May 2010 Almanac
THIS MONTH
May’s Endless Winds Dry Land
May days quickly develop a pattern. The sun rises at least 20 out of 30 days and spreads warm light across the land, but by 10 a.m., the resulting heat starts thermal currents rising that in turn cause inevitable winds. Folks can bet on that outcome with a certainty of winning the pot.
Wind screws up fishing, canoeing and flower photography, but it does have a benefit that less observant types miss. Stiff breezes quickly dry the land so it’s no longer squishy, and that helps so many hobbies, particularly gardening, ATVing or playing baseball.
In York and Cumberland counties, May reigns as the rainiest month, shocking many people who think April or November has the worst weather. In the North Country, June, July and December tie for the most inclement weather. May in Southern Maine and June, July and December in Northern Maine being the rainiest (or snowiest) surprise folks all right, but it’s true.
In the South Country, hatches start in early May, making rivers, streams and shallow coves in lakes and ponds veritable hotspots for the fly-rodding crowd after salmonids.
Brooks and small streams rock now as bait dunkers hit these flowing waters just as black flies swarm. Fishing can be fast in flowing waters, and many such brooks may have just one anglers hitting them all season – you! …Talk about solitude.
Black-bass fishing starts slowly in May except for those folks who know how to work a jig over deep structure. By month’s end, though, bass have moved to spawning beds and living can be darned easy for the bassin’ boys.
Early May in the North Country often has a little snow, but by month’s end in northern latitudes, spring surely arrives in a hurry. Whoever first wrote “spring springs” was thinking of northern latitudes where long days of sunlight make the new season arrive in a hurry.
Canoe tripping excites plenty of folks in May. Campgrounds along rivers look so clean – bursting with freshness. Fast currents sail over rocks and offer good passage for folks experienced with white water. May guarantees solitude, too.
Stripers arrive along the Maine coast in May, and at times, it can be a swarming invasion. Not everyone can depend on salty action now, though, but those with hotspots of where stripers show up first can have action aplenty.
Fiddleheaders find these juvenile ferns early in May, and often, they accompany this dish with brook trout sautéed in butter. Fiddleheads kick off the wild-food season for gatherers, and next month, wild strawberries draw crowds of enthusiasts after the sweetest, tastiest berries around.
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TIPS OF THE MONTH
Insect Net Tips Odds
When fly rodders first arrive on a water and the choice of fly may confuse them, it’s time to bring out a rectangular insect net to seine a chute between two rocks to see what nymphs or duns prove the most prevalent in the water. Then, match an imitation to the natural in color, silhouette and size. The road to success can be that simple.
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Split the Hardwood for Fast Coals
If campers split hardwood into 1-inch thicknesses, the pieces burn to coals quickly and make a fast bed of coals. In short, the time needed to split the wood makes the burning so much quicker that it’s worth the trouble when folks need to make a quick cooking pit with the least amount of wood.
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Wild-Turkey Sausage
This recipe calls for ground wild-turkey meat but feel free to substitute venison, all pork or even beef:
Gather the following:
1 1/2-pounds of fresh ground turkey
1/2-pound of fresh ground pork
1/2-teaspoon salt
1/2-teaspoon sugar
1/2-teaspoon garlic powder
1/2-teaspoon fennel seed
1/2-teaspoon of pepper
1/2-teaspoon of paprika
1/4-teaspoon celery salt
1/4-teaspoon ground sage
1/4-teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Worcestershire
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of crushed red pepper (optional)
Mix the ingredients well and freeze the sausage if you don’t plan on using it in 24 hours.
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WHERE THE ACTION IS
Shallow Quimby Pond Has Bugs Galore
Shallow 165-acre Quimby Pond just west of Rangeley village produces plenty of caddis and mayfly life, so it has been a favorite of fly rodders for over a century. And the best part is this: This fly-fishing-only pond with a motor prohibition has been a FFO destination for well over a century.
Check out DeLorme’s The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (MAG), Map 28, E-3 for access details.
The ice goes out sometime in early May, and at this time, smelt imitations such as a Black Ghost, Gray Ghost, Red Gray Ghost or Jerry’s Smelt work wonders to imitate this baitfish. It’s a great time to brave the cold to cast flies with a relative certainty that fish will be biting on some days.
