Pushaw to the Penobscot - A Paddle through Time

Canoe Trip with cultural and ecological focus

Forty-five paddlers of varies ages brave the warm weather and the calm waters for another successful paddle through time.

A sea of violet-blue blooming pickerel weed carpets a large pocket wetland, a grey-blue layer of marine clay gives testimony of the sea once extending inland, rising shoreline and the “tight” squeeze through the esker is a reminder of Maine’s most recent ice age.

Organic deposits and a warming climate gave rise to vegetation creating an inhabitable environment for animals and humans. It is a humbling experience to learn that 8,000 year BP (before present) people occupied the shores we pass. Changed their cultural behavior according to climate and created narrow, fragile stone rods for a purpose we are not certain about. The Penobscot Nation Museum, Old Town Museum and the Hudson Museum all display artifacts found in this area and Maine. John Bear Mitchell and Alivia Moore, both members of the Penobscot Nation helped the paddlers of today understand the most recent history & challenges of the Penobscot people including self government, landownership,

and the Penobscot River Restoration Project. A big thank you to all the volunteers, the Penobscot RiverKeepers and the paddlers.

The day would have not been possible without you!

Volume 13, Summer 2016

Swallow Tales

Hirundo Summer Newsletter

Inside this issue:

Swallow Nest box Monitoring Vote for Hirundo

2

Vote Upcoming Program Swallows cont.

3

Meet the Board 4

Thank You Volunteers New Members Question of the Quarter

5

Support Membership Info Board of Trustees

6

Hirundo Updates 7-

10

“It was worth it!”

Neilan F. 9 years old!

The Larouche family is a finalist for the

NRCM’s 2016 People's Choice Award !!Learn how you can make a difference .. page 3

Swallow Nest Box Inventory 2016

The Swallows and the Phoebe were closely monitored

this year by four University of Maine students. Thank you

all for your volunteer effort and to Amy Baron for

organizing it. While we are awaiting the results of the

nesting success here is what the students say about their

experience.

Hi, my name is Courtney Pilon, I am studying Zoology

and am now in my senior year. Being a nest monitoring

intern at Hirundo so far has been nothing short of amazing.

Basically I get to be outside enjoying nature while

gathering information about it. I truly enjoy watching the

birds reacting to us in fields due to my love of animal

behavior. Even if that means being dive-bombed by a gang

of angry parents. This internship has many benefits such as

actively taking data and gaining field experience. I look at

it as a stepping stone for jobs and experiences in the future.

My name is Eva Weitman and I am an upcoming senior

studying Wildlife Ecology. I love bird watching in Hirundo

because there is a wide range

of birds, from water birds to

warblers that I don't see in

my everyday life, and have

especially enjoyed watching

the nesting life of the refuge's

resident swallows.

I am Mallori Morris a

junior, majoring in Zoology

and minoring in Dance. My

internship with Hirundo

Wildlife Refuge has given

me an auspicious start as a developing Zoologist. This

internship has been an excellent precursor in giving me an

in-depth look, as to what my future field work may consist

of, once I have graduated college. The independence as

well as the knowledge that I have gained, from monitoring

the swallow nests is priceless. Over the course of three

months, I have developed the skills to properly check birds’

nests, recognize swallow eggs and nests, check

to see if the parents are in the vicinity, be able to identify

the different stages that a hatchling swallow undergoes in

preparation for fledging and last, but not least I have

learned to protect myself, in a calmly manor from

aggressive parents, who aren’t afraid to get up and

personal with you. Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, has broaden

my horizons on varying bird species that surround the

Maine area, beavers, musk rats, foxes and many more. This

internship has been a stepping stone for my future

endeavors for interacting with wildlife.

