JOURNAL
A good stand of fir and spruce trees can provide swaying portals for sunbeams that seem to like to descend and dance on spongy moss while the incense of balsam hangs in the air.
In such a wood, it doesn’t take much imagination to see the light as nymphs flitting behind lichened trunks or to go the other way and realize how small we humans are in many ways compared to some other living neighbors.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 27 and 28, 2023.)
Here you see a Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar feasting yesterday on butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa, L.), a plant in the milkweed family:
Given the date, I believe that these little fellows wearing the royal colors now are part of the last graduating class of the year. (Sex assumed.) That is, their generation will metamorphize into the Monarch butterflies that will attempt to migrate many miles to the south next month, a voyage of incredible danger for such small and fragile creatures. Their parents apparently were in one of the latter-month generations that were born here and will die here.
The migrating Monarchs (Danaus plexippus plexippus) are a subspecies of the non-migratory Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) that mostly stay in southern Mexico, Central America, northern South America, and the Caribbean.
The migratory Monarch population reportedly has shrunk at least by between 22 and 72 percent over the past decade (2021 estimates). This disaster-in-the-making has been attributed primarily to man-made causes, including milkweed habitat loss, pesticides, and harsher weather caused by climate change. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 26, 2023.)
Here you see a wide-angle image of the waxing crescent moon that appeared in a BLUE sky above Great Cove at 8:25 p.m. on Tuesday:
Below, you’ll see a long-lens image of the same moon that appeared in a DARK sky two minutes before the first image:
Do we have here one of those Churchillian riddles wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma? No, I don’t think so.
As I understand it, we see a blue sky when the sun’s rainbow of light colors reaches the Earth’s atmosphere and becomes scattered or deflected. Each rainbow color has a wavelength and the shorter that length, the more that light is scattered toward our eyes. Violet and blue have the shortest wavelengths, so they can become the dominant color that we see when looking into the atmosphere.
Violet and blue sunlight can be so bright that it prevents us from seeing the light of (or on) stars and other objects outside our atmosphere. However, if we pierce through that brightness with a telescope or long camera lens, the sun’s scattered light will disappear as well as the color that it brings us. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 22, 2023.)
I spent about 20 minutes waiting for this Great Blue Heron to catch a fish or fly away so that I could get an action shot with those big wings spread. He did neither.
The most exertion he managed was to bend over occasionally and take a close look into the water for fish or to admire his reflection; it was hard to tell:
It was a warm day by Maine standards, but this bird didn’t appear to be uncomfortably hot, a state that you often can detect in Great Blues, our largest native wading birds. They principally show heat stress in two ways. First, they’ll stand with their wings down and out to allow cooling air to flow over themselves better.
Second, and more interesting, GBHs and some other birds will keep their beaks open and look like they’re gasping. That’s called “gular fluttering” because it involves quivering the gular (throat) muscle to help to carry heat out of the body quickly through lungs and air sacs, while bringing in cool air to regulate body temperature. Think of it as bird panting.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 20, 2023.)
There was just one thing wrong with Monday morning at Great Cove. Sure, it was a beautiful day: sunny, yet cool; big, cloudless sky, and intriguing boats posing alluringly so that we could see two views of their lines instead of one.
HOWEVER, there was little more than a snake’s breath of wind. The WoodenBoat School class on open boat sailing appeared to be giving up and ROWING their Caledonia Yawl back to its mooring, as you’ll see if you look closely at the above image and the one below
As for the first image above, the Caledonia under sail and oars at 9 o’clock is a 19.5’ double-ender named “Swifty”; at 6 o’clock, there’s an 18’ Westpointer named “Geronimo”; at 3 o’clock, there’s an 18’8” Mackinaw ketch that I’ve only heard called “the Mackinaw”; and, at 12 o’clock, there’s a catboat named “Fiona” that looks to be about 16’ long.
Here’s “Swifty” when she got to her mooring buoy:
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 21, 2023.)
I learned a lesson yesterday. I went to pick a luscious-looking wild blackberry, which was slightly blurry because I didn’t have my close-up (reading) glasses on. All of a sudden, an insect launched from the fruit and was buzzing viciously in my face. I backed off with a lurch and the insect went back to its berry, as you see here:
Yes, Eastern Yellow Jackets (Vespula maculifrons) feed on blackberries. They also are among our most aggressive wasps and known to deliver a very painful sting to humans who annoy them. They eat other insects, but are classified as “frugivores” because they also obtain carbohydrates from fruit, nectar, and honeydew (a sugar-rich liquid secreted by aphids) in the wild.
In recreational areas, they often feast on the dregs of soft drinks and other sugary human foods. In fact, in addition to being aggressive, they can be gluttonous and have been known to get fall-down drunk after consuming too much fermented honeydew. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 23, 2023.)
Here you see a sight that we haven’t seen for a while. It’s the distinctive cutter “Norna” in Great Cove Monday. Her two-year Atlantic Ocean circumnavigation was featured in the book Accidental Sailor Girl by Kourtney Patterson (2014, Paper Sailor, Inc.). She’s had quite a history.
