Columns

A Bird’s Tale

#bird-column, #birds, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #flocks, #shorebirds

Last week we saw the sleek, black form of our first common grackle of the year sitting by itself in the top of the tall, leafless maple tree across the street from our home. Its harsh “check”…

A Bird’s Tale

The Things We Take for Granted

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #evening grosbeak, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine

We were driving on a rural road a few days ago when a flock of 30 or so wild turkeys came ambling slowly across in front of us, stopping traffic in both directions. Suddenly, a male turkey, his…

A Bird’s Tale

The Bird Economy

#bird-column, #economy, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #eastern meadowlark

The economy is in the news every day as the countdown to the presidential election is underway for real. Inflation, interest rates, GDP, stock indices, bond returns – the numbers of ways…

62nd annual Windjammer Days

Boatbuilder: Bill Haggett, former president of Bath Iron Works

The 62nd annual Boothbay Harbor Windjammer Days will take place on Sunday, June 23 through Saturday, June 29. This year we will celebrate our local boatbuilders and shipwrights. Please visit…

Salt ’n Spar

A possible future for Mason Station

Mason Station on Birch Point, Wiscasset was built by Central Maine Power Co. in the 1940s initially as a coal-fired electrical generating station. Later the plant was converted to burn oil. This picture from the entrance road was taken in the late 1970s. PHIL DI VECE photo

In January, I received an email from Ryan Gahagan, president of Mason Station Redevelopment Company LLC, based in Portland. His comments were in response to publication of a column I’d written…

New Hope Midcoast

Economic abuse: Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars

Economic abuse can be just as devastating as physical abuse. To deny someone rightful access to money or basic resources is an attack on their fundamental existence. Managing and controlling one’s…

A Bird’s Tale

The Birders’ Mardis Gras

#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #great backyard bird count, #mardis gras, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #american robin

The Birders’ Mardi Gras

The tradition of a February celebration has long been part of human history. A Carnival period, often in July, is a major tradition in many parts of the world, and…

A Bird’s Tale

Who to Follow?

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #snow buntings, #maine, #birds

Deciding on which leader to follow is certainly occupying much of the media airspace for us humans in the U.S. at the moment and will be for months to come until the Presidential election.

…

A Bird’s Tale

Eagles on Ice

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #Kennebec, #bald eagle

While it’s true that a certain Philadelphia-based football team is on ice after a recent playoff collapse against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the inspiration for this column comes from the real…

Community of Hope

Sharing Our Impact

Since it was launched last year, the goal of this column has been to raise awareness about domestic violence and its widespread effects on our communities, schools and workplaces. We hope it has…

A Bird’s Tale

Ten Million Birds?

#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #boothbay register, #maine, #seal river watershed, #black scoter

A watershed in the Canadian province of Manitoba almost half the size of the entire state of Maine and estimated to support more than ten million breeding birds took a significant step closer to…

Meanwhile back in the studio ...

Catching up with Doug Gimbel

Artist Douglas Gimbel in this year’s winter studio in Boothbay Harbor. LISA KRISTOFF/Boothbay Register

For about four years now I’ve been checking in with artists during the winter months to see what they may be working on. This year, because he’s in Maine and not Texas or New Orleans, I visited…

A Bird’s Tale

Fifteen Years of Hoping Finally Pays Off

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #short-eared owl, #birds, #maine

For more than 15 years we’ve been hoping.

We had said the phrase, “This is the perfect place for a short-eared owl,” so many times that it had become a kind of inside joke.

Birders…

A Bird’s Tale

The Dilemma

#bird-column, #hepatic tanager, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #boothbay register, #birds

It was Saturday. Grocery shopping needed to be done. Prescriptions needed filling. The floors needed a vacuuming and the towels needed to be folded and put away.

A major snowstorm was…

A Bird’s Tale

West Meets East

#bird-column, #western birds, #Townsend’s warbler, #hepatic tanager, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds, #spotted towhee

Something unusual seems to be happening.

Here in Maine, it started off with the discovery of the western sibling species to our familiar eastern towhee, a spotted towhee, at Fort Foster in…

A Bird’s Tale

Mysterious Murmurations and Such

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay-register, #birds, #christmas bird count, #murmuration, #carolina wren

The Augusta area Christmas Bird Count took place Saturday, Dec. 16. It was a very mild day for mid-December, another in a series of rather mild days that increasingly have become the new normal as…

A Bird’s Tale

Does It Count?

#bird-column, #christmas bird count, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #boothbay register, #evening grosbeak

Most people find birds beautiful, fascinating, even entrancing. Some recognize only a few that they see in the backyard and neighborhood—chickadees, crows, cardinals, blue jays. These they may…

A Bird’s Tale

One for Staying, One for Going

#bird-column, #maine’s favorite birds, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds

We’ve all faced the dilemma: We want to show our love or appreciation for someone through a gift at the holidays but what is something that reflects who they are and what they enjoy in life?

