August 2010 Almanac
Hot, Humid, Suffocating Month, But…
August heat suffocates the soul with high temperatures and humidity, so Maine appliance stores do a brisk business selling air conditioners.
However, at dawn, August shows a crispness in the air reminiscent of the fall and red maples in lowlands sport a few scarlet leaves, a certain promise of what’s to come.
A hot oven baking blueberry muffins in the early morning adds welcome heat to the kitchen as the aroma of this common Maine food permeates the air and wakes the children.
A woman from Texas once told me that Mainers highly overrate blueberry muffins. She hated the blue color of the muffin, sending me into a paroxysm of laughter. No self-respecting Maine cook would have anything other than a yellow-colored muffin with the big, fat juicy blueberries – a product of using fresh berries dusted with flower so the batter did not turn blue.
Most salmonid waters shut down this month, sending trouters to the salt to fish for mackerel, stripers and maybe bluefish. Mackerel fish fries prove a Maine favorite and common recipes involve a wet mustard coating to cut the oily flesh, and for some reason, striper recipes often employ fresh tomatoes to cut the fish flavor, maybe because this fruit from the garden can overwhelm gardeners with its abundance by the end of the eighth month.
Blue-shark action picks up now, and that handful of people – mostly fly rodders – who chase them live for August and September days on the ocean beyond sight of shore.
Speaking of fish…. Maine anglers often chase white perch or black crappie this month, and often, they need to get the lure down 30 feet. At dawn and dusk, though, perch and crappie may come to the surface and offer top-water action.
Deer hunters scout in the cool of dawn just as bear baiters often sweeten bait piles before the sun rises fairly up. August forests do have a charm in morning.
Camping and hiking peak now as folks feel they have more time for such endeavors now that the salmonid fishing has slowed considerably. August camping gives folks a chance for making leisurely meals with such cooking tools as cast-iron Dutch ovens, Coleman folding ovens and reflector ovens.
Bicyclists get out early in the day now and relish every moment because cold weather for this sport often arrives by mid-September. Even though folks may continue pedaling until mid-December, they can see and feel the end now.
Hunters await in anticipation because their sports lie just around the bend – close enough to almost see. The wait sweetens the coming months.
~ TIPS OF THE MONTH ~
Is It a Mayfly, Caddis or Stonefly?
A mayfly perched on the surface film and floating downstream resembles a small boat with a scalene sail. Caddis flies sitting on water or resting on a branch hold their wings parallel to the body, and these appendages look like in a pup-tent over the body. Stoneflies keep their wings lying on the abdomen and thorax, slightly curved but still flat like a cardboard blanket. And just for the record, most stonefly species hatch on dry land rather than on the meniscus so folks can find the larvae cases on rocks along shore.
This wing placement of the three families of insects makes it ever so simple to distinguish between the trio – scalene sail, pup tent or stiff-looking blanket. Even the most casual observer cannot miss those characteristics.
However, some stonefly and caddis species drift on the surface with their wings upward `a la mayfly to dry them, confusing novice fly rodders.
In this case, the key begins with these tips:
• Adult caddis sport two, long antennae and no tails.
• Adult stoneflies have two tails and two antennae.
Those appendages help straighten out that part of the puzzle.
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Safe Wild-Food Crop Easy to Identify
Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota) grows everywhere in Maine, an imported flower from the Old World that became common on this continent centuries ago.
Most rural kids can easily identify it and point out that the little red dot in the middle of the white flower cluster is blood from Queen Anne’s finger after she pricked it with a needle, according to folklore.
This plant, actually a wild carrot, has a white root with a very strong carrot taste. It lacks carotene so does not have the distinguishing orange shade of a domestic carrot.
However, the similarities between Queen Anne’s lace and domestic carrot have caught Mainers attention for generations, so many old timers know the following:
• If gardeners leave domestic carrots in the ground over winter and through the following spring, the resulting plant growing from the root by summer will look like Queen Anne’s lace.
• Conversely, if gardeners collect seeds from Queen Anne’s lace and continue harvesting seeds from the resulting crops over a period of years, they will eventually have a domestic carrot orange in color.
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~ WHERE THE ACTION IS ~
The Kennebec’s Swan Island Has It All
Most people call the 1,775-acre Steve Powell Management Area “Swan Island.” It lies in the Kennebec River within sight of downtown Richmond, where a public boat launch offers access.
