A New Season Begins

June 25, 2012

Welcome to opening day at the 2012 Naturalist's Notebook! Here's a quick batch of photos from this morning. This is just a tiny taste. Much more to come...

We couldn’t quite fit an 80-foot blue whale skeleton inside the building, but we’re thrilled to have a harbor porpoise, on loan from Allied Whale.

Our new egg-laying chicken, which clucks when it plunks an egg into the dish.

Millie the milkable cow is back, along with our spin-the-wheel, answer-the-questions Farm Game.

Some early visitors, explorers and customers.

A portion of our Bernd Heinrich art installation.

Tigers are but one of the endangered species we highlight in shop-and-think displays.

Pick up your bird checklist and try to find the 45 species we’ve perched throughout our three floors.

As I say, this is just a small sampling—and doesn't include major elements such as our amazing 13.7-billion-year, spectral-color, timeline staircase. Stay tuned...

Today’s 6 a.m. sky greeted us with a pair of oddly tilted, flying-saucer-shaped dark clouds that appeared to be swooping in for a landing. Or maybe I was just groggy from working at the Notebook until 12:30 in the morning.

Spaceship Clouds (And Other Sightings)

June 22, 2012

We don't have Monday, June 25, circled in red on our calendar, and you probably don't either. Nevertheless, it will be a noteworthy—and very good—day. That's when The Naturalist's Notebook will launch its fourth season in our crazy, beautiful little 1895 building at 16 Main Street in Seal Harbor, Maine, just a few hundred yards from the Atlantic Ocean and Acadia National Park. With the countdown clock ticking (and, in my other world, Olympic preparations for Sports Illustrated reaching a peak), I haven't had time to focus on the blog, but here are shots of just a few of the creatures, creations and curiosities that have occupied us lately:

We witnessed a birdseed showdown between an unhappy squirrel and a somewhat belligerent woodchuck. The squirrel had reinforcements—two of its kind showed up to help pester the woodchuck—but the big guy (or girl) wouldn’t budge from under the feeder.

When this seed-gobbler showed up, Pamelia I asked each other, How close can you safely get to a skunk? We snuck up with our camera but stayed at least 40 feet away. I’ve since read that skunks can spray about three meters, or roughly 10 feet…dependi… — When this seed-gobbler showed up, Pamelia I asked each other, How close can you safely get to a skunk? We snuck up with our camera but stayed at least 40 feet away. I’ve since read that skunks can spray about three meters, or roughly 10 feet…depending on the wind. I also learned that skunks are no longer considered part of the weasel family but instead have their own family, made up only of skunks and animals called stink badgers. Wouldn’t the latter be a great name for an intramural flag-football team at the University of Wisconsin?

O.K., you knew I had to show you a stink badger, right? These animals live only in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines and they produce a foul emission from their anal glands. DNA evidence shows that they and the skunks we know went their separa… — O.K., you knew I had to show you a stink badger, right? These animals live only in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines and they produce a foul emission from their anal glands. DNA evidence shows that they and the skunks we know went their separate evolutionary ways from a common ancestor about 20 million years ago.

Want a short and soothing break? Watch this short video of an especially vocal robin singing in the grass near Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park. Pamelia filmed it a few days ago and we posted it on youtube.

When we got home one night, someone had left in our mailbox a bird’s nest inside a cardboard carton. This sort of thing didn’t happen before we started the Notebook, but nowadays people bring us squirrel sculls, dead beetles, you name it. And we lov… — When we got home one night, someone had left in our mailbox a bird’s nest inside a cardboard carton. This sort of thing didn’t happen before we started the Notebook, but nowadays people bring us squirrel sculls, dead beetles, you name it. And we love it.

Where is this lovely, lens-like molecule floating around? This year’s Notebook, of course.

Pamelia and I took time for a walk and came across this two-toned lupine. Our part of Maine is filled with lupines right now.

As I said, lupines are in profusion around here. The flowers were given the name lupine—from the Latin word for wolf—because they are invasive and, in the words of one source, can ravage the land on which they grow. In a lovely way.

We saw this raptor during a walk but haven’t definitively identified it. Because of its coloration and a white stripe across the top of its tail (not visible in this shot), I think it could be a Northern harrier, a species Pamelia and I haven’t seen… — We saw this raptor during a walk but haven’t definitively identified it. Because of its coloration and a white stripe across the top of its tail (not visible in this shot), I think it could be a Northern harrier, a species Pamelia and I haven’t seen here before. But I could be way off. Any thoughts?

Answers to the Last Puzzler
1) The nest was built by a tree swallow.
2) Turtles are reptiles, not amphibians.
3) The word herpetologist comes from a Latin verb meaning to creep.

