February 2010 Almanac
~ THIS MONTH ~
February Offers More of January…With More Sun
As far as cold and snow go, February offers more of January – about the same temperatures and snow as the first month…just more light.
In January, the average high temperature in Portland drops slightly below freezing but nudges above that mark in February, but who notices in the dead of winter? It still feels cold because much of the time, the thermometer does stay below freezing for much of the day, particularly when working folks are out on the job.
By the second month, though, snow has piled up from Kittery to Fort Kent. In early January, years do pass with little snow in the South Country early in the first month – say New Year’s Day and a week or two into the New Year.
Just how much more light do we have?
On the winter solstice on Dec. 21, Portland has nine hours and 47 minutes of daylight or about eight hours and 47 minutes of time between the actual sunrise and sunset, but by February 21, those time frames look vastly different when daylight lasts 11 hours and 38 minutes and 10 hours and 38 minutes between the actual sunset and sunrise. By March 21 on the spring equinox, the sun gives us 13 hours of light, depending on latitude, and 12 hours of actual sunlight between the sunrise and sunset.
By February, snowmobiling booms across Maine because of the assurance of snow, and North Country hamlets thrive now as folks flock to small rural settlements and fill motels and sporting camps, and in the process, sledders eat at all the restaurants and stock up at convenience stores.
Studies show snowmobilers are big spenders and rural Northern Maine depends on these folks. Snowmobiler dollars save places like Rangeley, Jackman, Patten, Fort Kent and other small hamlets that floundered in winters before snowmobiles became a fact of life in the Pine Tree State.
Ice-fishing, rabbit-hunting and smelting tidal rivers flourish now as do other snow sports such as snowshoeing and cross-country.
Winter reminds us of the late Bill Silliker who shot images of bald eagles, wintering deer and waterfowl such as the rather rare Harlequin duck that winters here. This man worked hard through the white season in the Pine Tree State, getting images that still run on The Maine Sportsman’s cover from time to time.
Not only can folks shoot wildlife photos now, but a group of aesthetic types loves to get scenic images now, particularly after a sticky snow that covers trees. No one can go wrong shooting scenes after a big snowstorm.
Two activities in a Maine winter never get enough coverage – despite their immense popularity:
• Folks tie flies through the winter while dreaming of spring, a fun pastime that fills those fly boxes that looked depleted last fall.
• Folks have long nights to cook fancy meals with the spoils from the woods and waters – and folks do get fancy with venison roasts served on china and accompanied by excellent French wine in crystal wine glasses.
__________________________
~ TIPS OF THE MONTH ~
Herl Grabs a Fish’s Attention
When tying flies for the upcoming spring, it makes abundant sense to tie any pattern that has peacock herl in the body, including Copper John, Prince, Zug Bug, Picket Pin, Edson Light Tiger and the rest of the line up, and also, to construct flies with herl in the wings, including Ballou Special and the rest. This iridescent green and bronze material rings the dinner bell for sure.
__________________________
~ WHERE THE ACTION IS ~
Here’s a Great Location to See Lots of Hippity-Hopping
In Central and Southern Maine where for the most part, secondary forests have reverted to primary forests, varying hares have become so scarce that hunters now ask, “Git ya’ rabbit yet?” when they meet.
Northern Maine still offers plenty of hare habitat, thanks to cutting practices, and here’s one great region for shooting lots of bunnies for rabbit stew.
Find the Greenville Road on DeLorme’s The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (MAG), Map 50, D-2 and hit those spurs off this very rural highway. Plows may not have cleared these roads, so rabbit hunters can snowmobile or snowshoe them with beagles.
Another rabbiting hotspot lies west of this area – way west. Check out the Lower Enchanted Pond Road on Map 40, E-2 and follow that road onto Map 39, E-5 and Map 25, A-5. Superb hare habitat fringes this road so hunters can get plenty of shooting, but make sure to park vehicles well off the road before leaving them to hunt.
The Belgrade Lakes’ Great or Long ponds produce exciting action for northern pike, fish that folks – if you’ll excuse the cliché – describe in pounds, not inches. Regional bait dealers can furnish advice on baits and where-to so newcomers can figure out a strategy fast. Pike fishing often produces slow fishing, but anyone can hook a 20-pounder on the next flag. Check Map 12, A-5 and Map 20, E-4 and see where the boat launches and parking areas lie.