August is a wonderful time to visit this charming place. Check DeLorme’s The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer (MAG), Maps 5, A-5 and 12, E-5 for access details.
Huge, rolling fields and primary forests cover this sanctuary and hold deer and turkey along with other critters such as red fox and red squirrels. They hang around open area in plain view of the public.
Abandoned houses from another century sprinkle the island, including a lovely saltbox where Benedict Arnold stayed before heading up the Kennebec to attack Quebec City. Truck tours with a speaker point out the important sights, and a campsite lies near the boat landing on the north end.
Anyone interested in this facility should write Steve Powell Management Area, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, P.O. Box 221, Swan Island, Richmond, ME 04357, call 1(207)287-8000 or check the Net at http://www.maine.gov/ifw/education/swanisland/main_content.htm
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If Rain Prevails, Look Out
The landlocked-salmon and brook-trout rivers in the Moosehead Region draw mobs in May, June and September, but in mid-summer, fishing slows considerably – unless it rains a lot. A fresh influx of water in local rivers brings salmonids upstream to fill pools, and often, no one is fishing then – the best of two worlds.
Moose River (MAG, Map 40, A-5), East Outlet (Map 40, B-5) and Roach River (Map 41, B-4 and B-3) all lie within an hour’s drive of one another and another hour puts folks on the West Branch of the Penobscot River below Ripogenus (Map 50, D-3) and another stretch of the West Branch between Hannibal’s Crossing and Chesuncook Lake (Map 49 across middle of page).
Hatches can be great in August when cool waters prevail. Just make sure to have a good collection of small caddis and mayfly imitations.
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Casco Bay Produces in Summer Heat
In the heat of a Maine summer when tidal-river water temperatures rise, striped bass often move into the more open ocean in places such as Casco Bay. Savvy anglers follow the fish.
(Check MAG, Map 2, A-5 and Map 5, E-5 for access details.)
Boat launches lie all around the Bay, but many of them have hand-carry facilities. However, the mouth of the Fore River, East End in Portland and Falmouth Foreside do offer anglers boat launches that accommodate trailers.
The islands in the Bay break up the big swells and offer multiple shorelines to ply, one of Maine’s most picturesque and classic striper haunts. Fly rodders, hardware fishers and bait anglers all do well here.
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~ NEWS & TIDBITS ~
Maine Coast Tide Conversion Tables
We have based this list of tide conversions on Portland tides:
For Eastport add eight minutes, Calais plus 31 minutes, Lubec minus three minutes, Machias Bay minus 12 minutes, Addison dead on, Narraguagus Bay minus 23 minutes, Bar Harbor minus 22 minutes, Mount Desert minus 16 minutes, Blue Hill Bay minus nine minutes, Stonington minus 18 minutes, Vinalhaven minus 13 minutes, Bucksport minus two minutes, Belfast minus eight minutes, Camden minus 12 minutes, Rockland minus 16 minutes, Port Clyde minus 11 minutes, Pemaquid Harbor minus five minutes, Boothbay Harbor minus six minutes, Wiscasset plus 16 minutes, Sheepscot plus 20 minutes, Fort Popham plus nine minutes, Augusta plus four hours and three minutes, Harpswell Harbor minus five minutes, Cape Porpoise plus 17 minutes, Kennebunkport plus 16 minutes and York Harbor plus three minutes.
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Important in Maine!
Not long ago, a man was complaining bitterly about L.L.Bean, claiming only New England people embraced it! Yeah…ha, ha, ha. It’s an international institution as anyone knows who has traveled in the world. This writer remembers long ago summers in Europe when people in the Old World knew where Maine was located because of this Freeport icon, and its reputation has only grown since then.
More importantly, L.L.Bean ranks as one of Maine’s largest employers and equally as important to folks looking for quality at a low price, they have sold Double L Pants, Double L Jeans and Classic Oxford Cloth Shirts – just to name three products – for the same price for well over a decade.
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Not a Whimper
When the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife increased the general daily salmonid bag limit from five fish to 10 to 13, the public received the news with a large yawn, even though this is the single biggest change in fishing regulations since the 1960s. Is this a sign that Mainers have turned their backs on quality-fishing regulations?