My name is Caroline Spangenberg and I am a third-

year student majoring in Zoology and minoring in

Neuroscience (although I have not officially declared the

minor yet.) It can sometimes be hard to find field work, let

alone some so nearby in the area, therefore the nest

monitoring internship

proved to be the

perfect opportunity

for me to gain more

field experience this

summer. As the

season is wrapping up

and I’m able to reflect

upon my internship

with Hirundo ,

See SWALLOWS page 3

Page 2 Summe r News let te r

Volunteers from left Caroline Spangenberger,

Mallori Morris, Amy Baron (coordinator), Eva

Weitman and Courtney Pilon.

Page 3 Summe r News let te r

SWALLOWS continued

I am pleased to say that I have learned quite a lot, and have much more to look forward to in my work,

let alone some so nearby in the area, therefore the nest monitoring internship proved to be the perfect opportunity

for me to gain more field experience this summer. As the season is wrapping up and I’m able to reflect upon my

internship with future thanks to the opportunities that I have been presented with. I am particularly interested in

Endocrinology and behavioral patterns, and while monitoring the nests this season I was able to observe some very

interesting habits, actions, and patterns that the birds demonstrated. As a result, I am hoping to conduct some

independent research on the aggression of the birds at the start of the season next year.

2017 Preview

We expect the swallows to return the end of April, beginning of May for the nesting season of 2017. Are you

interested to be one of the Nest Box Monitoring volunteer? Contact us for more details at web@hirundomaine.org.

Vote for your choice for Natural Resources Council of Maine’s

2016 People’s Choice Award

Cast Your Vote for the 2016 NRCM People’s Choice Award

Voting is open through Monday, August 29 at noon.

The Larouche family is a finalist for the People's Choice Award 2016 for their

commitment to Hirundo Wildlife Refuge and the natural environment!

http://www.nrcm.org/…/vote-for-nrcms-2016-peoples-choice-a…/

DATE TIME PROGRAM PRESENTER LOCATION

Sunday,

August 21, 2016 3 – 5 pm

Sunday Afternoon

Guided Paddle Mary Harlan HWR Gate 3

Fridays through Sundays

Free canoe rental !

Call 207.745.6644 a day in

advance to reserve canoe

You HWR Gate 3

Saturday,

August 27, 2016 TBA

UMaine Welcome Weekend

Day of Service

HWR Staff & vol-

unteer HWR Gate 1

Saturday,

September 10, 2016 10 am – 12 pm

Volunteer Opportunity –

trail work & more... HWR volunteer HWR Gate 1

Sunday,

September 11, 2016 3 – 5 pm

Sunday Afternoon

Guided Paddle HWR Volunteer HWR Gate 3

Friday,

September 16, 2016 6:30 - 8:30 pm Harvest (Full) Moon Paddle

HWR Staff &

Volunteer HWR Gate 3

Upcoming Programs

“I think that is a stonefly” - Insect

ID by Old Town Rec program

participants at the Hirundo.

Summe r News let te r Page 4

Full Moon Paddle

MEET THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Greetings!

My name is Larry Beauregard and I have been a member of the Hirundo Board of Trustees since 2014. I take every opportunity to learn and share my interest in the outdoors particularly forestry and fishing.

I grew up In Rhode Island and pursued my then interests in biology and ge-netics at Providence College, Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital.

Our young family moved to the Bangor area in 1975 and I served as a medi-cal geneticist at Eastern Maine Medical Center. Retiring from EMMC allowed me to focus on forestry and the outdoors resulting in a busy retired life.

In addition to my role with HWR, I am Registered Maine Guide, the Pe-nobscot Valley Chapter Leader for the Small Woodland Owners Association of Maine and a member of Maine Tree Farm Committee. I also served as an instructor for the Maine Master Naturalist Program.

Summe r News let te r

Thank You Volunteers!

Your support and enthusiasm made Hope Festival, Trail Day, Bio-Blitz with the Montessori School,

Glenburn School Outings, & the Penobscot RiverKeepers, UMaine Rad-O Camp, Swallow Nest Box

Monitoring, the Pushaw to Penobscot Paddle the newsletter a success.