__________________________
~ NEWS & TIDBITS ~
Strictly C&R Salmon
The $1 million, government-owned lodge at Larry’s Gulch on the Restigouche River in New Brunswick has gone strictly catch and release for Atlantic salmon.
“Conservation is the way to go,” said Tourism and Parks Minister Stuart Jamieson, “If we don’t conserve what we have [with Atlantic salmon], the future would be grim.”
New Brunswick’s government agencies and political leaders have long used this lodge to entertain celebrities and political elite, including former President George H.W. Bush and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
The lodge costs the government $12,000 to host 16 guests for two days and private groups $26,000 for a week, depending on the summer week. No one booking this lodge for those prices has complained about catch and release of salmon as of this writing, and C&R will surely protect the resource.
Fascinating Bear Harvest Stats
Bear hunters who voluntarily submitted a tooth from their bear for black-bear research in 2008 have helped the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (DIF&W) get statistics about bear ages, a valuable tool for monitoring the health of Maine’s black-bear population. The Department received bear teeth from 1,037 hunters, which equates to 38 percent of the hunters who harvested a bear in 2008. The oldest bear was a 28-year-old female, and the oldest male bear was 20 years old. Like most heavily hunted bruin populations, older bears make up a smaller proportion of the harvest with just over one-third of the bears being three years old or older. Bear hunters may find out the age of the bear they harvest at http://maine.gov/ifw/hunting_trapping/hunting/bear.htm#help
Gray Animal Farm Business Up
The Maine Wildlife Park in Gray, owned and operated by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, played host to more than 102,200 visitors this year, up 9 percent from 2008, despite the rainy summer. The increase in visitors translated into a 24 percent increase in revenue, attributable to a small admission fee increase in 2009 and sales from the park’s Nature Store.
Wind Power Garners Awesome Support
A recent poll conducted by Portland-based Critical Insights shows that 90 percent of Maine people support the development of wind power as a source of electricity. Nearly nine in 10 Mainers agree that wind power can improve energy security and reduce Maine’s dependence on fossil fuels, and eight in 10 agree that wind power will produce jobs and other forms of economic benefits. The poll also reveals that 77 percent of Maine people want Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to support federal climate and clean energy legislation.
Woolly Bugger Originator Dies
Russell Blessing, a Pennsylvania fly tier, died Nov. 2, 2009. He is a man who influenced nearly every American fly rodder for the last 40 years. Blessing originated the Woolly Bugger pattern circa 1967 to 1969, thinking it imitated a hellgrammite or dobsonfly. These days, folks use it to imitate baitfish, big bugs and more.
The precise origin of the Woolly Bugger confuses meticulous fly-fishing historians, but one point is certain. It clearly evolved from the Woolly Worm fly to which Blessing added a marabou tail. Both the Bugger and Woolly Worm borrowed a technique from the British palmer fly, which dates back to Walton and certainly older times.
New England’s Viper Ranges Are Surprising
In New England Wildlife, a wonderful new book by DeGraaf and Yamaski, two line drawings of New England states will catch most readers eyes. One shows the range of timber rattlesnakes and the other has northern copperheads. The places in New England that hold rattlesnakes are just tiny, darkened round circles few and far between, but copperheads really have a wide range in Connecticut. They inhabit the coast to quite far inland and then also live in the Connecticut River Valley up into Massachusetts – a much larger darkened area than for rattlesnakes.
Return to Winters Past
“Over the past couple winters, Maine has seen a return of winters past,” wrote Paul Doiron, editor in chief of Down East Magazine. “Suddenly, kids in Aroostook County are sledding off their roofs again, and ski resorts are actually turning a profit.”
This magazine caters to the environmental crowd that worries about such things as global warming, but in recent years, snowfall and winter temperatures make us worry more about an Ice Age than a warming spell.
A popular joke in Maine goes something like this:
“If global warming is indeed a problem, I hope it hurries up so I can get warm again and save on the fuel bill!”
__________________________
~ BIRD OF THE MONTH ~
Blue Jays Liven Winter Woods
In a Maine winter, blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) can liven a day with their activity accompanied by a harsh, screeching, sometimes monotonous j-a-a-a-y or according to Peterson, jeeah. In the white season, even songbirds may be few and far between, so we welcome a blue-jay’s distraction, a distraction that may annoy us in early autumn.
Even a small child can identify this common bird with its descriptive name – “blue” for its color and “jay” for its common call. This jay has a blue crest, pronounced white spots in the tail and wings, whitish or lightly dun-colored under-parts and a black necklace.