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Big Flower Year
The hot, humid weather with ample rain has made summer 2010 a big wildflower year. Chickory, oxeye daisy, Queen Anne’s lace, mullein, hawkweed, yarrow and many more species dot roadsides and fields everywhere. In colder years such as 2009, these flowers still blossomed but were far less numerous.
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St. Johnswort vs. St. Peterswort
In Central Maine, roadsides and sunny edges of fields grow abundant yellow blossoms that casual observers often call St. Johnswort because of the characteristic five yellow petals and large but delicate stamens. Often, the flower species is really St. Peterswort or a similar species. St. Johnswort has translucent spots on the leaves. If the leaves don’t have the spots but the characteristic flowers and stamens, it’s probably St. Peterswort, an extremely common plant in Central Maine.
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Nasty Maine Weeds?
The summer 2010 issue of UMaine Today contains an article with a list of nasty Maine weeds, including common lambsquarter, redroot pigweed, hairy galinsoga, wild mustard, shepherd’s purse, purslane, common chickweed, quackgrass, yellow foxtail, barnyardgrass, large crabgrass and yellow nutsedge. Half of these species appear in guidebooks for edible plants, showing one person’s weed is another person’s banquet – or at least a side dish in the banquet.
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Deer Herd in Bottom Third of Maine
If good listeners with sharp ears stop at morning coffee shops in the bottom third of the Pine Tree State, they’ll hear heartfelt comments about the health of the deer herd in this part of Maine. Many veteran hunters feel the herd has fallen greatly and point an accusing finger at coyote predation, habitat loss and just plain poor management. Whether the deer herd has declined or not, the average hunter feels it has dropped, and they mention lack of deer sightings during nighttime drives and woodland hikes.
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Magnolia Trees in Maine!
A few years ago, Down East magazine ran an article about magnolia trees growing in Maine, complete with photos. We already knew about this tree species in the Pine Tree State before the piece appeared. They often grow in southern exposures against a building or hillside to concentrate light energy to get them through harsh winters. Belgrade Lakes village has a large magnolia on the West Road, growing against an L-shaped building facing south, and in Augusta, near the courthouse, grows another one on a south lawn against a home. Readers can add to the list, illustrating that introduced species can thrive in the right habitat.
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~ BIRD OF THE MONTH ~
A Solitary Bird That’s Quite Rare
Sibley calls northern shrikes (Lanius excubitor) “uncommon to rare” and shows them as winter visitors in New England. At maturity, this light-gray bird has black wings, tail and mask with white patches on the top and bottom of the wings and also edging the tail. Immature birds are brownish with dark bars on the breast. Adults also have bars, but they are faint, requiring a good set of binoculars to see the markings. The strong bill has a decided hook, easily observed from a distance.
This shrike lives a solitary existence and can be spotted on high, exposed branches or wire, where it perches while foraging for rodents and small birds. After catching a meal, shrikes may impale them on thorns or barbed wire until ready to eat the spoils of the hunt.
This birdwatcher once saw a northern shrike at the Augusta airport, a spot that draws the occasional northern shrike and huge flocks of snow buntings each December.
Peterson claims this bird species makes a shek-shek call and a grating jaaeg. It also blends harsh and musical notes.
In its summer range in Canada, this shrike lives in open woodlands and brushy swamps, but in winter, it migrates to the top of the U.S., where it prefers open grasslands with fence posts and solitary trees.
Northern shrikes build a nest of twigs, lichens, moss and feathers in dense conifers where they lay four to six dun-colored eggs with dark brown or gray spots.
Northern shrikes are just rare enough to make spotting one a big deal. (Ken Allen)
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~ DO YOU KNOW ~
Best Counties for Home Investments
The average cost of a home in Maine varies dramatically from county to county. Do you know which three counties had the highest average home price in 2009 – the latest figures for this category?
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~ BOOK CORNER ~
Wild-food Book Targeted to Maine Audience
The Maine Sportsman’s own Tom Seymour, our Mid-Coast, Moosehead Region, Washington County, Maine Wildlife and Trout Fishing columnist, has a wonderful new book out entitled Wild Plants of Maine with a subtitle, “A Useful Guide” (Just Write Books, Topsham, Maine).
