Landscape of Change's Boletim

14 de setembro de 2021

Yellow, September!

If months had a color, September would be yellow, thanks to the sunflowers, yarrow, and especially the goldenrods growing along roadsides, unmowed fields, meadows, marshes, and beaches. There is more yellow to be found.

Shorebirds are migrating, and yellow bills and legs are distinguishing features of many, including, of course, Greater Yellowlegs, a relatively large shorebird seen this year at Bass Harbor Marsh, Wonderland, and Seawall. However, more people have seen the similar but smaller Lesser Yellowlegs, including at Bass Harbor, where Champlain Society member Charles Townsend found them common in August 1880. Migrating now are the young birds that hatched this year in boreal wetlands to the north.

Pectoral Sandpiper also has yellow legs, but is smaller than Lesser Yellowlegs. Pectoral Sandpiper was seen at Bass Harbor by Champlain Society member Henry Spelman in early September 1882. Writing in 1941, Carroll Tyson and James Bond described the Pectoral Sandpiper as a “Common transient often seen in late summer.” Recent observations in eBird affirm this, and sightings now extend into October.

Blending in with dried stalks of reeds and browning vegetation in marshes are the pale yellow streaks on the neck and bill of the American Bittern. The American Bittern breeds in Acadia, and migrates to the southern United States, Mexico, and Central America for the winter. One was seen at Bass Harbor by Henry Spelman in early September 1882. Tyson and Bond wrote, “This is a rare and local summer resident on Mt. Desert Island, nesting occasionally in Fresh Meadow, in the marshes bordering Aunt Betty’s and Seal Cove Ponds, and probably in other swamps on the island.” Observations submitted to eBird suggest this species remains uncommon.

Read more about yellow bees, moths, and more at https://schoodicinstitute.org/yellow-september/

Posted on 14 de setembro de 2021, 09:05 PM by schoodicscicomm schoodicscicomm | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

22 de julho de 2021

National Moth Week

This week is National Moth Week. At Schoodic Institute, we’ve been thinking about moths a lot lately, because they are a focus of the Landscape of Change project. As part of this project, we are re-visiting the work of past scientists and naturalists to understand how the environment of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park is changing.

A key data set in the project was compiled by William Procter, who led a comprehensive survey of Mount Desert Island insects between 1927 and 1950. Of the 1,312 moths he documented, 229 have been seen so far this year in or around Acadia National Park. We know there are likely more, so please keep looking!

Read the full story at https://schoodicinstitute.org/the-changing-and-unchanging-moths-of-acadia/

Posted on 22 de julho de 2021, 06:53 PM by schoodicscicomm schoodicscicomm | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

23 de junho de 2021

Suggested bird survey routes

In the early 1880s, a group of student naturalists compiled a list of 97 species found on Mount Desert Island during the summer months. In the case of warblers and other migratory songbirds, they were documenting breeding or nesting birds.

As part of the Landscape of Change project, we are asking people to help us re-visit these historic bird records to help answer the question, Are these same species breeding in the same locations 140 years later?

We've compiled a list of suggested routes in Acadia National Park and other conservation lands, and what birds to look (and listen) for in each location, found at this link:

https://schoodicinstitute.org/birding-along-acadias-trails/

Posted on 23 de junho de 2021, 10:10 PM by schoodicscicomm schoodicscicomm | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

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