Blue jays measure 11 to 12 1/2 inches long, which make them a large bird by Maine standards.
For example, an Atlantic puffin stands 12 1/2 inches tall, and please note the verb “stand.” This puffin stands with a military erectness, but most birds such as jays perch with a 45-degree angle to their body, making them look shorter. The huge puffin head also creates the illusion of the bird looking larger, but the fact is plain and simple. A big blue jay is over a foot long just like the puffin.
Blue jays average about three ounces in weight and have a 16-inch wingspan. The three measurements discussed here show this is a good-sized bird – even larger than a robin.
Blue jays occasionally tease birds of prey, particularly broad-winged hawks, showing they have a playfulness despite danger. These thrill seekers occasionally get caught while messing with a hawk, but that happens quite rarely.
Blue jays build nests of sticks, creating a coarse structure with the wood before lining the cup with grass. They often build it in the crotched or forked limb of a conifer and lay four to six greenish eggs with brown spots. This species often has good survival rates, but not all offspring live to maturity. (Ken Allen)
__________________________
~ DO YOU KNOW? ~
Moose Carry How Many Pounds!
Do you know how many pounds of forage a Maine moose can carry in its stomach?
__________________________
~ BOOK CORNER ~
An Excellent Where-to Bicycling Book
Before launching into a book review of Sandra Duling’s Road Biking Northern New England (The Globe Pequot Press, Guilford, Connecticut), it’s important to touch upon two questions that may pop up – immediately.
• What does bicycling have to do with outdoor blood sports like hunting and fishing?
• Why do we need a book to tell us where to go bicycling?
The answer to the first question may strike folks interested in physical fitness as obvious, but we do ask it because readers sometimes complain about bicycling stuff here. This ultra-popular sport offers superb exercise for folks who hunt and fish. After all, strong legs, well-developed lungs and low body mass index lead to more enjoyable days afield.
The second question cries for anecdotes to illustrate the answer, and the first example works as a jewel for covering the where-to angle:
Jolie, my bicycling partner for the last eight years, spent her youth at her family’s cottage on Biscay Pond near Damariscotta village and still visits this place, now owned by an older sister. One of Duling’s trips in Road Biking Northern New England begins within sight of this classy looking cottage, but neither Jolie nor I had thought of bicycling there until seeing the Pemaquid-peninsula trip outlined in the book.
The 41.3-mile ride heads from Damariscotta down to Pemaquid Point and back and really offers folks superb Maine scenery, including ocean views, quaint villages and quiet, rural roads. These highways have limited traffic, too, except between July 4th and Labor Day, a great pedal in the off-tourism season.
Duling gave us three other road trips near our Belgrade Lakes home that we had never thought of – one going practically by our house. Another one begins in Norridgewock, really a charming pedal along the Sandy River, and the other trip runs through South China, China and Vassalboro.
Bicycling books offer folks ideas for trips that they can tailor to their needs, and Duling has flat out written a book with the best road trips that I have seen in the biking where-to genre. Road Biking Northern New England covers coastal Maine from Kennebunkport to West Quoddy Head Light, one of the most eastern points in the U.S. The book also offers bicycling trips in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Road Biking Northern New England costs $17.95 and can offer buyers years and years of fun – reason enough to lay down a $20 bill. (Ken Allen)
__________________________
~ INNOCENT BYSTANDER ~
I Didn’t Do It…Honest!
The Internet’s freewheeling bulletin boards have opened my eyes to how some folks make factually inaccurate claims without any compunction – over and over – something I know for a fact when they say bogus stuff about me. Of course, their erroneous statements about moi cause me to question everything else they say.
What do I mean by “inaccurate” or “erroneous”?
Three years ago, a poster on a bulletin board accused me of fishing a tributary of the Sheepscot River during low water when salmonids cannot get out of shallow pools to escape. In truth, during my entire life, I have never fished a tributary of the Sheepscot River other than the West Branch of the Sheepscot, and I only hit this trib during high water in May. In summer and fall’s low water, the West Branch of the Sheepscot turns too warm to offer any kind of fishing, a place to avoid. So, to say I fish Sheepscot tributaries in low water never happened. Ever.
On another board, a well-known Maine right-winger once posted an article – not a more informal post – that I am an elitist hunter who only uses a bolt-action rifle or flintlock.
In truth, I have never hunted with a flintlock – not once in my life – and choose a bolt action for deer, bear, elk, coyotes, foxes and so forth. However, and this is a big “however,” I routinely use a slide action for waterfowl and rabbits, auto-loader for squirrels and sometimes rabbits and a side-by-side for upland game.
