Columns

Shawn Lewin, AARP Maine member

Social media helps us stay…

A Bird's Tale
With their yellow legs and rusty brown upperparts, pectoral sandpipers look a bit like a larger version of the tiny least sandpiper. They breed in the Arctic but in migration favor shallow, grassy pools and muddy lake shorelines. Photo courtesy of Jeff Wells.

 

Envision birds migrating, let’s say hundreds or even a thousand feet overhead (some birds fly even higher). To us, they’d look like specks in the sky, if we could…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

Have you seen enough political…

'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

One of my favorite adventures, if…

Joyce Bucciantini

The November elections are rapidly…

The authors were delighted when a late-for-the-season American restart joined the party at the cheery yellow plant. Courtesy of Jeff Wells

 

We have a six-foot-high stand of…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

What has jumped to the top of the…

'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

When all else fails, find something…

Shawn Lewin, AARP Maine member

Medicare’s annual open enrollment…

A Bird's Tale
The October wave brings the emphatic “chink” calls of white-throated sparrows rising up in wild places, urban parks, and backyards when the first cold front ushers millions of them into the U.S. from the Boreal Forest of Canada, where they have spent the summer breeding season. Photo courtesy of Jeff Wells

 

Fall bird migration has been underway since July. That’s when short-billed dowitchers, lesser yellowlegs and other shorebirds that breed in the Boreal Forest bogs…

'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

“…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

You don’t have to be the beautiful…

Where It's At
LISA KRISTOFF/Boothbay Register

Boothbay Harbor friends and fans of Maine’s Blue Collar Author Jerry Farnham were at Brady’s for their copies of the conclusion of the “Red At Night” series.

Entitled, appropriately enough…

A Bird's Tale
Sanderlings are among the most common birds on Maine beaches during spring and fall, but how many people know that they nest in the Arctic? Photo courtesy of Jeff Wells

 

When you hear the word “Arctic,” what comes to mind?

Is it ice and snow and rocks? Is it polar bears and vast stretches of whiteness?

…
'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

Time marches on as is reflected by…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

Four weeks to go until the mid-term…

A Bird's Tale
Hawks perch where they can best see the prey they are hunting. The authors recently saw a young red-tailed hawk, like the one here, perched on a mailbox at a farmhouse, perhaps hunting nearby house sparrows. Photo by Department of the Interior. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, courtesy of Wikicommons.

 

Countless times, we’ve driven past the big, white farmhouse next to the long, red milking barn in the center of our favorite local grassland. But a few days ago, we…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

This is a note to the suits who quarterback Maine Health.

I know I have been a pain in the tush as I opposed, and will continue to oppose, your decision to close the Miles L & D unit.…

'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

I flew with Doctor John Andrews and…

Column
Rep. Wayne Farrin. Courtesy photo

Students across Maine are back in school, and the fall season is now in full swing for many students, parents and teachers. 

One of my top priorities during this…

Community of Hope
New Hope logo

"In the 1970s and '80s, Mainers…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

It doesn’t take much Google time to…

'Round Town
Painting by Allan Walton. Courtesy of Robert Mitchell

When I came to Maine I did not know…

A Bird's Tale
During a recent trip to Pemaquid Harbor, the authors were surprised to see two young ospreys still hanging around a nest - the result of Maine's extended summers? Courtesy of Jeff Wells.

 

Mainers used to love to go on about how short the summers were here.

Not any more.

Climate change has elongated…

WHERE IT'S AT
Courtesy of the artists

The creative team of author and poet Susan Schadler and artists Lynne and John M.T. Seitzer recently released “Growing Wild: Four seasons of New England and Native Plants and Their Creatures.”…

A Bird's Tale
The expansion of red-bellied woodpecker populations into Maine that has taken place in Maine over the last twenty years has been documented thanks to the thousands of volunteer Maine birders who submit their records into eBird and other community science projects. Photo courtesy of Jeff Wells

 

In this age of artificial intelligence, satellite tagging technology, automated sound recorders, genetic analyses, and countless other sophisticated science tools,…

'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

In 1971, freshly graduated from a…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

Driving around the peninsula, you…

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Promises of fast cash and low…

A Bird's Tale
Lesser yellowlegs are currently migrating through Maine from their Boreal Forest nesting grounds. The authors saw this one during low tide near the Yarmouth Town Landing. Courtesy of Jeff Wells

 

We stumbled upon a surprising concentration of shorebirds a few days ago. If you’ve ever driven down Interstate 295 to Portland, you have driven over the Royal…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

Summer is winding down, kids are…

'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

A quick riddle. How do you identify…

A Bird's Tale
It's the time of year when the so-called "confusing fall warblers" can be found in forests and shrubby patches across the state as they migrate south for the winter. Photo courtesy of Jeff Wells

 

We made our migration back from North Carolina last week after an enjoyable but brutally hot, humid time there as we  recounted in last week’s…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

About 20 years ago, Dr. Jack Fulmer…

'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

Before I get too far offshore with…

Where It's At
book jacket

Why are girls in the packing line…

A Bird's Tale
The authors (Jeff here) spent some time looking for birds on the trails at the Duke Ponds on the Duke University campus on a hot day in August. It was a pleasure to find brown-headed nuthatches and Carolina chickadees here. Courtesy of Allison Wells.

Like early migrating birds, we have recently made a trek south from Maine to North Carolina. It’s not the time of year when most Mainers head south—not when temperatures have regularly been in the…

'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

Last week we, and a variety of…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

There are lots of interesting…

Where It's At
MSMT's ensemble cast of "Come From Away" now playing at the Pickard Theatre at Bowdoin College. Jared Morneau Photography

Back in 1969 Jackie DeShannon sang these words: "Think of your fellow man, Give him a helping hand, Put A Little Love In Your Heart."

DeShannon's…

Community of Hope
New Hope logo

In 1981, a handful of survivors of…

Joe's Journal
Joe Gelarden

“Between the (xx$#X) dust,…

'Round Town
Photo by Robert Mitchell

When our daughters were little…

Rep. Wayne Farrin

The cost of living in Maine is too high, and families across Lincoln County feel it every day. Whether it’s groceries, electricity bills, childcare or healthcare, too many households are finding…

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