Site Discussions

Interesting questions. Does drawing the maximum amount of sap speed drying of the lumber when the tree is cut down?

Maybe a bit harsh, but you could use the branches of the tree to boil its own sap into syrup.

We have a chickadee that claimed one of our bird houses.  However, even though there is the beginning of a nest inside, this bird seems to be alone.  It sits at the house, flies on the top or side of it and chirps, like it’s calling the mate.  No other bird ever shows up.  It has been doing this every day, all day for a week now.  It’s odd behavior.  Could the mate have been injured or killed?  Is it simply trying to find a mate?  I would like to know.

This tuneful warbler is so abundant in our area of central to midcoast Maine that I hear their songs as I am driving country roads at 40 + mph. Thank goodness for the joyful song of the Black-throated Green, and thank you for you story, Lee Emmons.

I am thrilled,I have two males using my yard for the first time.They are so beautiful,I had a good laugh watching one of them learning to drink water from the feeder.I am curious to know if Orioles will Rob other birds nests?straight23

To my mind, the bird’s song sounds like “I’m a Black-Throated Green” which is very handy for my memory!

It was an insightful and interesting article. I learned a lot. Thanks!

I’m hoping that you could help me with some information or a direction I should go in. I recently purchased some back country land. Needless to say while out exploring said property, I came across quite a few trees with burls on them. Is it worth my time to cut them down? I would attach some picks but I’m not sure how. Thank you so much for any help you might provide.

First time for me to have Orioles. There are 2 pair that come and eat at my hummingbird feeders. I’ve been putting slices of orange out for them. They do love the orange.
Loved reading your article. Thank you for sharing.

Beautifully written & filled with joyful insights that provide a keyhole view into a local swamp.  That Garry made me want to stumble through to find this place because of his wordsmithing is impressive ❤️  Going to miss seeing you at Coastal Roasters every Saturday, Garry.

I walked on the road, in the Berkshires, just Friday, May 20th, 2021 with my dog Wellesley. He had more than 80 ticks on this body. I used a tick/flea preventative just one month ago but wonder of the effectiveness of these drugs. I have walked my dog on the same road for over 10 years and never saw anything like that! Definitively an area to check carefully when one walks dogs…

Hello, I have a live sunk under my building in which I run my business so it is a truly terrible situation. Any loud noise and the smell is immediately horrendous and I am forced to close my store for several days or more. I’ve had several wildlife control experts come out and they can find no entry or exit points around my building. My business is on a street close right on the sidewalk. it is in a very old historic district. my question is…can there be access under my building several yards from a sewer system running under the street? No one has been able to determine how it is getting in the crawl space! We are facing having to tear up our floors.
Live Traps have been set around the perimeter to no avail. Please provide any opinions on my terrible problem. Thank you

I had my house built on the highest point of my land, which is over 845 ft elevation (and the highest point in my immediate area). The geology has always puzzled me since to my east, the ground could be used for farming (but I choose to leave it wooded). The same applies to my south, north and further west (from house). How ever,  half of my house foundation is in pure sand (they dug for the septic and never hit anything but sand). The other part of my house, is on rock. The kind of rock that is comprised of yellow rocks (imagine how rocks mixed with concrete looks). Back years ago, this hilltop was about 20+ foot higher. My grandfather let a neighbor haul away dirt/sand. Anyhow, I doubt I described it very well.

Beautiful description of an intriguing habitat. Reminded me of visits to NJ’s Pine Barrens also resilient to fire to the point of dependency on fire. Thank you for this piece.

There is so much private property now in my area that I can bv find very few areas to pick fiddleheads at all. I’m very interested in growing my own. Do you have information available for doing that? Thank you so much for reminding people to harvest sustainably.

Took a drive this week to Central Oregon to see the turkeys and discovered the turkeys were hiding.

Concluded that they must be nesting and following and several of the things mentioned in this article.

Thanks for the educational material..

Wonderful way to use roots as anti-inflammatory instead of pro-arthritis potatoes.

Thank Ric. And so great that Sutton Library is sharing local nature information!

Can you help identify a bird if we don’t have a picture?  It’s a tiny tan bird, with a square-end tail, that has been taking sticks into our blue bird house. We have fishing line of the sides of the hole to prevent sparrows but this bird is so small, it can get between.  It’s “nest” is a bunch of sticks piled in different ways all the way to the top of the house. It’s hard to imagine how that can be used as a nest.  My husband and I wondered how that little bird got all those fairly big sticks in the house.

Thanks for the note on false morels.  I saw several in a walk last weekend and had been meaning to review my memory about it.  (Mainly that I didn’t want to eat it.)  Tom Volk’s page was exactly what I wanted to see.

[I see these via a link from the Sutton Library FB page.]

Thank you for this information! The recipe was a bonus.