…

A Bird’s Tale

Mysterious Visitors From Far Away Shores

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #wilson’s storm-petrel

It sometimes seems hard to believe that so many mysteries still remain within the natural world, including within the most well-known group of wild creatures: birds! But new discoveries of all…

A Bird’s Tale

The Twisted History of the Turkey’s Name

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds, #turkey, #thanksgiving

The two most well-known birds in the world would have to be—no, not Steller’s sea-eagles, albatrosses, or hummingbirds—but two species that have probably become rather mundane in most of our…

A Bird’s Tale

Good News From Warm Climes

#bird-column, #birds of aruba bonaire and curacao, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine, #boothbay register, #osprey

Many long-time readers of this column will remember that we have an abiding interest in the islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Bonaire—three islands off the Venezuelan coast that were historically once…

A Bird’s Tale

They Don’t Get No Respect

#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #penbay pilot, #birds, #maine, #american pipit

It’s a bird that seems to pass through here in Maine quickly in spring. Though it is typically more widespread and abundant in fall migration, it prefers habitats that are often not heavily…

A Bird’s Tale

Surrounded by Yellow Rumps

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #timber point, #yellow-rumps

A few nights ago, according to BirdCast, more than a billion birds were up in the air migrating south across the U.S. BirdCast (birdcast.info), for those that are not familiar with it, is a…

A Bird’s Tale

Unprecedented Invasion of American Migrants Arrives in Britain and Ireland

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine, #boothbay register, #blocker, #hurricane lee, #black and white warbler

In the days before Hurricane Lee made its way toward Maine and Nova Scotia, lots of migrating land birds were moving through our area.…

A Bird’s Tale

Lobsterman Sees Birds Falling from Sky

#bird-column, #hurricane-lee, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #lobsterman, #boothbay register

A reader sent us a link to an interesting TikTok video a few days before Hurricane Lee was expected to hit. In the video, a young Maine lobsterman in a red T-shirt and blue jeans standing at the…

A Bird’s Tale

North America’s Rarest Warbler Visits Maine

#bird-column, #kirtland’s warbler, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine

One of the rarest birds in North America has made an appearance in Maine! A Kirtland’s warbler was photographed on Matinicus Rock on Sept. 10. For us, the Kirtland’s warbler has always been almost…

New Hope Midcoast

Talk offers strategies to prevent school-based sexual harassment

School is much more than a place for academic learning. It’s a safe, secure place where students can feel valued, respected and nurtured. It provides a sense of belonging and community. Students…

And Then They Were Gone

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #boothbay register, #maine, #wiscasset newspaper, #yellow warbler

All through the summer, the background noise in many a historic Maine town (for those paying attention) is the constant chittering of chimney swifts overhead. These sooty brown-colored “flying…

A Bird's Tale

Witness to a Mysterious and Marvelous Journey

#bird-column, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine, #Ogunquit

A sliver of sparkling white beach was the last stronghold against the incoming tide for the last-of-the day beachgoers, their brightly colored beach toys, umbrellas, towels and bathing suites…

A Bird’s Tale

Quiet Harbors, Roadside Blueberries, and Memorable Birds: August in Maine

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #pemaquid, #blueberries, #common terns

The glorious blue-sky summer day on Sunday lured us to take a ride down to Pemaquid Harbor. The tide was near high when we arrived in the late afternoon, and the temperature still warm enough for…

A Bird’s Tale

Birds and Heat Waves

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #heat wave, #boothbay register, #maine, #great blue heron

The oppressive heat and humidity have finally broken for us here in Maine, but many parts of the U.S. and other regions of the world are still enduring record-breaking heat. We know that high…

A Bird’s Tale

Rediscovering the Peace and Quiet of Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument

#bird-column, #katahdin-woods-and-waters-national-monument, #jeff-and-allison-wells, #birds, #boothbyay-register, #maine

Quiet.

Deep, profound quiet.

A quiet, unbroken by low grumbling of distant traffic or the white noise of an overhead jet. No buzzing lawnmowers or sirens. No dogs barking or brakes…

Where It’s At

‘Working Maine’ celebrates Mainers and their livelihoods

Heather Perry’s “Lunch Break South Gate BIW” - triptych B&W photos on aluminum panels from her 2019 series - is among the offerings in Maine Art Gallery’s “Working Maine” show.

The first image directly in front of you as you enter Maine Art Gallery is the color photograph of Kaleb, a Bath Iron Works shipfitter taken by Bath photographer/artist Heather Perry. Kaleb is…

A Bird’s Tale

Maine’s Record of Rare Birds Continues

#bird-column, #gulf of maine, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #wiscasset newspaper, #penbay pilot, #birds, #maine, #yellow-nosed albatross

Maine gets a good share of very rare birds. Some of them keep coming back.

