babble
Every bird in the world makes some kind of sound. But in order to develop a proper song, explains Nat Wheelwright, some of them need to listen to adults and then practice what they hear, in the same way children learn to speak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JymW5QXppKE Nature Moments are …
Sally’s Studies: Flocking Chickadees and a Prospecting Pileated
Flocking Chickadees Suddenly I was surrounded. I stopped, stood still. A flock of chickadees moved around me in waves like the sea gently moving towards shore. Several dropped down to the ground, others flew into the center of a small fir, others arched high into the trees -- each one searching for …