Today's Puzzler
What kind of birds are the nestlings below, just photographed here in Maine?

a) red-winged blackbirds
b) robins
c) cowbirds

Eye Pod and Egg-Laying Turtles

June 16, 2012

It looked like an oversized green grape. It was sitting on the ground beneath a maple tree and near an oak. Pamelia saw it, picked it up and said, "Look at this."

The green orb was partly split. We gingerly pulled it open without causing further damage and saw some sort of seed inside. The seed appeared designed to be airborne. This all was a mystery. What was this strange pod and where had it come from?

This is what we saw when we peeked inside.

I contacted some Notebook-friend nature experts and sent them photos. Biologist and naturalist Lynn Havsall came to my rescue. Here's the email she sent:

"This looks like an oak apple gall to me. Here's some info on the makers of these galls and their complicated life histories. http://minnesotaseasons.com/Insects/spongy_oak_apple_gall_wasp.html

Yours is probably either Amphibolips nubilipennishttp://bugguide.net/node/view/406120 or A.quercusspongiahttp://bugguide.net/node/view/406120 or A. quercusinanishttp://bugguide.net/node/view/240411

"You are right that what's inside is destined to become airborne, not as a seed, but as a teeny tiny gall wasp. The cocoon is suspended in the center of the gall attached to all the spindly threads.

One type of gall wasp. There are more than 800 species of them in North America.

"Galls are amazing and come in a fantastic array of shapes, sizes and colors. Some are made by wasps, (there's a whole family of them, Cynipidae) others by moths and flies. There's a great variety of galls made on oaks, either leaves, twigs or acorns. See here to get an idea: http://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=oak+gall&search=Search

"When I was a young naturalist I thought it would be great fun and easy to learn all the galls and exactly who made them. So I collected lots of them to hatch them out. Then I learned about inquilines [animals that live in the nest, burrow or dwelling place of another without affecting the latter animal]. Seems even the fleas have fleas. A goldenrod gall that I knew was made by a moth hatched out into a wasp! Some insects parasitize other gall makers, so sometimes who hatches out is a surprise!

"Hope this helps. That's gall I can say."

I'll just add that I should have recognized the gall because we at the Notebook we sell handmade iron gall ink, which comes from oak galls. It's a storied type of ink—the same one used for writing and drawing by Bach, da Vinci, Rembrandt, van Gogh, the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the framers of the U.S. constitution.

Today's Maine Sighting: Turtles Laying Eggs Pamelia had her camera handy this morning when she passed three turtles laying eggs just a few feet from the edge of a paved road (and a few yards from a pond) on Mount Desert Island. I think they were snapping turtles. Please correct me if you're a herpetologist (someone who studies amphibians and reptiles).

I'm keeping the exact location of the egg-laying a secret out of respect to the turtles, but here are a few of Pamelia's photos:

The three turtles had dug holes in which to lay their eggs.

Pamelia estimated that the turtles’ shells were between 10 and 12 inches long.

Happy Birthdays to...

Barbara McClintock, one of the most important pioneers of genetic research, would have turned 110 today. In her studies of maize, she discovered, among other things, that genes can change position (causing mutations) and how genes turn physical characteristics on and off. She was the first American woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize, in 1983.

Archie Carr, a University of Florida biology professor whose work literally saved most species of sea turtles from extinction, would have been 103 today. Carr worked tirelessly to protect sea turtle breeding sites and reduce humans' slaughter of the animals.

The Notebook's Haley Harwood also has a birthday today. She's the inventor of Millie the Milkable Cow and another, top-secret interactive creature who'll be unveiled at the Notebook next week. Happy birthday to Haley from the rest of the Notebook gang!

Answer to the Last Puzzler Water molecules typically remain in a cloud no more than nine days.

Today's Puzzlers

1) What bird made the nest shown below, which was photographed this week by a sharp-eyed Notebook contributor in Vermont?

a) a Northern junco
b) a house wren
c) a tree swallow

2) Are turtles amphibians or reptiles?

3) The word herpetologist comes from a Latin verb meaning: a) to creep b) to have cold blood c) to frighten

Binocular Bird, Olympic Fish, Debuting Dog

June 13, 2012

Here's a look at some of what's been happening at The Naturalist's Notebookover the last few days, and other news and notes from the intersection of nature, science, art and curiosity:

Birds have sharp vision, but this hermit warbler seemed eager to try out the binoculars while hitching a ride recently on a boat off the Southern California coast with Notebook correspondent Kathy Weathers.

A clearer shot of the hermit warbler, a species that tends to live in the tops of the West Coast’s tallest trees.

