Nature Notes

Mystery "Creature"

2008-09-12T17:28:00.001-07:00

Can you guess what this is? Answer coming on Monday...

Where's that pot 'o gold?

2008-03-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Wearin' of the green, shamrocks, leprechauns, shillelaghs, St. Patrick chasing all the snakes out of Ireland, a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow....all symbols for today. Well shamrocks and shillelaghs are real, there are no snakes in Ireland, and some people believe in leprechauns (or pretend to):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8 photo by absolutwade

But some Irish lore is pure blarney! The blarney stone itself is sham rock, more of a giant brick really. St. Patrick wasn't even Irish! He was born in England. And those leprechauns are really pulling one over on us! The end of the rainbow ....rainbows have no ends; they're really circles. We just see part of the arc of the rainbow circle. From a jet you can see the entire rainbow circle, it's called the glory. http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/gloim21.htm

But it was discovered long before air travel....visible from high mountains in the sun, looking down into fog.....and it's even neater because instead of a plane silhouette at its center is a spooky specter (much too tall to be a leprechaun). The Specter of the Brocken: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/droplets/glory.htm

As all rain-weary Mainers know, rainbows appear only when the sun peeks out during rainstorms, and to see a rainbow the sun must be at your back. The primary rainbow appears 42 degrees away from the antisolar point (directly opposite the sun).

Here are some cool facts for your green beer party tonight:
Seawater rainbows are slightly smaller, about 41 degrees away from the antisolar point. Check out this cool photo for proof: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/seabow.htm

Sometimes the luck of the Irish gives us double rainbows: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/sec.htm

To understand how and why the colors are backwards and fainter, try this fun page, and be sure to mouse over the slider! http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/ord2form.htm

Here's some real leprechaun magic for you. Watch for it during spring rainstorms! Why is it always brighter inside the rainbow and darker outside? http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/adband.htm

And what are those alternating faint bands of green/purple/green/purple you sometimes see inside the rainbow? (They are super and numerous!): http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/supers.htm

These supernumerary bows are formed by overlapping light waves with both reinforcing and canceling waves:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/supform.htm Their colors always remind me of the "paint with water" coloring books I had as a kid. As you stroked a wet brush across the page only purplish pinks and greens would appear.

No two people ever see the same rainbow! Because your own personal rainbow forms from raindrops in a circle 42 degrees from your antisolar point: http://eo.ucar.edu/rainbows/rnbw4.gif Even someone standing right next to you will see light refracted from different raindrops.

And as for the legend of spurious leprechauns, well if you want to hide gold where no one will ever find it, the end of a rainbow's a perfect place! But the origin of this story comes from eastern Europe, not Ireland. There it's said that angels put the gold at the end of the rainbow and only a naked man could find it! So, you better be careful about just how much green beer you imbibe!

To learn more about rainbows check out the rainbows page of Les Cowley's wonderful Atmospheric Optics website: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/bows.htm
Also, browse through Robert Greenler's amazing book "Rainbows, Halos, and Glories". It's one of my favorites with lots of photos and diagrams explaining the mysteries of rainbows and other sky phenomena.

Happy St. Patrick's Day from
Roy G. Biv, that colorful 'ol Irishman
Head Leprechaun
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

March Comes in Like a Lion!

2008-03-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

March roared in like a lion on the 1st with over 12 inches of blowing and drifting snow, but it's already becoming a little sheepish. On MDI snow in open areas is all but gone, persisting in forests and snow plow mountains. Recent storms mix snow, sleet and rain, teasing us with one last chance to preserve some snowflakes before winter's a memory. Some winter birds remain, like Northern Shrikes, Tree Sparrows, Evening Grosbeaks and a few Pine Grosbeaks. But winter's clearly on the wane.

March and April are always lions up in the night sky. Just "punch a hole in the bottom of the Big Dipper" and you'll arrive at Leo the Lion, his mane resembling a backwards question mark. An active solar wind is now hitting earth's magnetic field and strong auroras are forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Tonight looks clear, so keep watch!

Signs of spring are everywhere!
Common goldeneyes can be seen around Bar Island and sometimes one can catch them doing their head tossing courtship display.
Herring Gulls are also starting to "like" each other more.
Hooded Mergansers have begun to move to ponds with open patches of water,
While river otters are having fun cavorting on the ice at the Tarn.
Crows seem to have paired up. Eagles have been seen doing aerial courtship displays.
Best of all, to me....Redwing Blackbirds are starting to return to the thawing north!
And Grackles too! Their bronze blue plumage and striking golden eyes are a sight for my sore eyes.
Folks have seen Blue Jays and Cardinals nuptial feeding; i.e., gently passing a tidbit to their intended's beak.
Twigs of Red-osier Dogwood have become bright scarlet and

Red Maple buds look fire hydrant red.
Weeping willow branches have turned golden.