Seymour took wonderful color photos for the text to illustrate each suggested plant that he uses for food, medicine or aesthetic purposes, a huge help for novice collectors. This comment about the quality of photos is not hyperbole, either. Since the advent of digital cameras, Tom has honed and perfected his photography skills.
The text has an Introduction that includes the following chapters –“Tools for Collecting,” “Hazards” and “Plant Structure,” and believe me, the latter one on plant structure justifies the price of the book – $24.95. Knowing structure can help folks make correct identifications.
Seymour treats the book as a seasonal guide, first hitting common plants in spring and then summer, two chapters with suggestions for 39 plants in the two seasons. Then, part way through the book, he changes from the seasonal approach to keying on collecting 18 plants on Maine’s seashore and then on gathering wild mushrooms. Then, he jumps back to fall and winter and what’s available then.
Seymour ends the book with 14 favorite recipes, including some from this book reviewer’s recipe box.
One excellent point about Seymour has wound up in book reviews here before. Many people who write about nature, wild-food gathering and related subjects are naturalists who wrote a book. The prose suffers because of the lack of experience in the writing field.
Seymour – a writer first – just happens to be a crackerjack naturalist, too, but in the end, he is a writer is a writer is a writer. Because of that, the prose in his guidebook shines – active voice, fresh action verbs, quick, concise images and the rest of the skills that make a professional writer stand out.
Yes, folks with an interest in the world around them need to buy this book. They’ll thank me profusely for the suggestion later. (Ken Allen)
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~ INNOCENT BYSTANDER ~
Taxing Whom?
A popular local restaurant sits five doors down the road from my home, and from after the leaf-peeping season until the following late June, resident Mainers make up close to 100 percent of the breakfast crowd.
In summer, folks – mostly with second homes in the area – compete for table space. That still makes them far less than 20 percent of the business because they don’t fill the restaurant for two months. The usual, local breakfast crowd still shows up.
Because of what my eyes show me, I strongly object to raising restaurant taxes to gouge non-residents in order to supplement state coffers. Local people eating in restaurants comprise a lion’s share of the business, so it’s shortsighted to charge higher taxes, thinking we’re tapping tourists. The movers and shakers behind this fiasco haven’t thought it through to the end. (Ken Allen)
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~ NEXT MONTH ~
‘Try to Remember The Kind of September…’
That bitter-sweet song from the 1950s contained a line that asked us to “Try and remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow.”
September in Maine gives us one of the state’s sweetest months with perfect temperatures and myriad activities, ranging from hiking and biking to hunting and fishing to camping and harvesting gardens and berries and mushrooms. The month has 30 days, not enough to do it all.
If folks cannot believe this claim about the busy month, then try to remember Saturdays when football or field-hockey games vied for attention just as hunting for bear or deer (in the expanded archery zone) or fishing for salmonids begged for consideration.
On top of the fun things to do, outdoor chores build up in the fall as we prepare our homes for winter. Getting in wood, raking, garden cleaning, painting and more keep us working or making excuses.
The air has pellucid sweetness that makes oil painters drool and brought big-name folks such as Winslow Homer to the Pine Tree State. That same light impressed superb, well-known photographers such as the late Bill Silliker, Jr.
As September careens toward October, salmonid fishing really picks up big time as waters dip into the 60-degree range and fishing rocks. Just one fly in the proverbial ointment … Ice-out and early January produce the most specimens in The One That Didn’t Get Away Club, so often, late summer and early fall delivers empty promises. But who cares? The weather can make us forgive plenty.
This state is witnessing an interesting change in the 21st century, too. Bicycling has increased so much in popularity that it has eclipsed duck hunting, archery for deer and so many other shooting sports.
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~ ANSWERS TO “DO YOU KNOW?” ~
Highest Priced Counties Will Shock Readers
Most readers will assume that York and Cumberland counties have the highest average prices for houses, but in truth, Hancock, Lincoln and Knox counties lead with $470,757, $420,723 and $398,422 respectively, according to the recently published book of Maine facts – Maine 101 by Nancy Griffin (MacIntyre Purcell Publishing, Inc.). York homes average $393,339 and Cumberland $370, 343 and win fourth and fifth place.
Waldo homes average $286,113 and take ninth place, surprising this writer because this county is next door to the highest three Mid-coast counties. Equally surprising is Kennebec County in 11th place with $213,635. Not surprising, though, is the last place county – Aroostook with $143,937.