The Wrack

It's a 20-year tradition: In each season of every year since 1989, birders from the York County Audubon Society have scoured the forests and fields, marshes and beach of the Wells Reserve, intent on counting all the birds they can see or hear in 3 hours. Teams spread out to cover four routes, never knowing what they'll encounter.

At yesterday's post-survey compilation, it was clear that the Muskie and Pilger trails were the hot spot. That's where most of the 127 warblers of 15 species were found.

Survey coordinator Joanne Stevens and data handler Nancy McReel have shared the full results from one of the birdiest quarterly surveys the Audubon team has done75 species.&

It is the first warm spring day and just as the sun starts to set, the air comes alive with?high pitched peeping and what sounds like ducks quacking in the woods. That is when you know spring has officially arrived. The sounds are coming from two types of small frogs:?spring peepers and wood frogs.

It's the 20th anniversary of bird banding at the Wells Reserve this year. The master bander who has been at the heart of the program all this time, June Ficker, recently looked back at her 1988 records and provided this summary: Operated 6 12-meter mist nets from May 27 to August 31 for a total of 14 Wednesdays from 6 to 10:30 am. Species banded: 19Birds banded: 69Gray Ca…

Michele Dionne, Director of Research at the Reserve, has an ongoing collaboration with Dr. Celia Chen at Dartmouth College to study how mercury moves through the salt marsh system. When some of her lab crew headed out to catch Atlantic silversides to be tested for mercury content, we got some of these small fish instead, which we originally thought must be herring.

Simple measures can help prevent disease. Do the tick tuck.

The pattern strengthens over time. Twice a year, in November and February, the Wells Reserve parking lot and adjacent grassy areas attract a small number of Snow Buntings. Without surveilling the area more regularly than I do, it's hard to say whether they're around every day. Whenever they do appear, it's a brightening experience. The four that were pecking through sandy puddles and winter-worn weeds this …

Time flies. Its nearly a year since the last Winged Wednesday. My 2007 quest for 99 Common Birds has ended 19 species shy of the goal, even though I compiled a list of 112 species at the Wells Reserve during the year. It is an interesting coincidence that I also tallied just 80 of the 99 so-called common species during 2006. Most of my misses in 06 were ticked in 07, but once again it is clear…

The Wells Reserve today hosted Senator Susan M. Collins for "Mercury in a Maine Estuary & National Mercury Monitoring Event," presented in conjunction with the BioDiversity Research Institute (BRI).

On a recent kayak trip down a narrow winding river, a beaver and I passed closely by, I was on a leisurely paddle and it was on a mission. I think leisure is a foreign concept to this creature. Thus the adage: Busy as a beaver.

We as humans seem to have developed a love/hate relationship with this industrious large rodent. It is very much like us in the fact that it is skillful at manipulating its environment to suit its own needs. The Native Americans thought the similarity was so great that they named the beaver "the little people." Food and security are what it works long hours to achieve.

The Wells Reserve couldn't run without its army of volunteers. They help with every aspect of activity here. One task that I never have problem getting volunteers to help with is going out into the field with insect nets and catching dragonflies and butterflies. In 1999 the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife started a state-wide survey of dragonflies. That survey concluded in 2004. This year …