Over the past few weeks, Maine’s ocean and offshore islands have played host to at least two exceptionally unusual…

A Bird’s Tale

Can We Learn How Birds Learn?

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #boothbay register, #osprey

We were watching an osprey recently as it flew up with a fish it had caught in the Cobbosseecontee Stream in Gardiner. The meal it had just captured was likely destined for a nest some distance…

A Bird’s Tale

How Boreal Wildfires Impact Birds

#bird-column, #jeff-and-allison-wells, #maine, #birds, #boothbay register, #boreal forest, #canadian wildfires

With wildfire smoke warnings in parts of Maine this past weekend, we are experiencing some of the unhealthy air that people in New York City and other urban areas dealt with a few weeks ago. Our…

A Bird’s Tale

Who Owns This Space?

#bird-column, #birds, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #American redstart

The songs of birds give great pleasure to most people. The lilting warbles and trills of that early spring song sparrow can give a little lift to the heart as the snow melts and the daylight hours…

A Bird’s Tale

Dog Walk Yields Cuckoo Surprise

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #cuckoo

More often than not, the quiet ambles of our dog walks seem to yield some of our most interesting bird experiences. That was the case yet again last night. We took our little black dog out for one…

A Bird’s Tale

The Late-Arriving Blackpoll Warbler

#bird-column, #boothbayregister, #JeffandAllisonWells, #birds, #maine, #blackpollwarbler

The heat was oppressive, like a mid-July day, not like what we are used to on the second day of June here in Maine. But as we stepped outside to walk the dog in the morning, there was an…

A Bird’s Tale

Piping Up for Piping Plovers and Other Endangered Birds

#bird-column, #endangeredspecies, #pipingplovers, #reidstatepark, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #maine, #birds, #boothbay register

Like many people on the recent very warm, sunny Memorial Day weekend, we decided to head to the beach, where the temps were markedly cooler. We went to a spot that is a favorite of many Mainers…

A Bird’s Tale

The Familiar and Fascinating Blue Jay

#bird-column, #birds, #jeff-and-allison-wells, #maine, #boothbay-register, #blue-jays

It should come as no surprise to learn that some of the greatest mysteries of the bird world are within some of our most common and familiar birds. Take the ever-present blue jay, for example. On…

A Bird’s Tale

Migration a Thousand Miles from Home

Migrant shorebirds like the ruddy turnstone are still making their way north to their Arctic breeding grounds in May. Jeff Wells photo

We have had the good fortune to be able to be spending time with family in Central Florida, from where we are writing this column. While many birds are just returning to Maine in mid-May, the bulk…

A Bird’s Tale

An Appreciation for Trees

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine, #boothbay register, #trees, #eagles

Looking across the valley during a noontime dog walk around our neighborhood a few weeks ago, there among the drab, gray trunks and limbs of yet-to-leaf-out maples and oaks was a burst of yellow.…

A Bird’s Tale

The Persistence of Ospreys

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds, #osprey

Mistakes happen. Even in the bird world. Take for example the osprey that recently tried repeatedly to place sticks atop a tall light pole, high above the Bates College athletic field in Lewiston…

New Hope Midcoast

Taking a Closer Look at Economic Abuse

Denying someone the right to work or have equal access to money is not only mean and unfair, it’s a form of domestic abuse. Economic abuse is usually minimized and misunderstood because talking…

From the Maine Senate

Reproductive rights, affordable housing and local resources

The recent legal challenges surrounding the abortion medication mifepristone have cast a shadow over reproductive rights, not just in Maine, but across the country. While the legal battles…

A Bird’s Tale

The Revolutionary War Connection to the Foxy Finch

#bird-column, #birds, #jeff and allison Wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #fox sparrows, #maine

For much of last week, we were fortunate that our backyard was blessed with the presence of one of our largest and brightest colored sparrows, the fox sparrow. While there are a number of…

A Bird’s Tale

A Snowbird Surprise

#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #Boothbay Register, #birds, #maine, #junco

Called the “snowbird” by many people, the species officially known as the dark-eyed junco is a common and widespread winter visitor to much of the U.S. Here in Maine, flocks of juncos from Canada’…

Where It’s At

The Maine Photographers Showcase: Eye candy

“Iceberg V” is among the photographs by Ella Hudson in the first Maine Photographers Showcase at Boothbay Region Art Foundation in Boothbay Harbor.

Opening night for the first annual Maine Photographers Showcase drew artists and photography fans to Boothbay Region Art Foundation in Boothbay Harbor April 1. This outstanding collection of work…

AARP scam alert: Reported scams grow by $2 billion

The numbers are in and 2022 was a doozy. While total reported scams to the Federal Trade Commission dropped by 1 million, the total reported amount lost grew by $2 billion for a total of $8.8…