A MOUNTAIN WITH MOXIE

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Two photos of Moxie Mt. The close-up was taken when my wife and I were hiking up towards the top heading for Mountain Dimick pond. Absolutely beautiful, wild, spring fed mountain pond.The distant photo was taken from very near our camp in Concord. Moxie Mt. is ranked number fifty of New England's 50 finest mountains, standing at 1,820 feet. 

Spring Time On a Maine Farm

Everything comes alive in the early spring, green grass and warm sunshine will make even these farm structures come alive with activity. Oh Spring, where are you?

Magnificent Seven

                             

Here is a chickadee nest containing seven eggs. This was taken last year and only five of the seven survived. One was sufficated and actually pecked to death by the other birds, the other died from unknown causes. Nest material contained moss, dried grass clippings, milkweed silk and hair from "Taz" our sheltie.

Snowstorm fir

Couple of blue jays enjoying a winter storm in the protection of a balsam fir.

Speckled Alder Flower

The long hanging flowers are the male catkins of the Speckled Alder or Gray alder, Alnus incana. The short green ones are the female flower. A few subtle difference between the two are that the grey alder has a shallower root system as well as large amount of suckering that takes place from the stump as well as from the root system. The bark is of course much more speckled versus the more grayish bark on the gray alder

Wonderful wildlife plant in our northern forest, alder runs are a great area when hunting the woodcock or the ruffed grouse. They grow mostly in wet, damp growth areas and are certainly one of the pioneer small trees in the forest.

Forest Mystery

While walking in our woodlot, my wife and I came upon this cluster of hatched eggs at the base of a very old, dead, white cedar tree. Naturally, seeing all of the cracked open eggs certainly caught our attention. After we studied the area for some time and took into account some of the existing clues, like a remaining feather or two, we concluded that all the eggs appeared to have been opened in such a manner that one could see they were not opened by any type of predator. We came to the conclusion that this was the remains of a ruffed grouse (partridge) nest. One could see that the mother hen really did her work and investigation to make for a pretty secluded spot to have her chicks.