Warming days and frosty nights- can the maple sap run be far behind?

Enjoy this special season of late winter/early spring. There's much more than mud to look forward to! Keep your eyes and ears peeled for:
- the first waking woodchuck
- chipmunks at your feeder
- woodcocks will be back soon - listen for them peenting at twilight
- when will the first wood frogs quack this year?
- and place your bets on "Big Night" when scads of salamanders slither from the woods to chilly vernal pools to breed will occur this year. It happens during the first warm night rains and is a spectacle not to be missed!
- and check the marshes for the first flower of spring - skunk cabbage melting its way through the snow.

Thanks for your reports from the field and please keep them coming!
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Feeling Jumpy? It's Leap Day!

2008-02-29T12:18:00.000-08:00

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound… Here are the jumpers with their maximum distance in one leap. Arboreal species distances are limb to limb.

Happy Leap Day!

Bullfrog Rana catabeinsis 6.5 feet
Cougar Puma concolor 27 feet !!!
Red Fox Vulpes vulpes 15 feet
Meadow Jumping Mouse Zapus hudsonicus 3 feet
Woodland Jumping Mouse Napaeozapus insignis 13 feet!

Oh, go take a flying leap!!!
Flying Squirrel Glaucomys sabrinus 148 feet !!!
Gray Squirrel Sciurus carolinensis 19 feet
Red Squirrel Tamiasciurus hudsonicus 6 feet
Snowshoe Hare Lepus amaericanus 20 feet !!!!
(they don't call them Lepus for nothin'!)

Spittlebug Philaenus spumarius 2 feet
Cat flea Ctenocephalides felis 1 foot
Grasshoppers (many spp.) 3 feet
White-tailed Deer Odocoileus virginianus 40 feet
oh deer!

Take a leap,
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Blueprint of Life

2008-02-28T12:27:00.000-08:00

Did you see the movie Gattaca? Remember the double spiral staircase? Remember the credits? The letters making up the film's title: a,t, g, and c were a different color than the other letters. Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, Thymine. The photo of 2 snails? They are escargot (Helix), 2 of them...a double Helix. Got it yet? Stairway to Heaven?

On Februay 28, 1953 Watson and Crick figured out the structure of DNA, a double helix. They figured it out from Rosalind Franklin's X-ray pictures of DNA molecules. Watson and Crick won the Nobel Prize in 1962, becoming household names.
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/watson-bio.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1962/crick-bio.html

Franklin perished in obscurity, but you can read about her discovery and her life in 2 books: Rosalind Franklin and DNA and Rosalind Franklin, The Dark Lady of DNA. http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Rosalind_Franklin.html

The discovery of DNA and how it works is one of the paramount discoveries in biology, along with evolution,natural selection and life based on chemosynthesis, not photosynthesis, at the deep sea vents. DNA studies have revitalized most aspects of botany, zoology and paleontology, revising taxonomic relationships (systematics), genetics, and medicine.

The Dorr Museum of Natural History

In our shadow

2008-02-21T08:02:00.000-08:00

Last night's lunar eclipse was truly stunning! Before the eclipse, moonlight shone so brightly that it seemed like daylight. The albedo from snowclad fields made it bright enough to still see colors. Then the drama began... looking out my windows, the bright snowfields faded and an eerie darkness grew. It wasn't like the dimmed light of clouds passing over the moon. No white glow from clouded skies. Just darker and darker ground, with stars popping out overhead. Viewed from the dark skies of rural Maine, the moon turned dark orange as it entered earth's umbral shadow.

I went outside and stood on my backporch, clad in pajamas, coat and scarf. Wind whisked through pine branches and dried beech leaves rattled, still attached to saplings. The moon glowed deep umber and bright stars glittered. I hooted for Great Horned Owls, who I hope will nest in last year's crow nest in my yard, but the only answers were from my cats meowing inside. Standing there in my flip-flops, watching the remaining bright white arc of moon slowly melt away, I was reminded of roasting marshmallows 'round a campfire. White, ever so slowly turns mellow brown and then when it gets hot enough, ignites into glowing orange. It looked just like what was happening in the sky. And just like roasting marshmallows, watching an eclipse takes patience, maybe even more so, with no warming fire nor sugary reward.

But reward there was at totality! Suddenly the moon took on a 3D appearance, looking like one of those artists' conceptions of the view from another planet. When the moon is full it's so bright that it looks more like a disk than the sphere it is. But in our shadow, smoldering auburn, the moon appeared round. The "man in the moon" seemed to purse his lips in an expression of amazement. It was a spectacular sight with brilliant white Saturn just to the left of our orange orb and Regulus of Leo shimmering overhead! The moon punctuated the backwards question mark sickle of Leo the Lion's head with a giant dot, overwhelming Regulus' starpoint.

