by Roland D. Hallee Has anyone seen a monarch butterfly this summer? I certainly haven’t. It wasn’t so long ago that I would see them everywhere; at home and at camp. They are a magnificent-looking butterfly, all dressed in the bright orange and black colors. However, their numbers have come under a lot of stress […]
Postpone proxy balloting and voter restrictions to 2020 by Roland D. Hallee This year’s edition of the Webber Pond Association annual meeting took on the feel of meetings from the past. Where in recent years they have been somewhat quiet, especially in regards to the lake drawdown, this year’s version produced additional controversy, with much […]
by Roland D. Hallee Has this been a crazy summer, or what? The summer of 2019 may go down as one of the more mysterious of recent years. We had a bumper crop of black flies and mosquitoes, last week we covered the decline in the number of bats, the usual suspects appeared at our […]
by Roland D. Hallee The biggest complaint I have heard this summer from numerous people is the extremely high number of mosquitoes that have pestered us. I had noticed it myself but attributed it to the cold and wet spring and early summer. However, there is another reason for the unusual number of those little […]
by Roland D. Hallee Of all the animal species on earth, approximately 40 percent of them are beetles. Many of them look alike. That is probably why a friend of mine related to me that he had seen an emerald ash borer in Vassalboro and killed it, because, as a fairly knowledgeable woodsman, he knew […]
by Roland D. Hallee A popular subject of discussion this summer has been the proliferation of the tick population in our area over the last several years. Myself, I have had three ticks on me so far this summer, and I take all the precautions I think I could. One of them, I have no idea how […]
by Roland D. Hallee There are invasive pests making their way into Maine, and it is important that we learn more about them. One of them, the Emerald Ash Borer, has already been spotted in Vassalboro. This week, I will turn my column over to Hildy Ellis, of the Knox-Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District, […]
by Roland D. Hallee No, we’re not going to talk about the David Ortiz shooting. A couple of weeks ago we talked about these beetles that appeared in a bucket at our camp (See The Town Line, June 20, 2019). At first, through some research, especially the website of the Iowa State University Department of […]
by Roland D. Hallee We talked about vernal pools several years ago, but I think it’s time to visit the subject again. Vernal pools are seasonal pools of water that provide habitat for distinctive plants and animals. They are considered to be a distinctive type of wetland usually devoid of fish, and thus allow the […]
by Roland D. Hallee Last week I received an email from a reader, who resides in Palermo. She sent a photo and asked what kind of bumble bee it was? She had photographed it feeding on her lilacs. At first glance, I thought it was a sphinx moth – better known as a hummingbird moth. […]