North American Porcupines in Maine

As we often see porcupines in the woods and crossing the trail in autumn and during years with little snow in winter, I thought I'd write about them now. By the way, for more information see this interesting Northern Woodlands article.

We saw this one while on a walk through a nearby woodland. Porcupines prefer mixed or coniferous forests. Their winter range is about 6 acres in our area. They are generally solitary animals but might den together in wintertime.

Porcupines are the third largest rodent in the world, behind the capybara and the beaver. The North American porcupine has an average body length of 24"-36" and body weights between 7.7 lbs to 39.7 lbs.

What surprised us was the dirt mound he was standing on.  

We don't know what the purpose of it was, but I have read that porcupines bury the bones of other animals that they find in the woods, so maybe this is a burial mound??? It seems rather bizarre to me and I don't remember the source of the article.

Den sites, especially long-used sites, are recognized by piles of droppings, and may include a rocky cavern of ledge, a hollow log, an abandoned fox or beaver den, and even abandoned buildings.  Source: DeGraaf, Richard M., and Mariko Yamasaki. New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History, and Distribution. Hanover, NH: University of New England, 2001.

Porcupines eat wood vegetation in winter, particularly inner cambium, buds, and needles of white pine and especially hemlock in the northeast, and the bark of sugar maple and birch trees. In summertime, they add fruits, seeds, nuts and the leaves of aspen, elm, basswood, and birch to their diet. Source: DeGraaf, Richard M., and Mariko Yamasaki. New England Wildlife: Habitat, Natural History, and Distribution. Hanover, NH: University of New England, 2001.

The quills are modified hairs coated with thick plates of Keratin, and they are embedded in the skin. Quills are released by contact with them, or they may drop out when the porcupine shakes its body. Porcupines cannot shoot attackers with quills (like projectiles) as many people think. They will loosen the quills then swing their tail toward their attacker. There are tiny barbs on the tip of the quill that allow the quill to be embedded into the attacker's skin and are difficult to remove.

This is a riveting 16 second clip of the porcupine chewing on some vegetation. All you can really see are his quills quivering during the super slow chewing action. I was quivering as well as it was about 30F outside;-)

African Crested porcupine quill collected by Gary Haines
North American porcupine quills collected by Laurie Haines

And here is a photo of the difference between the quill length of the North American porcupine quills (3.5" long) versus an African Crested porcupine quill (10.5" long.) The crested porcupine has an average body length of 24"-33", and weights from between 29 lbs to 60 lbs. They tend to charge their disturber back end first trying to stab them with their thicker, shorter quills.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crested_porcupine

Gee...so how do you remove a quill from your skin if you happen upon an angry porcupine? Pull the quill out very carefully with pliers (regular and needle-nosed.) Firmly grasp the base of the quill near the skin, but be careful not to break the quill. Pull the quill straight out in a rapid motion, at the same angle as the quill went in. Disinfect with hydrogen peroxide, then put antibiotic ointment on the wounds. See a doctor and get a rabies shot if necessary.

NOTE: DO NOT CUT THE END OF THE QUILL BEFORE REMOVAL. THIS MIGHT SPLINTER THE QUILL AND MAKE REMOVAL MORE DIFFICULT. AND, NEVER USE YOUR HANDS TO REMOVE THE QUILLS AS THE BARBS MAY IRRITATE YOUR SKIN.

The first measurable snowfall of the 2025-2026 season

We got 7.5" of light, somewhat fluffy snow yesterday and into the early morning hours today. Here is our snow measuring table within the vegetable garden area in the front yard.

And, here is the snow covered bird feeding area on the south side of the house.

Kindergarten Blue Trail and deer tracks in the snow

After 7.5 inches of snow, the trees and trail were so pretty today, on Woods Wednesday. 

The pine boughs are heavily laden with snow which makes the trail even more picturesque.

The kids had lots of fun following the Blue Trail to the forest classroom.

On my way back to the school parking lot, I decided to blaze my own trail along the top of the athletic fields next to the forest. There I found numerous white-tailed deer trails crisscrossing each other and then continuing on the other side of the fence.

This is such a busy deer highway! We are thinking of setting up a game camera some weekend to see how many deer travel out in the open at night.

Who's Using Our Trail? A Kindergarten Forest Classroom Investigation

Our local elementary kindergarten classes have a forest classroom and we have a blue-blazed trail that runs through the woods to it. The trail we created is an active game trail which we modified a tiny bit for our weekly trek on Woods Wednesday. The trail is covered by leaves and also has many ancient rotting stumps under the surface. This makes for a slightly soft feel underfoot and is not conducive to animal tracks being visible. And, since many of the animals that use the trail use it at night, we set out a game camera to capture Who's Using Our Trail! Volunteering is fun!