Kathy spotted this gull devouring a sea star near Bar Island off Bar Harbor here in Maine.

Lava flow? No, a tree that has grown around a fence outside the Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island, where Kathy saw and photographed it.

Kathy also photographed another fence-swallowing display by a different tree.

Meanwhile, At The Notebook...

Puppy in the house! Virginia brought in Bashi, the Australian shepherd pup that she and Eli adopted over the weekend. You’ll be seeing lots of Bashi (and Virginia and Eli) at the Notebook this year.

The spectral stoop at the Notebook is ready. Here Julie is adding a coat of polyurethane to complete Eli’s brilliant idea. It has been fascinating to watch the reaction of passers-by to this work of art—drivers have even turned their cars around jus… — The spectral stoop at the Notebook is ready. Here Julie is adding a coat of polyurethane to complete Eli’s brilliant idea. It has been fascinating to watch the reaction of passers-by to this work of art—drivers have even turned their cars around just to make sure they saw what they think they saw. Just wait until they see what’s inside the Notebook.

Eli took a celebratory first leap onto the finished stoop, with the puppy ready to follow him.

Haley is designing our flower boxes, which also will highlight colors in the order of the spectrum as part of a much broader project Pamelia has created.

The flowers include a gazania with a two-toned blossom. I’d never heard of a gazania, but it’s a member of the aster family and is native to South Africa. It’s sometimes called the African daisy.

View From Europe Luka Negoita, the young naturalist and Notebook contributor, just returned from his Kickstarter-funded project in Romania, his family's homeland. Luka emailed us one of his beautiful charcoal drawings of the Romanian countryside:

Luka and Philip Walter traveled the Romanian countryside collecting and documenting old knowledge—about plants and many other things—that is in danger of being lost because of modernization.

Commencement Talk: Robert Krulwich Pamelia and I watched Julie and Virginia graduate at College of the Atlantic, a memorable event under any circumstances, but especially so because of the wonderful commencement address delivered by National Public Radio correspondent and Radiolab co-host Robert Krulwich. I wish I had it on video, because Krulwich delivered it with such geniality and humor. Into his own story of meanderings, missteps and a career-altering bathroom urinal conversation with playwright Arthur Miller, he wove insights into How Life Works (you might accidentally back into your greatest opportunities; avoid the Yes, But people and instead try to find Why Not? and Give It a Shot people; knowing how to learn and that you can learn, at any age, can be your most valuable assets).

Here's a link to the full text of the speech if you're interested: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2012/05/31/154105531/the-chumbawamba-principle-a-commencement-address

Strange, Funny, Out of This World It's no secret that we're big fans of astrophysicist, writer and TV science host Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York. Ralph Fahringer, another Notebook contributor, passed along the video below, in which—through the marvels of modern sound-bending science—deGrasse Tyson and renowned physicists Richard Feynman and Lawrence Krauss actually sing about the universe and how all the elements that make up our planet and ourselves were created in the heat of exploding stars long ago.

New Olympic Aquatics Center Since I'm so deep into my London Olympic preparations (I'll be heading to my Sports Illustrated office in New York soon to finish editing the magazine's preview issue, and will then fly to London), I probably should begin giving you a glimpse of what you'll see when the Games open on July 27. So here's a start: a look at the Olympic Aquatics Centre. It sits in Olympic Park, a new complex of venues built in a formerly blighted section of East London.

The $421 million aquatics center was designed by Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid (a woman) and sits near the Olympic stadium and the velodrome. This is what the place looked like last fall when I and other international journalists toured it and oth… — The $421 million aquatics center was designed by Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid (a woman) and sits near the Olympic stadium and the velodrome. This is what the place looked like last fall when I and other international journalists toured it and other London Olympic venues. One woman reporter in our group dipped her finger in the diving pool (the pool in back) before being scolded. In case you’re wondering what Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and other swimming stars will feel when they dive in, the water temperature of the pool will be kept at 78.8 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius) for competition.

Maine. Compass Harbor, to be exact, as it looked when Pamelia and I took a short walk there on our way home the other night. Just another reason why Maine’s promotes itself with the slogan The Way Life Should Be.

