July Field Trip

This week I have been visiting the sites I manage for my day job with the USGS as a hydrologic technician. My travels take me to Bar Harbor, Calais, and many sites in Hancock and Washington counties in Maine. I can't help making quick observations about the plants, animals, and insects I see regularly.

While in Vanceboro, it was necessary for me to walk through a field of these plants which at first seemed to be poison water hemlock based on the leaf shape and umbel of flowers. The smell was a nauseating, sickly sweet odor that made me gag as I walked through them. Many of these were taller than I, which means over six feet tall. I was sure if it's identity until I began looking at examples online. Newcombe's will decide in the end.

 At the top of the trail, there is a couple of trees that seem to be a black walnut.

and a butternut. My friend Lynda and her husband Tom own a camp near here and we are trying to sort these two out. More data needed. The trouble is, I don't have the proper time to devote to this when I'm there because I'm on the clock.

Also today near Wesley and Day Block twp, I found these information plaques hidden down a side road on Old Sream.

 Crown vetch was blooming everywhere at this location. It's a common weed but of course it's beautiful.

 I had identified some of this shrub about a week ago in Farmington but it had no berries. Yew.

 Osmunda regalis the Royal Fern complete with sporangia.

The best tasting wild strawberries I've ever had. Period. 

 Corylus cornuta or Beaked Hazelnut is maturing all over the State and seem to be in heavy supply this summer.

 An example of a C. cornuta leaf, a member of betulaceae, it is doubly serrated like its cousins the birch and hophornbeam.

Out near Columbia Falls, this red maple has Lobaria pulmonaria lichen living on it's trunk while the Balsam fir next to it was full of usnea  species,or beard lichen. 

Bald Mountain at Sunrise

There are about as many mountains in Maine known as Bald Mountain as there are brooks known as branch brook, or as many streets 

My friend Lynda and I decided to go on an early morning hike today to the top of Bald Mountain near Weld, Maine. As recent graduates of the Maine Master Naturalist Program, our outings usually last longer than expected and we usually don't need to travel very far to find things of interest.