I have been asked why, during a lunar eclipse, that only the brighest stars become visible, making constellations easier to see. Whereas during a new moon, dim stars and the Milky Way blanket the sky making finding constellations a bit of a consternation. I was curious myself to see if the Milky Way would come out during this eclipse, but it did not. The answer is simply that even an eclipsed moon puts out a lot of light, obliterating dimmer stars. Guess being in our shadow isn't as eclipsing as earthlings might think.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T13:21:00.000-08:00

It's Valentine's Day, so here's a little
♥Animal Courtship ♥ quiz for you:
1. What does the courtship call of this bird sound like?
♥ Answer ♥
This owl’s song or call is supposed to sound like the sharpening or whetting of a saw, giving the bird its name: Sawwhet Owl. Listen for their incessant calls at night next month.

2. How do female river otters let male otters know when they are ready to mate?
♥ Answer ♥
You may think the answer is just common sense, but it’s really an uncommon scent. Females ready to breed produce a special courtship perfume in their scent deposits which males can detect.

3. What is this eagle "talon" you about wooing a valentine?
♥ Answer ♥
Bald Eagles perform amazing courtship displays in which pairs lock talons in mid air and then cartwheel down toward earth, separating at the last moment.

Last week this pair near Ellsworth got carried away, lost in the moment, and hit the ground, talons still locked. The man pictured, interrupted their reverie and the eagles unlatched and took off.

Front page Ellsworth American 2/7/08

4. How can the astute tidepool voyeur tell if Whorled Whelks are mating?
♥ Answer ♥
It’s not your grandma’s Lawrence Whelk! These snails get to rockin’ and a rollin’ during mating. Males internally fertilize females who mate with several partners before laying impressive egg cases.

5. How do lobster females attract a mate?
♥ Answer ♥
They urinate! Female sex pheromones are contained in their urine.

6. Muskrat Love: What does muskrat musk smell like?

♥ Answer ♥
Strawberries! No wonder they wrote a song about muskrat love!

7. Groundhogs are sound asleep on Groundhog Day, but when they do wake up in early spring they don’t look for their shadow. What are groundhogs looking for?
♥ Answer ♥
Male groundhogs wake up first and go around hunting for females still in their burrows or just awaking from hibernation so they can mate.

8. What do these male birds have to find beforethey begin courtship?

♥ Answer ♥
A gull-friend!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Guess Who's Birthday?!?

2008-02-12T08:54:00.000-08:00

While playing with your Lincoln logs today, build a "tree of life" and remember the other great man born on the very same day in 1809!

Happy Birthday Abe and Charles Darwin!

Happy Year of the Rat!

2008-02-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

It's the Chinese New Year of the Rat.

"Oh rats!" "You dirty rat!" Sometimes rats get a bad rap, but many folks love them, with pet rats as beloved members of the family. In honor of Year of the Rat, here are some mousings, er musings on rats:

Woodrats or packrats used to be abundant in southern New England. They are cute rodents with bushy tails and tales to tell. Packrat middens are windows into the past giving paleontologists evidence of past climates and anthropologists information on past peoples. Woodrats will collect almost anything! Nests today contain beer cans, keys and other accouterments of modern life.

The Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister) is our nearest native rat. It currently lives in 12 states, is listed as Endangered, Threatened or otherwise jeopardized in 9 of them, and has been "extirpated" from NY, CT and MA . It needs remote, rocky habitats (caves, boulder piles, outcroppings etc.) with deep hiding places. http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/pgc/lib/pgc/wildlife/notes/pdf/woodrat.pdf

Woodrats or pack rats:
~Numerous species, genus Neotoma
~Found around N. America, largely in the West (range varies w/species)
~Distinguished from Old World rats (Rattus), by furry tail and pale throat/chest.
~Build above-ground houses of natural and human debris (plant parts, manure, trash etc.), often sheltered by rocks or large plants. Houses provide shelter from temperature extremes, predators. Said to defend territory from other rats.
~Said to steal buiding materials from human dwellings, cars
~Largely herbivorous. Desert species get all water from eating succulent plants
~Nocturnal; preyed on by owls, snakes + night mammals

We have no native rats in Maine, but many stowaway rats from ships have populated the state. (and not just in Augusta) Norway and Black Rats have spread around the globe as stowaways with traveling humans. Both live in territorial colonies with internal hierarchies of dominance. Black Rats are great climbers, Norway Rats are excellent swimmers. It's the Norway Rat that is bred for pets.

Thanks to Museum Rat Pack member Sasha Ratfish Paris for providing this information!
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Ash Wednesday

2008-02-06T13:32:00.000-08:00

Time once again to turn our attention to the sturdiest of trees, the ashes, genus Fraxinus. Today's beautiful wet snow festooning branches (quali) made ash limbs stand out in stark contrast. Their stout twigs with opposite branching frosted with snow reminded me of that Lenten treat, hot-crossed buns. All our native ashes are in danger of going "ashes to ashes dust to dust" before their time due to an invasive beetle from Asia.