Answer to the Last Puzzler The bird in the photo is a magnolia warbler

Today's Puzzler Clouds are made of water. How long does any given water molecule stay in a cloud before it falls to earth? a) 12 hours b) 9 days c) 6 weeks

Here’s some blue-eyed grass that Caitlin photographed a couple of weeks ago on Mount Desert Island. It’s part of the iris family and not a true grass. If you like blue-eyed grass, check out this blog post by one of Caitlin’s former classmates:

The Wildflower Detective

June 9, 2012

http://writingfornature.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/blue-eyed-grass-diminuitive-irises/

Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie is trying to solve a nature mystery: How have land use and climate change altered the plant landscape of New England? Having earned a degree in environmental science and public policy at Harvard and a masters in the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont, Caitlin came to Maine's Mount Desert Island last summer to begin her research. Because scientific studies need a sharp focus, she decided to concentrate on wildflowers. She holed up in the Acadia National Park archives, studying historical records and century-old plant specimens from the island. She began a quest that will eventually lead to her Ph.D. from Boston University—and might require help from you.

Here’s Caitlin, enjoying the Maine coast.

Caitlin is another of those delightful and interesting people who cross our path here at The Naturalist's Notebook on an almost daily basis. She is again spending the summer here on Mount Desert Island doing research, and she dropped by the Notebook for a visit the other day. As we talked about her work, she mentioned that she is hunting for any records or observations of plants on MDI over the last century—jottings in your great grandmother's diary noting when certain flowers bloomed, a rare 1945 book on Maine wildflowers, your own garden journal from the 1990s, whatever. But I will now step aside and let Caitlin explain what she's doing and how you might be able to assist her:

"My research explores how climate change and land use change affect plant communities in New England," she writes. "When I look at a landscape, or a flower, I am often wondering to myself, What did this place look like a century ago? Did this plant always grow here? Was it once much more abundant?

Caitlin’s wildflower walks led her to these pink lady’s slippers. They’re a type of orchid and can live to be 20 years old if not eaten by deer (who love them) or over-picked by humans (who sometimes wipe them out). How is climate change affecting l… — Caitlin’s wildflower walks led her to these pink lady’s slippers. They’re a type of orchid and can live to be 20 years old if not eaten by deer (who love them) or over-picked by humans (who sometimes wipe them out). How is climate change affecting lady’s slippers? Caitlin is trying to find out.

"Luckily, in a place like Mount Desert Island, those questions can be answered reasonably well. Botanists and nature lovers have come here for two centuries. Between the rusticators, the Harvard boys on summer trips in the 1880s, the naturalists who worked for the park, the professors and students at the College of the Atlantic, and the local community of gardeners, the plants here have been well-studied and well-loved for generations. Many of these people left behind books like the 1894 Flora of Mount Desert Island, as well as letters, notebooks, photographs and pressed flowers in herbariums. From these clues, I can piece together a history of the plants on this island. My research last summer uncovered trends in the flora. Many native plants are disappearing from the landscape, or declining in abundance; nonnative species are becoming more numerous and often more abundant too.

This is Labrador tea, part of the heath family. As the name suggests, its leaves can be brewed into herbal tea; if kept in a closet or drawer, they also can keep moths away from clothing.

"As a graduate student in biology, I am hyper-aware of climate change and its largely unknown ecological effects. A study on any landscape now must consider: How does climate change fit into the processes and patterns that I am seeing here? Are warmer temperatures changing things? How? And how much? On Mount Desert Island we have local weather records that date back to the 1890s. These are currently being digitized and analyzed to give us an important and useful measurement of how the climate has changed right here.

Caitlin came upon this sheep-laurel, which because of its toxicity to animals is sometimes known as lamb-kill, sheep-kill or calf-kill. Meat from an animal that has eaten sheep-laurel can itself be toxic. The nectar can even produce toxic honey!

"Studies from across the world and, more locally, in southern New England have found that warmer temperatures are correlated with earlier flowering times. Spring is coming sooner than it used to, and the plants are responding with blooms and blossoms weeks before they once opened. The timing of flowering provides a quick metric for biologists. Recording flowering is like taking a pulse on the landscape. It is a vital sign that lets us know how a plant is responding to its climate. When ecologists study the timing of things like flowering, or leafing out, or when migrating birds arrive, they call it phenology.

"Observing phenology was once a popular pastime for naturalists—Thoreau’s journals are filled with charts of the first flowers, first leaves and first birds that he saw on Walden Pond in Concord, Mass. Like neon T-shirts and ironic fedoras, phenology has now returned to fashion. We know that the timing of flowering is closely tied to temperature, so tracing the shifting flowering phenology of our plants allows us to track the effects of climate change on the flora. When we add in studies of phenologies of other organisms—insects, birds, herbivores, and pollinators—we can catch shifts that don’t match up. Flowers may be blooming and then dying before a hummingbird arrives to drink their nectar. Relationships and food chains may be disrupted, unable to adjust to the quickly changing climate.

This bunchberry, which Caitlin photographed on MDI, has a secret you may not know about: It is the world’s fastest plant. Intrigued? I will reveal the secret farther down in the blog.