June just might be the best time to fish here, particularly in mid-month when a huge caddis fly hatches and brings 18-inch brookies topside in a hurry.
This pond averages five to 12 feet, though, so plenty of insects live everywhere in its 165 acres that all lie in the littoral zone – that depth of water that the sunlight penetrates to the bottom. Hatches just explode here.
September proves another good month for fishing Quimby because the water cools and brookies that have spent the summer in the spring hole – closed to fishing – now spread out.
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Rocky Roach Rocks in May
May often starts with slow fishing in the Roach River, a small, 7-mile long tributary on the east side of Moosehead Lake. Check MAG, Map 40, A-3 and A-4. High cold water hampers success, as a general rule, but exceptions occasionally exist and the fifth month can produce blistering action.
As May slides toward June, this river starts becoming more consistent for excellent landlocked-salmon and brook-trout fishing. Big nymphs, bucktails and streamers, particularly smelt-imitating patterns, work well.
In June, caddis hatches pick up, and LaFontaine Deep Sparkle Pupa work well on most evenings as do Elk Hair Caddis and down-winged feather wings.
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NEWS & TIDBITS
Worldwide Bicycle Production Impressive
If anecdotal evidence is any indication, bicycling in Maine has gained tremendously in numbers in the 2000s, so our statistics may be impressive, but no one is keeping official track of the figures.
If stats worldwide are any indication, though, this state’s biking community is booming. The world produced an estimated 130 million bicycles in 2007 –more than twice the 52 million cars produced. Bicycle and car production tracked each other closely in the mid-to-late 1960s, but bike output separated sharply from that of cars in 1970, beginning its steep climb to 105 million in 1988.
Following a slowdown between 1989 and 2001, bike production has regained steam, increasing in each of the last six years. Much of the recent growth has been driven by the rise in electric, or “e-bike” production, which has doubled since 2004 to 21 million units in 2007.
Overall, since 1970, bicycle output has nearly quadrupled, while car production has roughly doubled, great news for the future of our planet because of reduced pollution due to increased popularity of this sport.
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Maine’s First Fly-Fishing-Only Water
The first water in the State of Maine to be protected with a state-sanctioned “fly fishing only” regulation was Quimby Pond in Rangeley. The 1895 Fish and Game Laws of the State of Maine states, “Rangeley-Quimby Pond – Chapter 141, 1895, prohibits taking fish in Quimby pond, Rangeley, except in the ordinary way of angling with rod and artificial flies between sunrise and sunset, each day, between the 15th day of May and the first day of October each year. Penalty, $10 and $1 additional for each fish.” According to an inflation calculator, the value of $10 then as compared to 2009 would equal $257.47.
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Landscaping Against Pests Works
Residential landscape management can reduce tick-suitable habitat and peridomestic4 lyme-disease risk. Under organic, land-care standards, preferred practices include clearing brush and leaf litter, putting in landscape barriers, mowing lawns to keep grass length short, pruning low-lying brush and keeping woodpiles away from the house. Deer exclusion with fencing, natural repellants and deer-resistant plantings are also advised.
Interestingly, Lyme disease incidence is high in many states where Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) has established an invasive population. Strong correlations exist between adult and larval tick abundance and degree of barberry infestation.
In Connecticut, managing Japanese barberry infestations has reduced both tick abundance and the proportion of ticks infected with the LD bacteria. In Southern Maine, black-legged ticks were twice as abundant in barberry invaded coastal woodlands compared to native forests.
Part of this story is a continuing one that promotes the idea that a well-trimmed lawn serves far more purposes than simply ornamental. Besides cutting down on ticks, lawns also work as a firebreak and in states with critters such as vipers and poisonous insects like scorpions more visible should one of these life-threatening wildlife species wander into the yard.
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Wind Power Shortcomings Enormous
“The power Maine produces from wind goes to the New England Grid and comes back to us more expensive than power generated by other means,” said Greg Perkins, a soil scientist from Holden.
