Monthly Archives: April 2014
North Wind and Blowing Beach Sand
These miniature “beach mountains” were sculpted by blowing sand. The combination of a stiff, steady, north wind, a six- to twelve-inch high layer of moving sand, and late afternoon light streaming in low from the setting sun created this interesting view.
Black Bird – Sacramento, California
Based on plumage, size, and range, can you identify this bird? More later.
Pixies and Fairies
While Ireland is reputed to be the home of the leprechaun variety of the little people. I believe Maine is the home of pixies and fairies. Most coastal beaches and their nearby conifer forests seem to have their fair share of pixie houses and fairy estates. Small cobbles, some smooth and rounded and some angular,... Continue reading »
The Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, Maine
If your interests include things nautical then you should visit the Maine Maritime Museum at Bath, Maine. While the museum has an amazing variety of exhibits and artifacts about ships and the wooden shipbuilding business, our views today will concentrate on the sculpture of the Wyoming. According to the signs, the... Continue reading »
Carr and Bogg, LLC – Purveyors of Ecological Tidbits
Here is another dispatch from the roving reporter in the Portland, Maine vicinity. There are a couple of interesting freshwater wetlands on the Eastern Trail segment between the bike and pedestrian bridge over I-95 in the Kennebunk area and the Kennebunk River. The first feature is a small bog on the east side... Continue reading »
Pileated Diner – Maine
Late winter and/or early spring has been a busy time for at least one member of the local population of pileated woodpeckers. The size and rectangular shape of these large and deep excavations seem to indicate that they were made by pileated woodpeckers. Presumably the bird or birds (do these woodpeckers... Continue reading »
Ditch Glacier – Kennebunk, Maine
One result of the recently-departed cold winter of 2013-2014 is a new landscape phenomenon. Although the snow cover is gone at the lower elevations, this ditch is still filled with the remnants from snow plowed off the adjoining parking lot. While I’m sure this snow will be a distant memory come August, the... Continue reading »
Spring Wildflowers – Eastern Redbud
Eastern redbud trees had been blooming in my home area of Alabama for some time as of the middle of March 2014. I don’t remember just when the blooming period began, but some of the local plants were in the leafing-out stage by the 25th of March. It seems that one notices eastern redbuds only... Continue reading »
An Unusual Long-shore Current
The strong winds of Tuesday the 25th of March 2014 created an unusual phenomenon in the shoreline deposits of freshly released tree pollens. Yellow pollen, presumably from trees such as oaks and pines and blown by the wind, lodged in mats floating on the water surface adjacent to the bank. At the same time, smaller... Continue reading »
Mr. Black Bird – Sacramento, California