by Roland D. Hallee This column was a long time coming. A couple of months ago, while driving to an engagement on Eustis Parkway, in Waterville, I noticed a grey squirrel cross the street in front of me. What’s so great about seeing a squirrel, you ask? Well, just a few weeks prior to this […]
by Roland D. Hallee A friend of ours, who lives along the Kennebec River, in Fairfield, told us last weekend that she came across a “dead” opossum in her backyard. We’ll get to that later. Opossums normally live in forested or brushy habitats, but they have adapted well to living close to people in cities […]
by Roland D. Hallee Thanksgiving is here again, and is the unofficial kick off point for the holiday season. Turkeys are the main fare at the dinner table on that day. So what do we know about the wild gobbler? The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is an upland ground bird native to North America. Although […]
by Roland D. Hallee Benjamin Franklin preferred the turkey as the national bird of the United States, but he never publicly voiced his opposition to the bald eagle. In a letter to his daughter, Sarah Bache, on January 26, 1783, he wrote how he disapproved of the Society of Cincinnati, which he described as a […]
by Roland D. Hallee A couple of weeks ago I noticed a lot of different birds coming to our feeders, and I compared the situation with the Alfred Hitchcock thriller film, The Birds. Well, I have another chapter in that episode. I have noticed recently the high number of crows, or ravens, that have been […]
by Roland D. Hallee The Maine Forest Service recently published its last planned bulletin of the season. It was quite lengthy so I have sorted out what I thought would be of interest to our readers. The following are excerpts from that bulletin: Browntail Moth This year we saw continued growth in the outbreak of […]
by Roland D. Hallee The Maine moose hunting season is underway. It has not always been that way. The moose hunting season was reintroduced in 1980 on an experimental basis, when 700 permits were issued to residents. At that time, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife estimated the moose population to be in […]
by Roland D. Hallee One day last week, as we were backing out of our driveway, I noticed something hanging from the front door knob. I stopped, and my wife jumped out to see what it was. What else but a political notice to vote “No” on Question 1. That is not the subject of […]
by Roland D. Hallee I know they exist, but just how many are there? Several years ago I had the rare opportunity to see a black squirrel in Waterville. Last Monday, while driving along the Seaward Mills Road, in Vassalboro, I spotted another one as it was crossing the road in front of me. In […]
by Roland D. Hallee This week, I’m going to give up my space to a China resident. In the past we have done articles on wolves in Maine with mixed reactions. Some people believing there are wolves in Maine, and some others saying no. John Glowa, of China, is a member of the Maine Wolf […]