Drought Update

This is from Meteorologist Ryan Breton of WCSH6. 

We are still in extreme drought. UGH! We just cannot seem to get more that a few hundredths of an inch of rain at a time, anymore.

Plants are still blooming and Caesar Pond is ice covered

Oh my goodness...I have never seen the Red Elderberry blooming in mid-November! Here are flower buds that are thinking of opening.

And, here is a gorgeous flower cluster. There is one other flower cluster on a different branch. There are no leaves on the branches except where the flowers are.

And, the Stella d'oro daylily is still trying to bloom. 

This is crazy! At the same time, Caesar Pond has had ice on it for two days in a row as the nighttime temperatures are below freezing. 

I love when the pond ices over and the sun's reflection is on the ice. We will probably see lots of thawing and freezing cycles until it finally freezes over for good, for the winter season, probably in January.

A dusting of snow

We have had a few dustings of snow in November. Nothing measurable. This is what a dusting looks like.

Nov 10th rain

We got 1" of rain yesterday into the evening, with a few torrential downpours thrown in. That brings us to 1.48"/5.19" (historical ave) for November thus far.

Nov 6 and Nov 8 rain

We got just a tad of rain on Nov. 6th and Nov. 8th: 0.15" + 0.12" respectively. That brings us to 0.48" in November thus far! Whoo Hooo! I am being a bit facetious here... But, there is more rain to come.

Planted 21 cloves of garlic today

I chose the 3 largest of the bulbs of garlic, with the largest cloves, and planted 21 cloves in my garlic bed. Before planting the cloves, I refreshed the soil with some compost and some humus. The cloves were planted 4" deep, then covered with soil. We then raked two piles of leaves which Drew then mulched and put on top of the soil. This is weighted down with wire fencing to hold it all in place throughout the winter. The leaves then become part of the soil for summer.

First rain in November

From two short rainfalls this week we got 0.03" on November 2nd and 0.18" on November 4th. The historical average rainfall for November is 5.19". Come on Mother Nature, let's see how close we can get! We are at 0.21" thus far! Keep up the good work! Sometimes a little encouragement goes a long way.

Rainfall total for October and update on drought conditions

 So, here we go for the monthly update and the condition of the drought. We just received 1.56" of rain plus .24" last week. The total rainfall for October is 2.92". With the average being 6", we fell quite short of rainfall for October. 

As far as rainfall since May 31, we have amassed 8.95". We are still shy about 18" since May 31st. By the way...The month of November gets an historical average of 5.19" of precipitation while the month of December gets 4.3". We will see how this tracks in the coming days.

As for the current drought condition, we are in trouble water-wise. The majority of Maine is in extreme drought and we hope our well doesn't go dry this winter. We hope to heck that this will be a heavy snow winter to refill our water coffers.

Rain, lovely rain...

Out of two rainfalls we got 0.74", with more to come tomorrow. This brings us to 1.12" in October, and 7.15" of rain since May 31.

Rain update

 We got 0.38" of rain which brings our total up to 6.41" since May 31. We have a long way to go to catch up before winter begins. The historic monthly average for October is 6". We will see how close we get!

A super soaker of a rain storm

 We just got 2.93" of rain yesterday into the late evening. That brings us to 3.95" of rain for the month of September (the monthly average is 4.2") We are now at 6.03" of rain since May 31st, but are still shy of about 14" of rain for the summer.

But, we are still in a severe drought and have a long way to go to get out of it.

We got rain, but the drought continues

We got 1.02" of ran which puts us at around 3.1" since May 31st. At least the plants got a sip of water as we are incredibly dry and are in a D2 severe drought category as of Sept. 2nd.

It looks like we will be dry through the month of September. We will have below normal precipitation. Dry soil will allow the ground to cool faster overnight and lead to earlier than normal frost conditions.

A New Tick Species in Maine

Geez, another species of tick has made it's way to Maine. We have too many tick borne diseases as it is! UMaine Extension Tick Lab identified the Asian Longhorn Tick.

Mums the word!

We went to Mid-Coast Growers and bought 4 gorgeous mums. There are oodles of mums and asters to choose from! I put two pink mums (with yellow centers) in Toby's Memorial Garden.

One of the yellow mums was put into a ceramic pot near the geraniums. Such a gorgeous corner of the front deck!

The second yellow mum is at the other end of the deck. So lovely... We will undoubtedly go back for the purple asters next.