The beautifully named and duly appointed Emerald Ash Borer has devastated ash trees in Michigan.

Maine foresters and conservationists are concerned about Emerald Ash Borers who are making their way east. Maine's tribal basket makers, manufacturers of baseball bats in Wisconsin, and canoe builders in Maine, all of whom use ash wood in their crafts are likewise concerned.

Like all members of the metallic wood borer family, the Buprestid beetles, ash borers burrow through ash inner bark eating all the yummy sweet cambium. Speaking of yummy, these hammerhead larva are quite delicious and taste like cashews!

The culinary calligraphy of these beetles compete with the tree for nutrients and eventually can girdle the tree, starving it to death.

The invasive Emerald Ash Borer has not yet been spotted in Maine, but it's on its way. We have several lovely copper and emerald green native metallic wood boring beetles too. So, if you find one of these beauties don't freak out. Catch it if you can and contact the Entomology Dept. of Maine's Forest Service. The Abbe Museum is organizing a panel discussion on the Emerald Ash Borer problem which will be held at COA this May.

Happy Ash Wednesday,
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Happy Fat Tuesday!

2008-02-05T08:22:00.000-08:00

Live it up with pãté de foie gras –
It’s Mardi Gras! (Fat Tuesday)

We tend to think of fat as bad and to be lost. But Maine’s winter mammals would be on thin ice without fat! Just as we pile up firewood to burn for heat all winter, they are busily eating to store fat to burn in their metabolic furnaces to survive the cold.

“Regular” fat, burned for energy is white, just like what you trim off pork chops or steak. But many mammals, especially hibernators, make and store brown fat to burn exclusively for heat! Brown fat is stored between the shoulder blades, at the base of the neck, so that the brain is first to be warmed.

So, live it up. Eat something fattening and burn it off on the skating rink. But if you plan to save up some brown fat to give your brain that needed afternoon boost, sorry but that ship has sailed. Humans are born with brown fat, but we burn it off in infancy, and never produce any more.

The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Groundhog Day!

2008-02-01T14:31:00.000-08:00

While you wait with bated breath to find out if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow in the morning, here's a groundhog quiz to keep you occupied.

Groundhog Day is February 2nd. What's the astronomical significance?
Answer
▼ Groundhog day is half way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Winter is Half over! In fact, February 2nd is considered the beginning of spring in the Celtic Calendar. Groundhog day is one of the Great Cross-Quarter Days, some others being May Day and Halloween.

What do candles have to do with Groundhog day?
Answer
▼ The origin of Groundhog’s Day is Imbolc, a Celtic holiday celebrating the return of light, and the first stirrings of spring. The early Catholic church tried to usurp Imbolc by Creating St. Brigid’s Day on February 1st, St. Brigid being "the Bringer of light". That didn’t work. Folks still celebrated Imbolc. Candles bring light. So they came up with Candlemas Day, February 2nd, a day of purification and to bless candles.

How did groundhogs become weather prognosticators?
Answer
▼ In Europe, people noticed that Badgers and hedgehogs became active in early February. From this they deduced the animals knew that winter was over. Germans, settling in the new world, simply substituted groundhogs (there being no badgers in New England).
As for woodchucks’ weather prognostication abilities, a 1600’s proverb says:
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight,
If on Candlemas it shower and rain,
Winter is gone and not come again.
So, if a groundhog sees his shadow that means it is fair and bright (and likely cold) = 6 more weeks of winter. If the groundhog does not see his shadow that means it’s cloudy (and likely warmer) = winter will soon be over.

Are you likely to see a groundhog on February 2nd in Maine?
Answer
▼ About a snowball’s chance in hell. True, deep hibernators, groundhogs are "fast asleep", "snug" in their burrows on their special holiday. Their body temperature drops from their active level of 99F to 40F, and their heart rate slows from 80 to 5 beats per minute, and respiration drops from 16 breaths per minute to just 4. Really these guys are "slow asleep" and not very cozy and snug, their bodies just above ambient burrow temperatures.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Answer
▼ If a woodchuck could chuck wood, a woodchuck would chuck all he could!

A Woodchuck? A Groundhog? A Whistlepig?
Answer
▼ All are monikers for Marmota monax, "the muttering digger"
"Woodchuck" is a derivation of the Algonquin word for Marmota monax, "Wejack" Marmota comes from marmonner "to mutter, to mumble"
Monax means "Digger" in a tribal tongue from the Carolinas.
Whistlepig refers to their whistle alarm calls.
WoodChuck, because they live along the edge of the woods and reminded early farmers of piglets, which were called "chucks".

