The Wrack

Several Least Terns were over the Webhannet marsh today, scanning for fish in the pools and salt-marsh pannes below and diving to snag them when the moment was right. Before long they will be gathering on Laudholm Beach and elsewhere along the Maine coast to begin their breeding season.…

About 12 inches of rain fell in parts of southern Maine and seacoast New Hampshire between the 12th and 16th of May, and the sudden flow of fresh water into normally salty estuarine and marine waters will impact fish and shellfish in the region.

Bobolinks were back in force at the Wells Reserve today. Their song might be the craziest in the region? it's so much fun to hear them bubbling with enthusiasm! Today, at least four sang from fields near the main campus, sharing the space with Eastern Meadowlarks.It's fortunate that the reserve's Resource Advisory Committee created a grassland management plan several years ago, recognizing the value o…

At the Reserve's Earth Day Celebration, the Kittery Trading Post Outdoor Academy allowed visitors to input their living styles into a computer program that would then give them their "ecological footprint." An ecological footprint is the amount of land and water a person uses to support his or her daily lifestyle. This includes what types of food a person eats, vehicle gas consumption, and size of his or her house…

Rain or shine meant rain. Not so much rain, perhaps, as drizzle, but the Forest Learning Shelter provided good cover for a meeting place and starting point for a half-hour walk.Cool, damp, breezy weather kept bird activity to a minimum; no migratory burst in evidence, though a couple of "new" warblers have arrived and the morning list held 20-plus species.…

Today the National Estuarine Research Reserve System adds its 27th site, this one along the coast of Texas. The Mission-Aransas Reserve is the third largest reserve in the system, comprising 185,708 acres of contiguous wetland, terrestrial, and marine environments.

This morning in the rain sang a mimic, repeating phrases once or twice then moving on. The bird was by the pumpkin patch? or maybe in the stand of lilacs. I was on my routine approach to the big house.I had to take a couple of steps toward the sound to enjoy it  and to be sure I wasn't hearing a mockingbird. No: Thrasher. First of the spring.That's this Winged Wednesday. Next one starts a…

Visitors to the Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farm paraded down the Saw-whet Owl Trail, in cadence to folk-bluegrass music, to celebrate the dedication of the new Forest Learning Shelter and Interpretive Trail. Some visitors stood, while others rested on tree stump seats, as Don Somers, Paul Dest, and Sherry Huber spoke of the mission of the Forest Learning Shelter and the importance of educating people to be stewards and good users of the forest.

Four large signs and several smaller ones were installed along the Saw-whet Owl and Farley trails this morning, setting the stage for Earth Day's dedication of the new Forest Learning Shelter.

More singing in the air today. The avian highlight of a brief noontime walk was a Merlin winging northward low over a field beyond the barns.…