Garden fresh veggies for tonight's soup

Even though our vegetable garden is not at its best this summer, I was able to happily pick a few veggies to add to our vegetable soup for dinner. From left to right: Carrot, eggplants, patty pan squash below the eggplants, zucchini, Arat parsley root. I generally wait until late September to pick carrots, but I was excited to pull one today. I gave it to my carrot connoisseur, Drew, to eat and he said it was delightful! As I haven't grown Arat parsley root before, I decided to pull one with lush greenery to see how big the root was. It was tinier than expected and I will not pull anymore of them until late September/early October.

We Got Rain!!!

We are in a drought. We received only about 1" of rain total in June and none in July. As you can see in the photo, the ground is crispy dry.

Well, surprise, surprise...A fast moving thunderstorm roared through and dropped 0.739" of rain in the span of about 30 minutes. Then, another storm moved through and we got a bit more rain to bring the total of this storm up to 0.81". This rain will not end the drought, but at least the plants got a sip of much needed water today.

Rain barrel #1 was filled to 3/4, and rain barrel #2 was filled to 1/2. Since we are not due for any rain until maybe next Sunday, this will allow me to water the plants at the end of next week.

And, it looks like this storm pushed out the heat and we will be back to our normal Maine summer temperatures for the foreseeable future! Yay!

Just chillin' in the veggie garden

I look forward to the summer days that are on the cooler side so that I can commune with my vegetable garden plants. I love hanging out with them and giving them encouragement and positive energy...And, I love the buzzing of the bees, the fluttering of the butterflies, and the humming of the hummingbirds that zip hither and yon!

Doelores is her name

Doelores is her name and eating my garden flowers is her game! She has plenty of browse and lives off the plants of our yard and next door neighbor, Carla's yard.

Since we no longer have a dog, she is getting really bold and is even eating the flowers in the bed just off the front deck! She works hard to rid me of almost all my daylilies and many other flowers that come into bloom. A good friend reminded me that instead of being annoyed, I should be happy that I am keeping her healthy so that she can successfully feed her babies. So, that is the attitude I am going to try to hold onto.

Clematis plants in bloom

I have 7 different clematis plants. Four new ones were planted this year and of the three that were planted last year, two are currently blooming and they are gorgeous! This beauty is Vitacelli Venosa. She has over 30 flower buds on one vine and has 7 flowers blooming at the moment!

And, here is the whole plant (photographed on June 27th.)

Then there is my mystery clematis. I bought it about 20 years ago and moved it to this location last year. This seems to be her happy place as she has two flowers blooming this year!

Here is a closeup of the center of the flower (that I took on June 25th.)

And, here is the whole plant in all its glory! (photo taken on June 25th.)

Cucumber Beetles

Grrrrr.....Aughhhh...Cucumber beetles have invaded our vegetable garden for the first time ever. They are munching on the leaves and stems of mostly the cucumber and squash plants, although I think they are also attracted to all the plants. So, I watched a gardening video and this guy said that the beetles are attracted to the color yellow. We bought 6 yellow frisbees and put soapy water in them to hopefully attract the beetles.

It is working to some degree, but I am also going out each day and trying to smoosh as many beetles as possible.

We have the striped cucumber beetles, and there are hundreds of them! At this rate, I may not get any veggies this summer. Time will tell. So depressing...

Dangerously high heat in Maine

At 4pm,  our thermometer read 100F. And the heat index was 110F. 

I spent a total of 5 minutes outside and got dizzy. I found it difficult to breathe due to the humidity. Needless to say, we are running the air conditioner all day long. Tonight, the overnight temperature will only get down to 75F.

Peonies, Irises, Salvia and more!

I have two varieties of Peony plants that are coming into full bloom. This red one is so stunning with its lush, richly deep red color and full flower. I have one of these plants in the center stump garden and one in the garden on the north side of the yard near the azalea. 

My other peony is my all time favorite with its huge pink flowers with a creamy, off white center. 

This peony resides on the north side of my south stump garden near the road.

I planted this Salvia near the pink peony, but on the road side of the stump. The purple contrasts so nicely with the bright pink. Note that I took this photo before moving it to its final location. 

The Smooth Spiderwort is now in bloom next to and under the leaves of the Interrupted Fern in the garden to the south side of the front deck stairs. Yikes...do you see the pollen on all the plant surfaces? No wonder I have so many sneezing fits, a runny nose, and itchy eyes this time of year! 

For the last new plant in bloom, check out this pretty white and yellow iris! It is next to the peony in the garden on the north side of the front yard.