How did the Original Punxsutawney Groundhog Club Celebrate on February 2nd?
Answer
▼ They loved groundhogs in the culinary sense. In the early 1880’s six Punxsutawneyans in search for a cure for spring fever, set out with hoes and jugs of liquor to catch them some groundhogs! They dug up several hibernating groundhogs, whacked them on the head and fricasseed them over a campfire. Groundhog stew and generous libations put the revelers in such a good mood that they repeated the outing each year. http://www.groundhog.org/

No matter how you celebrate, have a very

Happy Groundhog Day!
Without a shadow of a doubt,
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Planetary Collision!!!

2008-01-31T14:07:00.000-08:00

Well, not really, but it sure looks like a close one! Check out the pre-dawn sky the next few mornings. Look SE. The two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter will be right next to each other near the horizon. Read this article and see how your eyes make this celestial spectacle even better: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/29jan_venusjupiter.htm

Here's how it looked this morning: http://www.spaceweather.com/

This weekend it will be even more spectacular with the crescent moon moving nearer to the planets.

"Scorpius rose this morning holding a plump crescent moon gently in his claws, while Jupiter and Venus met in the brightening light of dawn." - Bill Gucfa, Rehoboth, MA

Enjoy by Jove!
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

A Little Night Music

2008-01-25T14:16:00.000-08:00

Shivery Greetings,
This cold weather brings clear sparkling skies at night. Before you go out after dark, check out this very fun tutorial for finding Orion, the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia. If you are an advanced stargazer, just look at the very first page all-sky shot and see how many constellations and stars you can name. http://www.quietbay.net/Science/astronomy/nightsky/

I know the bright stars blazing in east and overhead will certainly catch your eye. The brightest stars form a giant hexagon across the sky, known as the Winter Hexagon, formed (conveniently) by 6 constellations.

The brightest star visible to earthlings, Sirius, in Canis Major, shines bright blue; Capella, in Auriga, is golden; Aldeberan, eye of Taurus the Bull glows red. Inside the hexagon Orion's supergiant Betelgeuse is as orange, but not quite as bright as Mars which is now also inside the Hexagon. Learn about stars of the Winter Hexagon here: http://homepage.mac.com/kvmagruder/bcp/aster/constellations/win6.htm

Sunday is Mozart's birthday, so celebrate by listening to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik inside: http://www.emusic.com/album/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart-MOZART-Eine-Kleine-Nachtmusik-Serenata-Notturna-MP3-Download/10871676.html

But when you're outside star gazing, listen for A Little Night Music from courting coyotes, http://coyotim.tripod.com/coyote.htm
(scroll down and click on different vocalizations on left)

red foxes http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/4707/Sounds/yiff2.mp3

and Great Horned Owls. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Great_Horned_Owl.html#sound
Valentine's day comes early for all of them!

Stay warm,
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Ballad of the Northern Lights

2008-01-16T11:17:00.000-08:00

Today is birthday of the Canadian poet Robert Service who moved to Canada in 1897 and wrote ballads of life in the Yukon. Below are some aurora references excerpted from his "The Ballad of the Northern Lights". A strong solar wind is now blowing against Earth, causing high-latitude geomagnetic storms which produce auroras. If it intensifies a little, we can hope for northern lights in mid latitudes. Meanwhile enjoy his verse and dream of auroras to come....

Excerpts from
The Ballad of the Northern Lights
By Robert Service

Oh, it was wild and weird and wan, and ever in camp o' nights

We would watch and watch the silver dance of the mystic Northern Lights.

And soft they danced from the Polar sky and swept in primrose haze;

And swift they pranced with their silver feet, and pierced with a blinding blaze.

They danced a cotillion in the sky; they were rose and silver shod;

It was not good for the eyes of man--'twas a sight for the eyes of God.

It made us mad and strange and sad, and the gold whereof we dreamed

Was all forgot, and our only thought was of the lights that gleamed.

Oh, the tundra sponge it was golden brown, and some was a bright blood-red;

And the reindeer moss gleamed here and there like the tombstones of the dead.

And in and out and around about the little trail ran clear,

And we hated it with a deadly hate and we feared with a deadly fear.

And the skies of night were alive with light, with a throbbing, thrilling flame;

Amber and rose and violet, opal and gold it came.

It swept the sky like a giant scythe, it quivered back to a wedge;

Argently bright, it cleft the night with a wavy golden edge.

Pennants of silver waved and streamed, lazy banners unfurled;

Sudden splendors of sabres gleamed, lightning javelins were hurled.

There in our awe we crouched and saw with our wild, uplifted eyes

Charge and retire the hosts of fire in the battlefield of the skies.

And the Northern Lights in the crystal nights came forth with a mystic gleam.

They danced and they danced the devil-dance over the naked snow;

And soft they rolled like a tide upshoaled with a ceaseless ebb and flow.

They rippled green with a wondrous sheen, they fluttered out like a fan;

They spread with a blaze of rose-pink rays never yet seen of man.

