Something Downeast

I got a chance to visit Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, near Freeport today. I’m hoping to go there again some day. There are several trails, ranging from the “wheel chair accessible” White Pines Trail to the slightly rugged, winding Harraseeket trail, which runs partway along Harraseeket river, and partway along Casco Bay. Today was one of those Maine Autumn days that threaten to rain, but never quite deliver. I took a lot of photographs.

Sugar Maple eaves already showing mottled red and orange, striking against the bright green of other deciduous trees’ leaves.

Not sure what species of fungus this mushroom is, but there were many of them, large and small.

Lady Slipper with seed-pod.

Partridge Berry

Partridge Berry Mitchella repens L. 

Partridge Berry is one of the plants I love. It’s really common in the Eastern U.S. and it’s a favorite food for grouse. It takes two flowers to produce a single berry.

Most of these saplings are less than twenty years old.

Glacial gift

The floor of this forest is rotted vegetation over soil. A foot or three (at most) of soil that’s covering bedrock, or what’s locally called ledge. It’s the same rock you see as outcroppings along the Maine and N.H. and Canadian coastline.

I don’t know what this is. It’s shrub; maybe an Elder species?

A spray of partially turned Sugar Maple leaves, mottled with bright orange.

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This is, I think, or more specifically, I’m pretty sure, is a male Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens). Harry Woodpeckers look quite a lot like Downy Woodpeckers; there are differences, but the primary one, is size. Harry Woodpeckers are noticeably larger, and thus, looking at this guy compared to the size of the suet cage, I’m leaning towards Downy Woodpecker.

It’s definitely a male; the male of both species has a red spot on the back of their heads. If I had a better photo, we might be able to see the beak; the Hairy Woodpecker has a noticeably longer beak.

Male Downy Woodpecker, photographed through the window, because the minute I step outside, he moves to the back side of the suet.

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A few days ago I noticed a tiny spring peeper clinging to the window screen, on the inside of the window. I have no idea how the peeper got there; the screen has been in place all summer on that window, so I’m guessing it came inside via the cracks around the air conditioner in the neighboring window. He was less than an inch in size.  This is a terrible picture, taken after I escorted him to the patio and a potted plant.

This year I heard the first Spring peepers in March; there was still snow on the ground. Locally, they’re regarded as the true heralds of Spring, and I had numerous people tell me with large smiles that they’d heard peepers (or peepahs) and so Spring was definitely sprung.

Here’s the University of Maine Fact Sheet on Spring Peepers.

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I’ve seen possums (or Opossum) before; we have them in Washington, though we keep them away from horses and equine food because of concerns about Equine Protozoal Myeloencephaliti (EPM) caused by the protozoa Sarcocystis neurona, commonly carried by possums. But I’ve never seen a possum carrying her babies on her back.

Until today.

She sauntered across the patio, then down the side of the building before cutting across the lawn and under the split-rail fence towards the woods.

Possums (technically the Virginia opossum, or Didelphis virginiana is North America’s only marsupial. When the babies are born (via a temporary secondary birth canal and vagina), they claw their sightless way to mom’s pouch and remain there for until emerging with open eyes, thereupon they cling to mom’s back as she roams, eventually descending to make their own way.

Opossums were named by Captain John Smith who coined the name from opassum, an Algonquian word that means “white animal.” Smith writing in Virginia in 1608 describes Opussums thus:

An Opassom hath an head like a Swine, and a taile like a Rat, and is of the bignes of a Cat. Under her belly she hath a bagge, wherein shee lodgeth, carrieth, and sucketh her young.

Maine is not the best territory for possums; they do not hibernate, and winter can be very cruel. As their native habit has been denuded and developed, they’ve been moving north, and as climate change progresses they’ve moved more rapidly. They were deliberately introduced to the West coast of the U.S. in the early 1900s, and have moved from coastal California to Washington, and up into British Columbia.

I kinda like possums. They have opposable thumbs on their feet, which makes them great at climbing. Their tails are prehensile. They have an amazing immune systems, so are generally not bothered by, for instance, snake venom. They’re rarely rabid, and they are very efficient tick predators, which is particularly good news for Maine. This poor mom has had her hair pulled out by her babies as they clamber on and around her, but when less stressed, she has thick hair that’s strikingly white around her face.

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As a kid in the 1970s who spent part of most summers in Maine, Lupines were one of the major road side attractions in Maine. They started showing in June, and sometimes, as you went North, you could still see them in early July. They’re not the native (possibly extinct) Lupine (Lupinus perennis); these are cultivated (though it’s quite possible that there’s been some unsupervised crossing) Lupinus polyphyllus, originally a West coast native. It’s a plant I’m going to plant, someday, on the edge of a field or road. Lupines are fairly easy to cultivate, and thrive in somewhat harsh conditions with poor soil.

Lupines

You might be familiar with the fabulous book written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney: Miss Rumphius, about a woman who traveled the world, and scattered and collected and distributed lupine seeds all over Maine.

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