Milkweed Chronicles, part 1

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While running on the shrubby hillside paths along the Eastern Promenade the other day, I noticed a monarch butterfly perched, stereotypically, on the only milkweed plant in sight. I stopped to look at her orange and black stained-glass wings - I think it was a she, because the black veins looked kind of thick and I didn't see a pheromone patch on the hindwing. Then she took flight in the same direction I was going, so I walked along with her for a while.

Sketched later that day, on a different part of the Eastern Promenade, Portland, Maine

The path is hemmed in by bushes on both sides, so there was a tunnel effect that kept the monarch close by as she floated along a few feet above the ground. Periodically she dipped down to a plant that apparently looked promising as a nectar source (I'm assuming... or maybe she was searching for milkweed plants to lay eggs on). 

The briefest contact with the leaves seemed to inform her that a given plant was neither a milkweed nor any of her other favorite nectar-producing species. She continued onward without actually landing until we finally got to a patch of milkweed plants, where she finally paused on the leaves. But then she kept right on going - maybe because the flowers hadn't quite opened up yet?

We came to the end, where the path opens onto the sloping lawn of the Eastern Prom. Her desultory flight, now unconfined, took her out of view almost immediately. And I'd thought we were friends.

(Stay tuned for Milkweed Chronicles, Part 2...)

Eco-whaling

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A 173-year-old whaling ship returns to the sea for the first time in almost a century and sends a whaleboat out to meet some humpbacks. Somehow those whales can tell there's no harpoon aboard.

The CHARLES W. MORGAN sails with the whales on Stellwagen Bank. July 11, 2014

Video by Mystic Seaport

This might sound odd, but I once spent an evening in the belly of that ship, reading passages of Moby-Dick aloud (Chapter 113: The Forge). I have also climbed its rigging.

Aug. 15 update: click here.

1BR available

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nest.jpg
  • Made of grasses, delicate woody stems of last year's wildflowers, and an unidentified white fluff that could be cat fur, plant down, or the synthetic innards of an abandoned pillow
  • About two and a half inches across (not counting errant twigs)
  • Underside bears the impression of a finger-sized branch the nest was presumably built upon
  • Found on the ground under the trees, at the bottom of the Fort Allen bluff - Eastern Promenade, Portland, Maine


I'm thinking yellow warbler. (I'd like to say that's based just on my knowledge of nest materials and dimensions. But it's really because yellow warblers are EVERYWHERE around there.)