They writhed like a brood of angry snakes, hissing and sulphur pale;

Then swift they changed to a dragon vast, lashing a cloven tail.

It seemed to us, as we gazed aloft with an everlasting stare,

The sky was a pit of bale and dread, and a monster revelled there.

Day after day was dark as death, but ever and ever at nights,

With a brilliancy that grew and grew, blazed up the Northern Lights.

They rolled around with a soundless sound like softly bruised silk;

They poured into the bowl of the sky with the gentle flow of milk.

In eager, pulsing violet their wheeling chariots came,

Or they poised above the Polar rim like a coronal of flame.

From depths of darkness fathomless their lancing rays were hurled,

Like the all-combining search-lights of the navies of the world.

There on the roof-pole of the world as one bewitched I gazed,

And howled and grovelled like a beast as the awful splendors blazed.
My eyes were seared, yet thralled I peered through the parka hood nigh blind;

But I staggered on to the lights that shone, and never I looked behind.

Some say that the Northern Lights are the glare of the Arctic ice and snow;

And some that it's electricity, and nobody seems to know.

But I'll tell you now--and if I lie, may my lips be stricken dumb--

It's a mine, a mine of the precious stuff that men call radium.

(Robert Service may have dreamed of getting rich mining radium and gold, but we now know that the northern lights are excited gases glowing in the upper atmosphere, just like giant, wild neon lights.)

For some really cool photos, legends and science about the aurora, check out:

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/asahi/asahimap.htm

Aurora Alert

2008-01-14T07:23:00.000-08:00

Snowy Greetings,
It's becoming hard for me not to believe that there's a connection between active northern lights and cloudy skies. It seems that almost every time the aurora is active and the auroral oval shifts far enough south for us Mainers to see it, it's either snowing, raining or completely overcast. In the photo, from the excellent website, spaceweather.com, the northern lights are real, but the polar bears are made of snow.

So, guess what: Active Aurora forecast for tonight! visible at mid-latitudes. So, if by chance there's a break in the clouds, look up for swirls of green.

I'm glad that winter is back, but this weekend several spring-like signs were reported:
chipmunks roused from hibernation and were seen eating below bird feeders
skunks were out and active
a noctuid (owlet moth) caterpillar was out roaming around on the snow.

Enjoy the snow and good luck getting a peek at the aurora.

The Dorr Museum of Natural History

January Thaw

2008-01-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

Is our January thaw giving you spring fever? It's only January 11th, but it's raining, thundering and lightning. Warm temperatures, wind and rain has melted most of the snow on MDI, but further inland Eastbrook still has about 8 inches on the ground.

Well, if you have spring fever you're not alone. On Monday a poor yellow spotted salamander was seen crossing the road near Sand Beach bewildered when he blundered into a snowbank on the other side!

Crows have been perching in pairs, presumably pre-courtship behavior. Owls are calling to their mates at night. Leaf-footed bugs, flies and ladybugs have all been roused from their winter torpor and can be seen flying around outside.

But don't lose heart, winter will be back bringing lovely snowfalls, frozen ponds and flocks of birds to your feeders.

Enjoy the thunderstorm!
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Happy Perihelion Day!

2008-01-03T07:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!
Today is perihelion, the day earth is closest to the sun all year. Can't you just feel the warmth? It was 5 below zero at my house this morning! Our elliptical orbit around 'ol Sol brings us 3% closer each January. Of course the seasons have nothing to do with this change of a mere 4 million miles, but are due to the tilt of the earth toward or away from the sun. In winter your hemisphere points away from the sun, bringing less daylight and much less concentrated heat. Check out this cool animation of earth's orbit. Notice how we are moving faster as we swing closer to the sun (just like spacecraft whipping around a planet for extra speed), so hang on! http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/physical_science/physics/mechanics/orbit/perihelion_aphelion.html&edu=high

If it's any consolation, since we move slower in summer, that season lasts longer. Summer's dandy, but winter's quicker.

This cold clear weather following our record-breaking snows brings with it many delights. At least they are delightful to me, it's like the winters of my childhood. Blizzards followed by snow days followed by stingingly cold brilliant days and crisp starry nights. I have over 3 feet of snow at home, my car was totally buried into invisible oblivion yesterday. The only other time I've experienced that was returning to West Yellowstone after ten days cross-country skiing in the park. New England hasn't had this much snow in 100 years!

Cold weather preserves the quali or snow stuck on branches, transforming forests into a true winter wonderland! http://derek.gardenbuddies.com/gallery/albums/winter/mapleroad.jpg
The wet heavy snows fell during moderately warm temperatures giving snow crystals a chance to grow gloriously large. Sparkling stellar crystals, the classical 6 armed stars, danced in profusion locking arms to become giant snowflake http://www.its.caltech.edu/~atomic/snowcrystals/class/class.htm

Both stellar and plate (smooth hexagonal) crystals reflect light off their mirrored faces, sparkling like diamonds in sunlight. Last night, arriving home in the dark and using my pen flashlight to navigate between snow drifts, the dazzling reflections from the snow banks were dizzying. It was like trying to walk with a strobe light flashing. How wonderful! Blazing stars overhead, equaled in their splendor by constellations of glimmering snowflakes below!