He went on to say, “Maine already produces 30 percent more power than its residents use every day and 40 percent of the power we generate is produced from renewable resources – hydro and biomass.”
Furthermore, wind power in Maine receives subsidies from the federal government at tax payer expense – all negatives.
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Tourism and the Maine Economy
In 2008, the latest year for these figures, the Office of Maine Tourism figured tourism in the Maine economy powers 20 percent of the sales in Maine and supports 17 percent of our jobs.
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Speaking of Tourism
Speaking of tourism…. Maine’s summer-season businesses once flourished from July 4th weekend to Columbus Day, but these years, the Internet makes many of these businesses 4-season enterprises. Indeed, Web Site sales increase each year, becoming more of a major money maker with no end in sight.
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Dairy Farms Important in Myriad Ways
Who would have thought?
Maine’s 315 dairy farms generate 4,000 jobs, $570 million in sales and $25 million a year in state and local taxes – a sizable business falling behind Bath Iron Works at 5,500 jobs and L.L.Bean with 5,400 employees, not counting an additional 6,000 seasonal workers for this Freeport giant. On top of that, dairy farms create habitat for wildlife such as turkeys, deer, gray squirrels and more and also provide hunting habitat. Make no mistake, folks. Dairy farms are an integral part of the Maine way of life.
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New Hampshire Population Surpasses Ours!
According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates, New Hampshire now has over 6,000 more people than Maine does – the first time that the Granite State leads in that figure since 1790.
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Paper Birch Trees Stand Tall
A paper birch can average 70 feet tall, but the maximum goes 120 feet into the air, the latter an ideal candidate for making birch-bark canoes.
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Yellow Birch Important Lumber Wood
Seventy-five percent of all the birch lumber sold in the U.S. comes from yellow birch, and in fact, in the last two years in Maine, yellow birch has pushed red oak out as the third favorite hardwood for lumber, putting this lovely yellow-barked tree into the big three with cherry and sugar maple.
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Deer Prefer White to Red
Deer prefer white-oak to red-oak acorns because the former has more sweet meat. Red-oak mast has lots of tannic acid.
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Insulation Weight Comparisons Fascinating
In winter, the naturalist Bernd Heinrich established that a golden-crowned kinglet adds 7.4 percent to its body weight in feathers and fat for insulation, but Heinrich’s 155-pound naked body relies on 11 pounds of insulation from clothes and boots. Heinrich figures that by bodyweight comparison, the kinglet adds over 7 percent but he adds half that percentage in clothes and boots to stay warm. Also, six of his 11 pounds goes to the footwear weight, which the kinglet doesn’t need because its feet stay warm without feathers and fat on them.
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Bean Net Sales Outpace Glossy Catalogs
In 2009, for the first time in its history, L.L.Bean’s Internet sales have outpaced its glossy catalog business, which may lead to a decreased workforce and smaller catalogs. Bean, a private business, does not disclose sales figures but is predicting that the Net in 2009 has generated more bucks than catalogs.
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Moon Snails Destroying Cobscook Bay Clams
Landings of softshell clams in the Cobscook Bay Area have decreased 100 percent recently, thanks to an invasion of moon snails, a carnivorous creature that destroys softshell clams.
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Global Warming in the 1600s!
In Samuel Griswold Goodrich’s Pictorial Geography of the World (copyright 1841), the author referred to attitudes held by explorers in New England during the early 1600s. When referring to these Old World visitors and settlers, Goodrich wrote, “New England is subject to great extremes of temperature. The winters are much colder, and the summers hotter than under the same parallels in Europe. [For example, Paris and Bangor are roughly on the same parallel line.] Because of Maine’s long hours of sunlight in the summer, this state has intense heat.
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BIRD OF THE MONTH
What Brilliant Color This Songbird Brings to Maine!
A male American redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) flitted among the speckled alders lining the trout stream within 20 feet of Heather, my daughter, catching her eye.
She stopped fly-casting to scrutinize the adorable creature before asking, “What’s that bird, Dad?”
“It’s a warbler called an American redstart.”
Apparently, a flock had just arrived on the stream. The male plumage, mostly black, contrasts with bright orange patches on the wings and tail. Pictures and paintings of the male do this species no justice.
