The Wrack

While monitoring for invasive species this week with the MIMIC program, I came across a species of shrimp I have not seen in my 4 years of monitoring at this site. The species is Palaemon elegans…

Our first International Migratory Bird Day event was a big success on Saturday, with?200 people in attendance!?Scott Richardson led a bird walk on the trails of the Reserve, where?participants were treated to a white-eyed vireo sighting.

The avian community at the end of March is not dramatically different than the one that has been around for the past few months, but behaviors have changed. The birds are getting noisier.

An update of the Wells Reserve bird list has been overdue for some time. Now it's done.

Download the latest Wells Reserve bird list

In the past couple of weeks, it's been hard not to notice the bright yellow plastic cards that have appeared in clumps of vegetation. Yesterday, I caught up with the guy who has been hanging and collecting them, field research entomologist Phil Stack. He filled me in; they are traps for catching fruit flies.

On September 17, 2009, this bird was caught in a mist net at the Wells Reserve and brought to the banding station under the copper beech. June Ficker, our highly knowledgeable and experienced bird bander, wanted photo documentation of this individual to share with other experts. Was she overly cautious or onto something? How would you identify this bird?

Fishing has begun on the Saco River. On four dates in late June, researchers set fyke nets at eight sites along the river. They surveyed day and night and, except for one frightening microburst, had excellent conditions for field work. Hundreds of fish and shellfish were caught, identified, measured, and released. This project, focusing mainly on fish using the salt marsh, is part of a collaborative study with the University of New England that looks at the effects of upland land use on the river ecosystem.

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.

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.