Very cold air meeting relatively warm sea water creates sea smoke, those wispy ethereal clouds rising from Frenchman's Bay, bequeathing a real air of mystery! Enjoy sea smoke's transformation of snow clad trees near the water. At high tide sea smoke melts quali which quickly re-freezes into ice. In the sunlight icy trees sparkle like giant crystal chandeliers. Trees in direct sunlight all day may become iced too.

Enjoy the cold, snow and ice AND your warm cozy home at night! For some great reading about all the different kinds of snow and how snow pack affects animals, check out "The Secret Language of Snow" by Terry Tempest Williams and Ted Major. http://www.coyoteclan.com/books/snow.html

Sadly it is out of print. A great kids book, with enough detail, science and terminology for adults too, is "Who Lives in the Snow" by Jennifer Berry Jones. http://www.acornnaturalists.com/store/product1.aspx?Category_ID=520&Product_ID=605

We have that book in the museum shop and it has amazing artwork exploring the wonders of snow revealing secrets of the subnivean world.

If you venture out to look at the stars tonight, keep your eyes peeled for shooting stars. The Quadrantid Meteor shower peaks tonight with about 50 meteors per hour. The radiant is near the end of the handle of the Big Dipper. Blazing bright in the southern sky, Orion will surely catch your notice. Check out this star map of the "Winter Hexagon" and see if you can find all the brightest stars. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.richardbell.net/Images/hexagon.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.richardbell.net/winter.html&h=497&w=504&sz=23&hl=en&start=5&um=1&tbnid=_PzPMpuzE0y6MM:&tbnh=128&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwinter%2Bstars%2BOrion%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den

Mars will be shining bright orange just above Orion's head, half-way between orange super giant Betelgeuse and golden Capella.

Warm regards,
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Happy Winter Solstice

2007-12-20T12:55:00.000-08:00

Happy Winter,
It's almost the solstice, the sun's furthest journey south in our sky. Although Americans consider it the beginning of winter, I prefer the old European tradition of thinking of December 22nd as mid-winter. After all, it is the longest night of the year and sunlight increases daily after winter solstice.
"In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago."
words by Christina Rossetti 1872, music by Gustav Holst 1906
to hear the melody, listen to: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/i/n/intbleak.htm

Well, to my senses our beginning of winter has been anything but bleak! Gorgeous long snowfalls, gigantic icicles, both snow deep enough and ice thick enough to glow blue, and winter birds galore! Attached is a short article I wrote about the amazing adaptations allowing our feathered friends to endure winter. Brew yourself a nice hot cup of cocoa, stoke up the fire and discover their amazing tricks.

We've had magnificent invasions of northern finches, indicating a poor cone crop in Canadian forests. Click on the links below to see photos of these avian invaders and then watch for them at your feeders!
Pine Grosbeaks, especially fond of crab apples, but eat sunflower seed too. Be sure to listen to their sweet song. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Pine_Grosbeak_dtl.html#sound

Redpolls, goldfinch size with red caps, black "gotee" and males with red blushed chest. Common redpolls are the "house sparrows" of the north. When I lived in Anchorage, AK that's just how abundant they were! http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Common_Redpoll.html#sound

Male redpoll next to male pine grosbeak for size: http://www.birdforum.net/gallery/data/525/622Closeup_Pine_Grosbeak_and_Redpoll_Nov2_03.jpg

Evening Grosbeaks robust, talkative birds that travel in big noisy flocks. The males are washed with a dark gray "evening shadow", but these birds reputedly got their moniker from the mistaken belief that they sang at night (well in the far north summers they do!). I especially love the adult males with their striking brilliant banana yellow under tail coverts and bright "eyebrows". I call them "flying banana superheros".
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c2/Coccothraustes-vespertinus-002.jpg/800px-Coccothraustes-vespertinus-002.jpg

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Evening_Grosbeak.html#sound

Red Crossbill http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Red_Crossbill.html

White-winged Crossbill http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/White-winged_Crossbill.html

These wacky birds look like mutants with deformed bills, but they use their tweezer-shaped beak to pry open cone bracts and then stick out their tongues to get the tasty pine or spruce seed. Conifer seeds are so important to crossbills that they will nest ANY TIME OF YEAR! whenever there is a big enough seed crop.