The female looks entirely different. She has olive-gray to olive-brown feathers instead of black and the wings and tail sport buttery-yellow patches rather than orange. The female redstart is pretty all right but nothing compared to the male.
This warbler measure 5 1/4-inches in length, has a 7 3/4-inch wingspan and weighs a tad less than one-third ounce, small as many warblers go, but it does look a little chunky.
As Heather clearly noted, this bird adds so much color to a landscape, particularly the rich, lush green of the alder foliage – a typical May sighting when trout anglers are fishing along alder-lined streams flowing through deciduous forests, this bird’s preferred habitat.
Not only does the bird look nice, but it also produces a wonderfully clear, rich, emphatic zee-zee-zee-zwee sound with the last note higher, according to Peterson. This bird also says tsee-tsee-tsee-tsee-tsee-o with the last syllable dropping, again Peterson. And here’s yet another Peterson variation in the song – teetsa-teetsa-teetsa-teetsa-teet.
Interestingly to me, Sibley translates it tsee-tsee-tsee-tsee-tsee-o, or at least a close variation. It’s amazing how often bird writers such as Peterson, Sibley and Audubon guide authors have different interpretations. With computer technology, the song interpretations should have more consistency.
Interestingly to me, I cannot remember any specific brook trout from that day with Heather, but the image of the redstarts remains solidly in the mind. That’s the world of outdoors wanderers who relish the whole experience – not just the killing. (Ken Allen)
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DO YOU KNOW?
Maple Syruping’s Golden Rule of Thumb Of Maple Syrup Making
Do you know how many spiles can go into each sugar maple when making maple syrup?
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BOOK CORNER
Tree Book to End All Tree Books
The Sibley Guide to Trees by David Allen Sibley (Alfred A. Knopf, New York) offers the buying public a tree book to end all tree books.
Sibley, who became an overnight sensation with his birding guidebooks, has brought his astute powers of observation, writing skills and illustrative talents (4,100 paintings!) to The Sibley Guide to Trees to create a superb guidebook for folks interested in this part of nature.
Let’s go over what Sibley does in this book:
On page 6, he covers eastern white pines, showing a colored painting of the five cluster of needles, explaining that they consistently grow in groups of five. He also has paintings of five cones in different stages of maturity, a painting silhouette of a mature pine, a painting of a pine limb to illustrate how the needles grow and yet two more paintings of young, smooth bark and furrowed, mature bark. Lastly, we have a map, showing the range of white pine on this continent.
On page 184, the page covers red oaks, including paintings of the front as well as of the back of leaves, three acorns in different stages of maturity, a twig showing the sequence of buds, a clump of oak leaves, two bark pictures, a branch illustration and a map of where red oaks live – all in color.
This book really has it all – an ideal addition to a home library. Considering Sibley has 4,100 color paintings in the text, it’s a bargain price at $39.95. It’s the only book folks will need to learn trees. (Ken Allen)
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INNOCENT BYSTANDER
Environmentalists Miss the Mark With Hyperbole
In college, two of my heroes just happened to be David Brower, Edward Abbey and John McPhee, three environmental giants, and these folks wowed me with their wisdom.
I’ve been reading all the environmental writers since – Bodio, Mitchell, Hoagland, Snyder, Heinrich, Bass, Williams, Safina, Dillard, Eiseley, Vogel and ya-da-ya-da-ya-da. I know I’m missing important ones, but readers get the idea. In short, my life has been a long one of serious contemplation about causes that enhance the earth.
With that thought in mind, I sat in a rural restaurant in late winter, munching on a cranberry muffin and drinking tea while reading the newspaper. Nothing on the printed page was catching my attention that morning, so it was one of those days of reading without thinking much about the printed word….
…Until hitting an article about a Maine environmental organization. A speaker for this group claimed that the open winter of 2010 proved global warming was a huge problem, making me nearly spill the teacup.
Holy cow!
Did this misologist notice that winter 2008-2009 and 2007-2008 piled snow high in Maine? They were among the worst on record!
