Category: Out in the Woods

Out In the Woods

A great blue heron forages along Number 2 Pond. Photo: Terry Jellerson Majestic Heron Can Often Be Seen at #1 Pond By Kevin McKeon, Director, Mousam Way Land Trust In an indirect way, we have a natural disaster to thank for many Sanford area residents’ first sighting of the majestic great blue heron. In mid-October 1947, more than 200 fires in southern and coastal Maine burned a quarter million acres, leveling nine towns, destroying more than 1,200 homes, killing 16…

Out In The Woods

A mourning cloak butterfly feeds on pine pitch Photo: Susan Pieter Earliest Butterfly Is Also the Longest Living By Kevin McKeon, Director, Mousam Way Land Trust The first butterfly you’ll often see along Sanford’s trails in very early spring, with snow on the ground and ice on some ponds, is the mourning cloak. It has awakened from its winter's hibernation under loose tree bark or other small, sheltered cavity. With insects, this hibernation is called torpor. Mourning cloaks often rest…

Out In The Woods

Steve Mallon walks on the boardwalk that he and other members of the Mousam Way Land Trust built to access the Atlantic White Cedar Swamp at Great Works Reserve Rare Cedar Swamp Offers Shady Coolness Photo: Kevin McKeon By Kevin McKeon, Director, Mousam Way Land Trust As you walk the footpath at Mousam Way Land Trust’s Great Works Reserve next to Sand Pond, you’ll walk past a thick, young, white pine stand. After that, you’ll find yourself in the midst…

Out In The Woods

Ruby-throated hummingbird caught in a rare moment of repose Buzzing Hummingbirds Can Fend Off Larger Intruders Photo: Rick from Georgia via Creative Commons Kevin McKeon, Mousam Way Land Trust Director The Ruby-throated Hummingbird is eastern North America’s sole breeding hummingbird and is viciously territorial. I once spotted one at our feeder with the beak of another in its breast. Another one of our visitors flew at 30 mph, with 50 wingbeats a second, fending off all comers to any of…

Out in the Woods

As Shoots Push Upward, Skunk Cabbage Warms the Soil Skunk cabbage at Great Works Reserve Photo: Kevin McKeon By Kevin McKeon, Director, Mousam Way Land Trust Kindly described as having a “fresh cabbage scent with a slight suggestion of mustard,” skunk cabbage’s botanical name, Symplocarpus foetidus, roughly translates to “bad-smelling compound fruit” and nature has reasons for this infusive adaptation. It blooms in very early spring, prior to the arrival of most pollinators. Skunk cabbage’s rotten odor and liver-colored streaks…