Northern Shrikes have followed their food south. Zoom in on the photo to notice their sharp hooked beak like a raptor, but perching feet like a robin. These "butcher birds" catch songbirds and mice in their beaks, carrying them to thorny shrubs where they skewer them since their feet cannot hold prey. Shrikes also build up a larder of shish kebabs of their kills. Watch for them hunting near your feeders.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Northern_Shrike.html

Snowy Owls have arrived in Maine! Usually years of winter finch invasions alternate with owl years, but this winter we've hit the jackpot! Good lemming years up north produce abundant snowy owl chicks that survive to adulthood, followed by lean lemming years that send surviving owls southward in search of food. So, take your binoculars and keep a keen eye out next time you hike up Sargent mountain, or drive past blueberry barrens. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Snowy_Owl.html

Merry Solstice** and enjoy winter's wonders!
The Dorr Museum of Natural History
ps. If the sky clears tonight, watch for northern lights.

Thanksgiving Nature Notes

2007-11-21T10:31:00.000-08:00

Let's talk turkey,
Before you gobble down that yummy Thanksgiving dinner, take a few Meleagris gallopavo language lessons. That's scientificeeze for Wild Turkey. Peck at the link below to understand some turkey talk:
http://www.nwtf.org/special_events/calling_contest_turkey_calls.html

You'll notice that gobbling is barely even mentioned, the last vocalization on the list. You won't hear it this time of year in the wild, as males gobble to attract females during the mating season in spring.
Going the way of many wild foods, like cod that disappeared from over-fishing, turkeys were nearly hunted to extinction in the wild. They were completely extripated from New England and most of their range by 1900. But at least for turkeys, we have a happy ending to the story. Re-introduction of native stock wild birds, in the 1940's worked well. In fact, too well. For today, turkeys range across the 48 contiguous states, even into areas where they did not originally occur.
These past few weeks on my way to work, I've seen two large turkey flocks, about 30 birds in each. This time of year the hens travel together separately from the toms. One flock of turkeys was stuffing themselves with wind-fall apples. And I must confess I thought to myself, mmmmmm apple stuffing. Turkeys also feast upon acorns, beech nuts, buds, salamanders and insects.
And as you savor the delicious flavor of your Thanksgiving turkey (or tofurkey), pause to remember that we could well be feasting upon fishy tasting eagle. For good 'ol Ben Franklin wanted Wild Turkey to be our national bird. In his own words,
the Eagle "where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country .
For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."
http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/turkey.html

For more on our wild turkeys, check out:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Wild_Turkey.html

Happy Thanksgiving from
The Dorr Museum of Natural History

Early November

2007-11-08T10:27:00.000-08:00

Nocturnal Greetings,
Tonight is the anniversary of the discovery of Comet 17P/Holmes that is currently gracing our night sky. 115 years ago tonight it exploded becoming bright enough to see. Edwin Holmes was in his backyard in London looking through his telescope. Just before calling it a night, he aimed his scope to get a look at our sister galaxy, Andromeda's faint companions. http://www.astropix.com/HTML/SHOWCASE/M31.HTM

The comet, which now bears his name, was so big and bright that at first he mistook it for the Andromeda Galaxy! That was 1892. If only he could see it tonight, for Comet Holmes has exploded again and is even bigger and brighter than Andromeda. Take a look at it tonight. Here's a sky chart to help you find it. It's really impressive viewed through binoculars! http://www.spaceweather.com/images2007/05nov07/skymap_north_holmes.gif?PHPSESSID=05pdchsmhb13job27qrhk97h10

It's been warm enough this fall that some of our bats are still flying! Our tree bats, the beautiful Red Bat, Lasiurus borealis, meaning "northern furry-tailed".
http://www.outdooralabama.com/watchable-wildlife/images/red%20bat.jpg

and its sister species the Hoary Bat, Lasiurus cinereus, ("ash-colored furry-tailed") http://research.amnh.org/swrs/lascin.jpg

and the Silver-haired Bat, Lasionycteris noctivagans, ("wandering furry night bat") http://research.amnh.org/swrs/lasnoc.jpg have all flown the coop to find suitable hibernation spots.

Unlike bird migration, which around here in fall is always to the south, except for seabirds who head out to sea, bats migrate in any direction to seek temperatures just right for hibernation; cold enough so they can slow their metabolism, but warm enough that they don't freeze. Some Little Brown Bats, Myotis lucifugus, ("light-fleeing mouse-eared") http://fwp.mt.gov/content/getItem.aspx?id=2699&maxwidth=475 fly northeast to hibernate in small caves and crevices or ice caves in the Allegash.
Big Brown Bats, Eptesicus fuscus, ("dusky brown flying over") http://www.americanartifacts.com/smma/per/bat1.jpg are fond of hibernating together in Maine's old forts and even above the library at UMO!

Other nightlife spotted recently include:
Sawwhet owls seen flying over roads at night
Coyotes loping across the highway
Foxes hunting in fields, revealed by their bright eye-shine
Moths still coming to porch lights
Barred Owls calling "who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all"

Enjoy the crisp fall evenings,
The Dorr Museum of Natural History