Amy Baron, Nick Baron, Alex Baron, Deanna Fahey, Sally Jones,

Brendan Fahey, Carol & John Gregory, Venessa Grove, Glen Koehler, Grif-

fin Querzoli , Briante Najev, Linda Swackhammer, Julia Bates, Kris Hoff-

man, David Thompson, Bucky Owen, Larry Beauregard, Dick Andren,

Courtney Pilon, Rebecca Grant , Mallori Morris , Caroline Spangenberg,

We apologize should your name be missing.

Question of the Quarter

What causes the odd shaped bark on a

maple tree?

Send your answer by September 1, 2016 to either:

web@hirundomaine.org

or

Hirundo Wildlife Refuge P.O. Box 266, Orono, ME 04473 The winner will receive a bird feeder just in time for bird feeding season.

Page 5

With your membership donations, Hirundo works to connect children and their families with the wonders of nature through programing, educational outreach and free open access to trails, both on land and on the water!

Welcome new members!

Mary & Sarah Belshner Michael & Neilan Fahey Kris Hoffmann Hillary Hudson Stom Ohno & Sue Erich

Smile— a message from Hirundo

Answer to last Question of the last Quarter: Bryozoa egg (Statoblast) Bryozoa, also called Moss animals, are tiny (0.5 mm) aquatic colonial animals.

YOUR SUPPORT

Hirundo Wildlife Refuge is a private, non-profit organization that depends on public donations and volunteers to run our programs. We receive our funding from grants and donations for the preservation of wildlife and forest management and are not supported financially by the University of Maine, or any other institution.

Your support of Hirundo is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Please make your tax deductible donation on-line hirundomaine.org/support Or mail a check to:

Hirundo Wildlife Refuge P.O. Box 266

Orono, Me 04473

Ph

oto

s, u

nle

ss o

ther

wis

e n

ote

d, b

y H

iru

nd

o W

ild

life

Ref

ug

e

Would you like to share your talents? We are looking for volunteers!

We welcome your assistance with any of the following:

Program Committee

Publicity Brochures Website updating Photography

Lead walks, present a program

Development Committee

Fundraising Grant writing Data entry

Stewardship and Trails Committee

Trail maintenance Fauna & Flora inventories

“ In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.” - Baba Dioum Senegalese conservationist

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Dick Andren, Vice Chair

Laurent Beauregard

Deanna Fahey

Roxane Larouche

Stephanie Larouche, Chair

Veronica Larouche

Rad Mayfield, III

Roger Merchant

Bucky Owen

Gloria Vollmers, Treasurer

….your name could be here

Membership Application

Name: _________________________

Address: _______________________

City: ___________________________

State: __________ Zip: ___________

Phone: ________________________

Email: _________________________

Membership categories,

please check level of support

- Life Time

Member

-Friend of Refuge

—Sustaining Member

- Supporting Member

– Family

- Individual

– Student

Summer Newsletter

Hirundo relies on investments of time and money donated by the local

community. Thank you for your support.

We could not do it without you!

Page 6

We thank the following Businesses, Institutions & Organizations for their on-going support:

Bodwell Center for Volunteers Castine Kayak Cyr Bus Lines Gossamer Press Griffin & Jordon, LLC Idexx Laboratories Hannaford of Old Town La Bree’s Bakery Machias Savings Bank

Noonan Chiropractic Old Town Rotary Club Owen J. Folsom Penobscot RiverKeepers Rose Bike Shop RSU # 34 Stillwater Montessori School University of Maine

Page 7

Stewardship: Grading the Road

Team work gets it done!

Orono Land Trust member

Dave Thompson & HWR

member Larry Beauregard

working in tandem. Grading &

smoothing the 1/2 mile of road

to the Pine Tree parking area.

The trail head for the northern

trails of the Refuge.

