Category: Out in the Woods

Out in the Woods

Photo: Patti Peterson via Creative Commons By Kevin McKeon, Maine Master Naturalist Few Critters as American as the Raccoon We might think of them mainly as invaders of our garbage cans or poor victims of speeding cars, but raccoons have a long history as symbols of our country and are remarkably clever creatures. In the early 1600s, when Capt. John Smith wrote “A Map of Virginia” to describe the region around Jamestown colony, he made note of animals known to…

Out in the Woods

Photo by Francesco Ungaro Why is the Sky Blue? No Simple Answer By Kevin McKeon, Maine Master Naturalist Earth’s surface is mostly water, so the sky must be the blue water’s reflection from Earth’s atmosphere, right? Turns out it’s a little more complicated than that. The sky looks blue due to something called the Rayleigh scattering phenomenon. It begins with how humans perceive light. Light hits our eyes after refracting through and reflecting from objects. It then gets transferred to…

Out in the Woods

Fly amanita mushroom, which has been documented along the Vigue Trail, is poisonous and psychoactive. Photo: iNaturalist Fall rains bring mushrooms By Kevin McKeon, Maine Master Naturalist There are an estimated 27,000 species of mushrooms worldwide. The Maine Mycological Association has identified about 2,500 of those in Maine. There are at least 15 mushroom farms in the state, growing popular Maine varieties such as porcini, oyster, chanterelle, black trumpet, hen, and chicken of the wood for local and regional markets.…

Out in the Woods

Photo: Kevin McKeonBy Kevin McKeon, Maine Master Naturalist Prickly Pear creeping into Maine Cacti in Maine!? Yup! Sort of. A cactus is making its way here from New Hampshire and is listed as native to all New England states except Vermont and Maine. It’s called the Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia humifusa) because of the pearlike shape of its fruit and it’s unrelated to the pear. Another one of its names, the Indian Fig, relates to the fruit’s size. It’s…

Out in the Woods

Yellowjackets Aren’t All Bad (Really) By Kevin McKeon, Maine Master Naturalist Yup, yellowjackets sting, their sting hurts, and the reason is clear when you see a magnified picture. Those barbs look menacing but are relatively small — probably an aid in keeping the stinger inserted during venom injections. Some bees will die after a single sting, but these wasps often sting repeatedly. Yellowjackets are one of more than 100,000 named species of wasps and come from relatives 200 million years…