Tick Check Lab and Maine Cooperative Extension Agency

 The Maine Cooperative Extension Agency checks ticks for disease, that have been embedded in you. It is worth the piece of mind.

Flora and Fauna Investigate Mushrooms

My purpose for this video on mushrooms is to inform young children to leave mushrooms alone when they visit the woods. Kids often put their hands in their mouths without thinking and since some mushrooms are poisonous, we don't want anyone to get hurt. Additionally, when young children see mushrooms they literally dive bomb them to pick them. We are trying to teach responsibility and stewardship as well. Anyone who sees value in this video is welcome to use it. I volunteer with a local elementary school's kindergarten classes, for Woods Wednesdays, and it is the best fun I have ever had.

This was my first foray into the world of AI. Since my level of drawing ability is that of a kindergartener, I developed this video using the Gemini app, Lyra3Pro, and iMovie. Drew was kind enough to get me started as he has some great skills. The music and all the scenes are AI generated. This is not just a process where you make a statement and "voila" your scene is created. In order to get consistency from scene to scene, you have to have very specific prompts and reference pictures. When I wanted specific mushrooms, I used the scientific names for them in the prompts. And, trying to have Gemini create scene animation was another level of frustration as anomalies cropped up that were hilarious at times with the inconsistencies. Hence, the still scenes. I did the narration, which is not exactly great, but it was the best I could do as I am not a professional.  I hope you get some value from it. Enjoy!

Our last snowfall, I think...and hope...

 SNOW TOTAL FOR THE 2025-2026 SEASON = 80.25"

The overnight snowfall totaled 0.25". The overnight temp. was 23F. I am thinking that this is the last snowfall of the year since the weather is warming into the 50's after today.

The Mud Season Blues

Drew has created a fun song and photos through AI. He used Gemini and Lyra3Pro, along with iMovie to create this video. The vocal artist is also AI, not a real person. Enjoy!

Ice Out Has Occurred on Caesar Pond

South side of the pond is now ice free!

I call Ice Out when the south cove is navigable by boat, and with the wind blowing at around 16mph today, the ice has melted and been pushed back far enough that we can now go boating over the entire pond. AWESOME!!!

View looking north along Caesar Pond. The wind practically took my breath away! The feel-like temperature was around 37F and it really felt cold over at the pond, which acts like a wind tunnel.

2026 Maine Big Night # 2

  Maine Big Night # 2. We had rain all day long that stopped at around 5pm.

LH1Bowd (This year's participants are me, Paul, and Caroline. Kathy will join us periodically.) Lauren Leclerc is the official adopter of the site.

April 5, 2026.  Start time 7:10pm.-8:10pm AND 10pm-11pm

Certified Volunteers - 1 (Paul) (10pm-11pm)

Uncertified Volunteers - 1 (Kathy) (7:10pm-8:10pm)

Starting Temp: 43F.   Ending Temp.:  42F

Precipitation: Misty

The road is wet.

Traffic Tally:  5 vehicles

Species Live:  12 Spring Peepers, 1 Wood Frog, 3 Spotted Salamanders, 1 Pickerel Frog, 2 Newts, 1 two lined salamander

Species Dead:  4 Spring Peepers

Species Injured: 0

NOTES: Kathy only saw one live spring peeper during her hour. Paul found the rest of the amphibians. He also met the woman who adopted our site and she does wetland surveys for a company. She had made the site private as she thought that her kids wanted to be involved, but they are not interested.

The dock is in the water!

We popped on over to Caesar Pond and found that the area in front of our put-in was ice free, so we called our neighbor to come on over and help put his dock into the water. Yay! Let the boating season begin!

Then, I took a panorama of the pond. I should be able to call "Ice Out" as soon as the south cove is open in a few days.

Snow, Snow, and more Snow! And a walk down Starbird Corner Rd.

I think that I am officially tired of snow! (Shhh...did I just say that???) We have had quite a bit of snow lately, followed by thawing, followed by more snow. We cannot go into the forest at this time as there are a lot of icy patches under the snow that we cannot detect.  At present, we have had 80 inches of gorgeous, frozen, white stuff for this winter season. I think we have a bit more to go.

Even though it was a bit of an icy start to the day, we got out for a walk on Starbird Corner. The temperature rose to 32.8F for the high, and it was cloudy and spitting snow on and off all day. Beech trees have lots of buds ready to burst when springtime gets into full swing.

The scene was so pretty today as this last storm gave us some very wet and heavy snow.

Tree limbs were over burdened and were touching the ground in many places.

I rather like this same view but in portrait mode.

Lastly, fresh snow brings fresh animal tracks. I think these are from a squirrel who was crossing the road this morning.

2026 Maine Big Night # 1

 Maine Big Night # 1. The daytime temperature rose to 50F and we had rain that started Monday morning and rained all day long. We had a break in the rain and Paul went out to check on amphibian movement.

LH1Bowd (This year's participants are me, Paul, and Caroline. Kathy will join us periodically.) Actually, as of the writing of this entry, we aren't sure who has adopted the Lewis Hill Rd. site and we are trying to find out. We may not be allowed to survey there as whoever adopted it did so as a closed site with no additional participants. Curious...

May 16, 2026.  Start time 7:20pm.  End time 8:20pm

Certified Volunteers - 1 (Paul)

Uncertified Volunteers - 0

Starting Temp: 50F.   Ending Temp.:  49.5F

Precipitation: Very light drizzle

The road is wet.

Traffic Tally:  6 vehicles

Species Live:  2 Spring Peepers

Species Dead:  0

Species Injured: 0

NOTES: Paul saw eyes glowing on the downstream side of the road. The animal crossed in front of Paul and slipped into the pond. It was too small to be an otter and Paul surmised that it must have been a mink.

Owl prints in the snow

I went out for a snow shoe in the woods behind our house and found three different areas where an owl had been desperately hunting for prey. Even though owls can hear rodents under the snow, when the snowpack deepens it is more difficult for owls to secure their meal. I made this video to show to the local kindergarten students (who I volunteer with) and anyone else who ventures out into a winter wonderland. (By the way, the first owl print with complete wing prints and body print was one that we found out on Caesar Pond after a heavy snowfall quite a few years ago.)

The kindergarten students are currently studying owls. They have been reading and analyzing several works of fiction. Next, they will transition to nonfiction, and that is where this video will come in. We will analyze and learn about owl prints which will really excite the kids to go out to their forest classroom, and even into the woods at home, to investigate.