Gardening Project

Keeping the flower bed tidy is an on-going

process. Especially when vigorous vines take

over enveloping other plants. Thanks for the

help, Linda Swackhammer & Julia Bates! Next

step– seeding/planting area with native iris,

Joe-pye weed, baneberry and ..?. What do you

suggest?

Hirundo Updates

A hearty welcome to Alivia Moore and Liz Lopez who have joined Hirundo as caretakers. Alivia is a avid canoeist sharing her knowledge during canoe clinics at the Refuge. Liz is a wizard with drill & wood, just look at the access ramp to the out-house during your next visit.

Both are busy with trail work, mowing, handing out canoes, giving canoe lesson or building a ramp making one of the outhouses wheelchair accessible! Thank you both for all you do.

Alivia

Liz

Our Community Partners:

Stillwater Montessori School’s Bio Blitz at the Refuge

“The children have had an amazing opportunity at an early age to be engaged as citizen scientists and I am so proud of all of them. Many of the comments from the adults, not associated with our school, were surprised about how focused and well-behaved they all were. They took the task seriously of looking for and identifying species. For me, I love how comfortable the children are outside exploring in nature. It was such a joy to watch them engaged, comfortable and happy. Such a gift we are giving them for the rest of their lives. “ Joanne Alex

Page 8 Summer Newsletter

Joanne Alex, Director of Stillwater Montessori spearheads the

Bio Blitz participants, 45 excited and curious children K-4th

Sue Lahti and Margaret Chernosky with the Maine Geographic Alliance helped to record the collected data on the iNaturalist app for National Geographic Society's project to share with other students also collecting data in all 50 states and beyond . This is to get a snapshot of species in our world. The Stillwater Montessori School environmen-tal club will be helping with the finding and identification of species with help from entomologists and ornithol-ogists on site.

Exploration Series: Paddle at Sunkhaze Meadows with Danielle D’Auria.

Programs: Garden Seminar with

Kate Garland & Eric Venturini Kate & Eric teamed up explaining how Native Flowers

& Native Pollinators go hand in hand. Design your

garden to provide food, shelter & water throughout

the season. Flower beds 3x3 or larger filled for exam-

ple with native honeysuckle, spirea, milkweed, pur-

ple coneflower, aster, goldenrod are attractive to bees.

Providing shelter can be as simple as looking for

ground nests of bumble bees and respectfully stepping

around it or installing nesting boxes. Learn more at

https://extension.umaine.edu/

Fiddleheads & Wild Leeks with

David Fuller

Birding by Canoe 2016

Birding by Canoe with Rad Mayfield

After a hearty breakfast the group paddled upstream, toward Pushaw dam while being serenaded by Parula Warblers, Red-eyed vire-os, and wood thrushes. Along the way we saw muskrat, Great Blue Herons (or was it the same bird?!) Eastern Kingbird, Baltimore Ori-ole, Tree Swallows, Red-winged Blackbirds, Grackles and others. Last year’s outing re-quired hats and mittens! This year we got by with baseball caps and short-sleeved T-shirts.

Birding by Canoe 2015

Fiddleheads also called Ostrich Fern are easily identified by their smooth, green stem with a u-shaped groove , the brown papery covering of the emerging ‘fiddlehead’, and the fertile frond from the previous year, now dark brown and shaped like a feather. David explained that a healthy crown will have at least four fiddleheads, rather than one or two. Sustainable picking, by snapping them off, includes harvesting no more than one half of the emerged fiddleheads from each crown, once a season. The Maine Wild Leeks projects seeks information on wild leek locations.

Check at https://extension.umaine.edu/forms/natural-resources/maine-wild-leek-project/ on how you can help.

Summer Newsletter Page 9

Research: Salamanders at the Refuge - Inventory & Filming by Kris Hoffmann

Kris Hoffmann is a graduate student in the University of Maine’s vernal pool lab, and has been working on two projects

at the Refuge. