by Jayne Winters While the recent signs of an early spring encourage most of us to anxiously look forward to warmer days and more outside activities, this time of year is one of mixed emotions for Don Cote and the volunteers at Duck Pond Wildlife Care Center. These last weeks of winter still require shoveling, […]
by Jayne Winters After reading Roland Hallee’s recent column (The Town Line, Scores and Outdoors, February 3, 2022) about his groundhog buddy, Woodrow Charles, and his prediction of six more weeks of winter, I wondered if the Cotes have had many groundhog visitors over the years. I found an article Carleen wrote in 1997, […]
by Jayne Winters It is with much sadness and great appreciation that this month’s column is written in memory of Amy Messier, who passed away unexpectedly on December 4, 2021. Amy had been a volunteer at Duck Pond Wildlife Rehab Center, in Vassalboro, for almost 20 years. Although unable to work most of this past […]
by Jayne Winters Chatting with Don Cote at the Duck Pond Wildlife Center is always enjoyable. Don has years of interesting experiences and his stories are touched with a sense of humor, as well as extensive personal knowledge and an obvious love for animals. I thought I’d mention a few of them this month. Earlier […]
by Amy Messier When I stopped by to talk to Don Cote at the Duck Pond Wildlife Center today about this month’s column, I was surprised to find all but one carrier empty of critters! Usually there are a variety of newly-admitted chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, possums, and young porcupines or raccoons in small cages or […]
by Jayne Winters This is the time of year many critters are released from the Duck Pond Wildlife Center, although if animals are old enough and sufficiently rehabbed, releases also take place throughout the summer. Chipmunks and squirrels are usually not turned out after mid-October, as their primary natural food sources have dwindled. This year’s […]
by Jayne Winters This month’s column about the Wildlife Care Center in Vassalboro was going to be about fox releases, but before we got too far into the conversation, caretaker Don Cote mentioned he had three bobcat kittens on site. I “pounced” on the idea of writing about the bobcats, so we’ll address critter releases […]
by Jayne Winters Over the past month, I’ve had the unexpected pleasure to see skunk families waddling along the side of the road. Just watching them makes me smile, so voila – the topic of this month’s column! I suspected Carleen had written about skunks in the past and sure enough, I found an article, […]
by Jayne Winters Facebook wildlife and rehab groups often share photos of interesting critters, but I don’t know how many readers have ever seen a piebald animal. My husband and I were fortunate to see a wild piebald deer in the Hancock area a couple of years ago and when I recently came across old […]
by Jayne Winters When Don and I talked about a topic for this month’s column, he suggested letting readers know what the differences are between an Animal Control Officer (ACO) and an Animal Damages Control Agent (ADC). Although the titles of “Animal Control” and “Animal Damage Control” are often used interchangeably, they represent two different […]