The Wrack

The Atlantic tomcod is a hardy, year-round inhabitant that never abandons its home for the promise of warmer water.

Dana Fischer of Portland was the lucky winner of our 2006 kayak raffle. His daughter Eve came to the Reserve today with her mom and enjoyed giving the kayak a "dry run" out on the Laudholm lawn. Congratulations, Fischer family! The kayak raffle, for an O…

Hundreds of swallows coursed over Laudholm Beach today, swarming to the dunes and back in a mass oblivious to an onlooker. They were mostly Tree Swallows, with a few Barns and fewer Banks/Rough-wingeds mixed in. …

The farmhouse shingles get a fresh coat of sealant.

That was the bird of the day! A woodland hawk hunting for breakfast found its course suddenly interrupted by the woven nylon of our bird bander's mist net. It was a Coopers Hawk, just a few months old, and with its 285 mm wing chord proved to be a female.…

One icehouse chrysalis has become translucent and a near-adult monarch is now visible through the case. Thanks, Laura L, for the irresistible photographic update.…

The Reserve's milkweed feeds multitudes of monarch larvae. The adult butterflies seem to be especially abundant this summer and signs that they're reproducing are commonplace. The clapboard siding of the icehouse has proven popular with monarch caterpillars. He…

Too hot to move. That's what the birds must be thinking. The banders had the nets up soon after 5:30, by which time it was already over 80 degrees. Six hours later, they closed them down, having completed the requisite duration. By then it was 95.Just three birds in those six hours, all hatch-year captives? two Black-and-white Warblers and an American Robin.Three. That's the banders' lowes…

Mays flooding washed away two of the Reserves water data-logger units used for the System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP). Replacing the units was well timed, though, as equipment upgrades now allow public access to real-time data on weather and water quality.

Mosquitoes. Visitor complaint #1.