The Wrack

With a camera and a computer you have everything you need to monitor habitat change over time at the Wells Reserve.

Volunteer naturalist Eileen Willard spotted this Goldsmith Beetle (Cotalpa lanigera) outside the Visitor Center on May 31 and telephoned insect enthusiast Brandon Woo to tell him about it. Brandon came and photographed the uncommon insect.

Rainwater harvesting can reduce flooding and erosion issues, as well as surface-water contamination, by slowing down and decreasing the volume of stormwater runoff. One way to harvest rainwater is by using a catchment technique such as rain barrels.

Flooding in York County  is it becoming more common? Roads impassable, bridges washed out, basements full... the stories have become all too familiar in recent years.

The Mother's Day storm in May 2006 seemed an anomaly till the Patriots' Day storm hit in 2007. This March, the Wells Reserve measured 16 inches of rainfall, 5 inches more than Portland's record-setting 11. The roads closed and the sump pumps hummed again.

Once English colonists settled this land, it was home to only four families: Boade, Symonds, Clark, and Lord. Here is an abbreviated list of key historical events leading up to the dedication of the Wells Reserve&

1641?? ?Henry Boade family moves to the site.

1653?? ?Kings Highway is established past Boades house to the mouth of the Little River.

1655?? ?Boade sells the property to the Symonds brothers. William Symonds becomes sole owner by the end of 1657.

1677?? ?King Philips War. Symonds family flees to nearby garrison. Indians burn the farmhouse to the ground.

Moose are not often seen at the Wells Reserve, but one was photographed on Memorial Day by Stephen Ingraham, who kindly shared these images.

I fell short this morning. An unfamiliar song kept me following a skulker in the thick shrubs along the Barrier Beach Trail. Sweet sisiswit switchew ended up in my notebook. With a Chestnut-sided Warbler behind me and a Common Yellowthroat in front, I kept trying to convince myself this was an aberrant song from a resident, probably an inexperienced yellowthroat stumbling through its early attempts. Still, it was consistent, except for those occasions when immediately after finishing a song it would repeat itself once or twice as if mumbling an addendum.

The Marine Invader Monitoring and Information Collaborative (MIMIC) is a network of trained volunteers, scientists, and state and federal workers who monitor marine invasive species along the Gulf of Maine. The Wells Reserve coordinates Maine's program.

Rick Chase from Chase Farm in Wells brought Bud and Bill to plow the Punkinfiddle corn and pumpkin patch, which is doubling in size this year.