I stand well over six feet tall, and a lamppost at the end of a walk rises to the top of my head. I close this entrance in winter and do not snow-blow it. In those two winters, snow nearly buried the light. How soon people forget.
One winter of light snow proves nothing, so the environmental spokesman should have elaborated and covered long-term trends – not a blink in time.
In fact, she should have demanded an elaboration – if she had one. I’ve been interviewed many times by reporters, and not once when I said something was important has the writer left the info out. It must happen, but this environmental spokesman in the newspaper, a woman, has a chronic problem with such statements.
Stuff like that has the environmental movement in Maine spinning its wheels. Organizations should be spending more time with public relations and less time with self-enhancement because the average Mainer does not take these folks seriously.
I never realized how shaky the environmental movement was in Maine until writing a recent humor piece about global warming and getting a flood of response. The scary part for me was how people thought I was serious, and they were looking to me to lead the bandwagon. (Ken Allen)
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NEXT MONTH
Five Quintessential Maine Experiences
Maine has five quintessential experiences in June that capture a way of life in this state.
• Striped bass move up coastal rivers and into bays close to shore, and folks cast to these large, migratory fish – large by Maine standards anyway.
• Hatches in North Country ponds pick up, and brook trout key on these hordes of emerging forage. Fly casters cover rising fish and have great fun, wrestling brookies in.
• Trollers after lake trout, landlocked salmon and even brook trout do well now, and in the North Country, salmon and brookies concentrate within 20 feet of the surface. As the month progresses, lakers become concentrated in deep holes.
• Black bass have moved onto spawning beds and casters take advantage of the fast fishing for slab-sided critters.
• Mackerel invade shorelines, and casters from docks, floats and ledges catch a mess for a feed.
In fact, at one time, these five sports dominated the month, but these days, we have other diversions, including fishing for panfish, pickerel and eels. Two panfish have really picked up in popularity – the ubiquitous black crappie and northern pike.
Folks with harvesting on their minds also get into gathering wild plants and berries such as strawberries, mushrooms, potherbs and so forth – whatever is growing and edible interests this group.
Woodchucks interest a handful of shooters, often with long-range, flat-trajectory rifles. Those distant brown dots get this group excited. Archers also shoot ‘chucks, a more close-range sport.
Clay sports pick up in excitement as summer begins and fall looms in the near future. Rifle shooters also perfect squeeze and archers work on a consistent anchor point and crisp release, less of a problem these days because so many bow shooters rely on mechanical releases.
Mainers also get serious about landscape photography with all the colorful wild flowers and lush greens. It’s a great time to shoot photographs, a time when folks can do no wrong if they compose and expose well.
Cute sells, and right now, baby critters wander the countryside everywhere for people with the skills to shoot juvenile animals.
Canoe tripping, backpacking and car camping excite plenty of folks now, and the first two ways of transportation guarantee solitude. Car campgrounds boom as the month nears July 4th weekend.
Bicycling booms now, and without a doubt, this state has more bicyclists than it does bowhunters, waterfowlers, squirrel enthusiasts put together. The only shooting sports to beat it would be deer or grouse hunting, which lead in popularity in this state.
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ANSWER TO “DO YOU KNOW?”
One Tap Per 12-Inch Sugar Maple
The answer to how many spiles can go into a sugar maple (or red maple) depends on the size of the trunk. A 12-inch sugar maple or red maple can take one tap per trunk, but sugar bushes add one tap for each 10-inches of diameter beyond the 12-inch minimum on each tree. In short, a 22-inch maple can take two taps…a 32-incher three taps…and so forth.
The hole in the tree goes three inches deep and measures 7/16-inches in diameter, thanks to a drill bit of that size. In the old days, folks used a wooden spile, but these days, metal dominates.
Sugar maple has a good yield – 1-quart of syrup for each 40 quarts of maple sap tapped from a tree. (Each hole produces one quart of syrup.) So, folks making maple syrup must be prepared to deal with 40 quarts of sap for each quart of maple syrup produced.
Red maple has less of a yield because of less sugar in the sap. However, 10 years ago, this writer walked through a sugarbush north of Jackman, and the majority of the trees in the operation were red maple, astounding me.