"So, back to my research. Here on MDI we have the old flora records, we have the weather records, and we have these historic snapshots of flowers in bloom—either actual snapshots or herbarium specimens that were collected at the moment of their most brilliant flowering and now sit in a cabinet at the herbarium of College of the Atlantic. I am beginning to record flowering for many common plant species here. But my records are just a start, and though Ph.D.s are notoriously unending, I will have only a couple years of data before I write my dissertation. What I need are more years. I wish I had a time machine with the ability to go back to the early '90s and begin recording flowering times then, so that today, when I sit down at my desk at Acadia National Park headquarters, I could open up a notebook of twenty years of carefully collected data. Now that would be a memorable Ph.D. research project!

This is an herbarium specimen collected by Edward Rand, co-author (with John Redfield) of the 1894 book Flora of Mount Desert Island, Maine.

"But, without a time machine, I can still graduate. I hope to use the records of others—local gardeners, amateur naturalists, flower-lovers—to create a robust data set of when things bloomed here in the recent past. The Wild Gardens of Acadia post weekly “What’s in Bloom” lists. Ruth Grierson’s newspaper columns often recount the first flowering of local plants. To me, these simple observations are diamond mines of data. And I am looking for more! If you have a notebook or a calendar with notes jotted down— 'May 30th, first lilacs, seems early'—please let me know! And if you have older field books in your attic, your great-grandmother’s records from the garden, your father-in-law’s journal from his days bagging peaks and painting flowers in water color, I would love to see these as well. Any and all local records of flowers on Mount Desert Island are welcome additions to my research! Please email me at mackenz@bu.edu with any leads. Thank you!"

Postscript I mentioned above that bunchberry is sometimes called the world's fastest plant. That's because when its petals unfold, they release spring-like filaments that fire pollen into the air at 800 times the acceleration of the Space Shuttle liftoff. Below is a video of this happening, filmed at 10,000 frames per second.

Welcome to the Neighborhood I should have figured it out from the mauled thistle feeder outside our house, but only when I saw the gigantic scat on our dirt road this week did I realize: We have a black bear. Have any of you had interesting bear experiences?

Real scientists measure bear scat crosswise with calipers because the diameter helps reveal the animal’s size. I had only a yardstick, but I estimated the width of some of this as more than an inch and a half—definitely from a grown-up.

The plant matter in the scat reflected the bear’s early season diet. No berries or nuts yet, but a bit of sunflower seed and thistle from our feeders.

Notebook Snapshot of the Day

Whoa—what’s going on with the front stoop at The Naturalist’s Notebook? You will have to wait and see. A hint: It will be intriguing to everyone who’s even a little curious about the last 13.7 billion years (give or take).

Hi Again to a Gifted Young Naturalist and Artist Last year we introduced you to Luke Seitz, a remarkable birder and artist, who was then 17. If you haven't read it, go back and read my Q-and-A with him from last July: http://naturalistsnote.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/an-extraordinary-and-inspiring-young-birder-and-artist/

Luke came up here from the Portland area last weekend to work as a guide at the Acadia Birding Festival. He stopped by the Notebook for a two-hour visit and dropped off more of his watercolor paintings of birds, which we will be selling this summer. Luke will be entering Cornell to study ornithology this fall, and in the meantime will be serving as a naturalist on board a whale-watching boat and doing a number of bird paintings commissioned by people who saw his work this spring while he was serving as a birding guide at the noted avian-migration hotspot of High Island, Texas.

Luke with Pamelia and some of his paintings.

Speaking of the Acadia Birding Festival, Pamelia and I took time to enjoy the event’s lobster dinner at Thurston’s with some friends and organizer Michael Good (far right), who did a great job, as always, in giving festival participants a wonderful … — Speaking of the Acadia Birding Festival, Pamelia and I took time to enjoy the event’s lobster dinner at Thurston’s with some friends and organizer Michael Good (far right), who did a great job, as always, in giving festival participants a wonderful bird-watching and learning experience.

Answer to the Last Puzzler

The nestlings in the photo above, taken last week in Maine (thank you, LJ), are blue jays.

Today's Puzzler
Here's a slide from the Acadia Birding Festival bird-identification workshop. Is the bird in the photo a:
a) Tennessee warbler
b) Magnolia warbler
c) Northern parula

With our 2012 opening day more than two weeks away, The Notebook is still a mess, with many installations still just works in progress, but here’s a look at one room that’s coming along.

Glimpse of What's Coming

June 5, 2012

News, Notes and Photos from the Field (Craig and Pamelia's Blog)

Craig & Pamelia's Past Posts

Darwin's Past Posts