“Norna” was built and launched in Denmark in 1988 and sailed to St. Augustine, Florida, where she was blown apart in a propane explosion, according to the reports. She was bought for $10.00 and rebuilt over a 10-year period before sailing the high seas again for several years. One 2021 report indicated that she was on-the-hard in Maine and up for sale and she appears to have a Maine registration number on her bow. It’s good to see her sailing again.
Information from the technical reports: “Norna” is 38’ long on deck with a 12.5’ beam (widest part). She’s got quite a combination of woods. Her lapstrake (overlapping planked) hull is larch on oak with copper rivets and Monel (nickel-and copper-based) fastenings. Her mast is built from Sitka Spruce, her bowsprit and gaff boom from larch, and the boom and yard from Douglas fir. She sails mostly with a gaff-rigged mainsail and two jibs, but has two rectangular sails that can be rigged from her yardarm, as well. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 21, 2023)
I had to smile yesterday morning while watching a local sorority of white-tailed deer work their way through our North Field. There were six does, two yearlings, and a summer fawn. The field is high with goldenrod, tansy, and Queen Anne’s lace, but there still are sweet green slips that are moist and tasty.
The fawn was racing back and forth, gamboling raucously with one of the yearlings around and through the group. It suddenly stopped and walked over to a doe, which stared at it several seconds, as you see here:
And then – here comes the smile – the doe gave the fawn a real good neck hug and the fawn enjoyed it as much as any well-stroked cat:
The fawn then walked off, subdued.
I have no way of knowing what I saw, but I do like to imagine endings to stories that need them. I imagine that the fawn was a young buck and he was driving the slow- browsing adults crazy. His Mom called him over and gave him a stern lecture. Mom then “said” (audibly or not) “Now, be a good boy and play slowly.” And, as good Moms do, she hugged him hard and let him go. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 21, 2023.)
We’re on the downslope of August and, lately, the woods have been lush, the soil moist, the streams flowing well, and the temperatures cool-to-moderate.
Often in prior years at this time, leaves were beginning to wilt, grasses were browning, and soils and streams were dry or virtually dry. It also could be hot by Maine standards, which means anything the reaches 80 degrees (F) or above. But we’ve had more fog and rain this year.
I should mention with gratitude that the images shown here are of well-kept wooded paths on a neighboring property – and, by well-kept, I mean not overly-kept. We and our wildlife don’t want the city park look here.
(Images taken on August 19, 2023.)
Here you see long-distance views of the schooner Stephen Taber departing Great Cove in light rain on Thursday after overnighting here. She was on a six-night cruise to explore “Penobscot Bay’s Hidden Gems,” according to her schedule.
The 110-foot Taber was built in 1871 and is a National Historic Landmark that now hails from Rockland, Maine. Curiously, she was named after a once-famed, but now forgotten,19th Century New York politician.
As with many coastal cargo cruisers in the 1800s, the Taber was built with a flat bottom to “ground out” and discharge her cargo without the need for a pier. She does have a centerboard to lower as a keel during cruising, but has no motor; her motorized yawl boat Babe pushes her in light air.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 17, 2023.)
Here you see an unusual scene at Naskeag Harbor on Thursday: Dark lobster traps containing large orange poly buoys being trailered at a peak time in the season.
With help from a seasoned fishing vessel captain and a little research, I think I know what was going on. That apparently was equipment for the annual Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) “Ventless Trap Survey.”
Since 2006, DMR has been collaborating with fishermen who bid to participate in a summer survey of juvenile lobsters. Among the goals is to obtain quality data on the size and condition of the youngsters in order to help DMR manage the lobster fishery most effectively. They usually collect on two days a month in June through August.
Unlike commercial traps, which have vents on them to allow the little lobsters to escape, the DMR study traps are ventless and capture more youngsters. DMR staff members are on the private fishing vessels and inspect, measure, and throw all the lobsters that are caught back into the water, according to reports. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 17, 2023).
The woods are crawling (well, at least popping) with mushrooms, small and big. Here are images of two of the edible fungi, one small and the other big.
Above, you see a cluster of small Hygrophoaceae mushrooms, a family known as waxcaps, waxy caps, or sometimes just waxies. They have that name because of their waxy appearance and feel. The red species shown here, found in the leaf litter of mixed woods, apparently are scarlet waxies (Hygrophorus coccineus), some of which were only ½” tall.
Below, you’ll see an image of a large white mushroom, found under spruce trees. It’s part of the Agaricus genus and probably the “horse mushroom” species known as Agaricus arvensis. It was more than 5” tall. It’s called a horse mushroom because many are found near stables where they prosper on horse manure fertilization.
Thanks to mushroom expert David Porter for the identification assistance. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 16, 2023.)
Yesterday was a Mary Oliver day for those of us who emulate her by regularly going on solitary walks in the woods. She liked solitary walks in the sense that she preferred not to be with another person in the woods.