Where this person got the idea about flintlocks and bolt-actions only is anyone’s guess – just one of those quirks about which political zealots obsess upon and keep saying over and over until people believe.
Once on an ice-fishing board, someone called me “Argyle Allen” and continued with this topic of me wearing argyle attire, a clothing design that has never been a part of my life – ever.
Accusations like this tributary fishing, flintlock and bolt-action obsession and Argyle clothing flabbergast me, and “flabbergast” is not hyperbole.
Which reminds me of a Yogi Berra-ism: “If people keep saying that about you, they’ll keep saying that about you.” (Ken Allen)
__________________________
~ NEXT MONTH ~
Spring Is Coming, But you Gotta Look Closely
Spring is coming this month, particularly in the bottom third of Maine, but you gotta look closely at times to see it, to hear it and to smell it.
Even in Northern Maine, spring begins now, and one of the best signs occurs at convenience stores as ice anglers buy sunscreen to save them from that 12-hour sun that can burn the face badly.
In Southern, Central and Mid-coast Maine, snow begins melting on the south side of ridges, particularly under low-hanging white pines, just one of many signs easy to see. Canada geese are returning to open water in tidal rivers and even woodcock may show up in abandoned fields and pastures as early as March 10 in unseasonably warm winters.
Speaking of birds, migrating songbirds from the south begin showing up now, and often, we hear them as we lie in bed at dawn – say the coo-coo-coo of a mourning dove or the somewhat squawky, sexy call of a black-capped chickadee or the sucking-in sound of a cardinal making that distinctive who call.
And spring smells. We have them aplenty, beginning with that pungent odor of an amorous skunk wandering around our houses in the dark, looking for a mate. In areas with high skunk populations, this stinking smell wakes us often enough with an odor so strong that we can taste it.
And then on that first unseasonably warm day in mid- to late March, that fecund, half-rotted scent of matted vegetation lying on the ground in sunlight catches our nostrils – a somewhat pleasant odor that shouts spring to anyone astute enough to notice.
And then there is that fresh, clean smell that makes folks say, “I can smell spring in the air this morning.”
…Which reminds me of an ancient Maine joke that people must have told since Revolutionary times and earlier. In late March, a family of moles crowded the edge of the entrance hole to the den, and the father said, “I smell spring.”
The mother poked her nose out beside the dad and exclaimed the same thing as did all the litter, beginning with the oldest. The runt of the family could not get its nose out the hole past the others and said, “All I can smell is ‘mol-asses’.”
I guess you had to be there.
One sign of spring strikes is typical – the sudden emergence of canoes tied on top of vehicles. Often, the brand is Mad River, the favorite of so many white-water canoeists. This sport begins in the South Country as soon as rivers rise from snowmelt and rain.
Fly rodders get out now in stretches of the Kennebec, Cobbossee Stream and St. George rivers, anyplace where it has been legal for years to fish all winter. Sometimes, quite a crowd shows up during unseasonably warm weather.
Ice-fishing offers blistering action during the first seven to 10 days of January, and then, in March, when fresh water starts running down all the ice holes, this fast fishing picks up again, making us ask a question. Why does ice-fishing produce such good times when the ice is iffy?
Rabbit hunters and cross-country skiers like March, too, because the crystalline snow holds up snowshoes and skis better. That long March sun melts the top layer down for several inches, making those ice crystals settle down more to support weight.
It’s a fine month all right, and we can imagine that viridescent explosion of May even when a late winter storm beats back the spring, a heart breaker after a week of unseasonable sun, but spring will come. It always does.
__________________________
~ ANSWER TO “DO YOU KNOW” ~
That’s a Lot of Food, Mista’
A Maine moose can stand seven feet at the shoulders, weigh 1,600 pounds on the hoof and carry a 70-pound set of antlers that measure over five feet wide, so it’s little wonder this critter can eat and eat lots. However, the number of pounds of forage that it can carry in its stomach astounds folks – 100 pounds of bark, foliage, twigs and whatnot.
Such a large animal can be dangerous and has killed 33 people in this state since 1995. None of the deaths have been a result of an attack, though, but rather, moose-vehicle collisions. The dark-brown coat makes them difficult to see after dark, particularly because of a behavioral trait. Moose often do not look at approaching vehicles, so the eyes don’t reflect headlights.