However, judging from my understanding of her poetry, it wasn’t solitude (In the sense of wanting to be alone) that she felt in the woods, and it certainly wasn’t loneliness. She appeared to be well aware that the woods are crowded with lives that imbue a unified spirit that can be enjoyed best with heightened awareness and patience. (Image taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 16, 2023.)
Here you see the Friendship Sloop Belford Gray in Great Cove, as the sun tries to pierce Sunday’s fog:
On an earlier, sunny day, a class at the WoodenBoat School took her around the Cove under only two of her five sails, her mainsail and staysail. (See the image in the first Comment space.)
According to WBS records, the Belford’s design is based on small-scale drawings of a Friendship Sloop that were found in a 1907 magazine by Jon Wilson, founder of the School and WoodenBoat Publications. At Jon’s request, famed Brooklin naval architect Joel White created building plans for the sloop.
She was built during the years 1987-1992 by Gordon Swift, an instructor at WBS, in a series of classes and volunteer sessions at the School. She’s 28.5’ long and 9.5’ wide at her beam (widest part), according to WBS data. Her name honors Belford Gray, another WBS instructor who was a highly regarded wooden boatbuilder.
Here’s a Leighton Archive imaged of her fully rigged under her five sails (mainsail, main topsail, jib topsail, jib, staysail):
Leighton Archive Image
(Primary Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 3 and 13, 2023.)
Common Blackberries here are starting to ripen into delicacies for those of us who don’t mind putting our hands in thorny places and consuming unwashed fruit. The black ones shown here were scrumptious; the dark red ones were still too tart for my taste.
These wild brambles also are known as Allegheny Blackberries, as their scientific name indicates (Rubus allegeniensis). They’re members of the rose family and native to eastern and central North America.
Common Blackberries on the vine can be difficult for the casual observer to differentiate from their cousins, Black Raspberries, which grow in the east as Rubus occidentalis and along the west coast as R. leucodermis.
However, the identification trick is to pluck a berry off its vine and look at its center, where it was attached to the stem. If that center is hollow like a thimble, it’s a raspberry; if that center is “corked” like a jug, it’s a blackberry. Think “blocked berries are blackberries,” and don’t worry about eating the cork.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 14, 2023.)
Recent rains have eliminated summer dryness in Down East Maine, at least for now. The marsh ponds are full and one of our loveliest native plants, the Fragrant Waterlily, is in abundance.
The sweet-smelling flowers of the plant (Nymphaea odorata) are at their best when they open in the early morning, especially when bejeweled by a heavy dew or light rain:
The Lily Pads are the plant’s flat, round, floating leaves. They’re also the plant’s “lungs”: Water Lilies "breathe" through specialized pores in the tops of their pads called stomata. These tiny openings exchange carbon dioxide and water vapor between the leaf and the air, a benefit in addition to beauty.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 9 and 11, 2023.)
Here you see the schooner J&E Riggin leaving Great Cove yesterday morning after overnighting there. Her published schedule says that she was on a four-day sky-gazing cruise, including a Perseids meteor shower watch.
Yesterday, there was virtually no wind when the Riggin departed and she did not raise sails. She has no internal engine. Instead, she reliedson her yawl boat to push her:
The Riggin was built in 1927 as an oyster dredger for Charles Riggin of New Jersey. He named her for his two sons, Jacob and Edward (“J&E”) Riggin. She’s 120 feet long overall with a beam (widest part) of 23 feet.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 12, 2023.)
Tiger Lilies are emerging here, The colors of their dark-speckled orange flowers are why they’re called Tigers, but they look more like a form of marine life that you’d see swimming near an ocean reef.
The images above and below show various stages of the Tiger Lily plant (Lilium lancifolium or Lilium tigrinum). The long flower buds are green at first and then turn orange. As the flower grows, its petals curl back and “stamens” emerge from the flower’s center. They hold out elongated “anthers” full of pollen at their ends for reproduction.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 9, 2023.)
This image of a juvenile Osprey appears in my monthly column in the current Ellsworth American.
To read the column about the difficulties of growing up as an osprey, click here: http://www.5backroad.com/montly-column
Here you see Grace Bailey departing Great Cove on Sunday morning as much younger sailboats prepare to do the same. The vessels overnighted in the Cove after the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta.
Grace is a 118-foot schooner out of Camden. She was built in 1882 for Edwin Bailey, who named her after his daughter. She was renamed Mattie in 1906 after being rebuilt then. In 1990, she was fully restored and rechristened with her original name.
As with most of her kind, Grace has two “bald” masts (devoid of added top masts) and a low-slung hull that sheers up to a long sharp bow. She is flat-bottomed to allow her to access shallow waters and be beached to off-load cargo without needing a pier. Nonetheless, she has a retractable keel (“centerboard”) that can be inserted through her hull for serious sailing. And, sailing is all she is capable of on her own -- Grace has no internal engine. (Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on August 6, 2023.)
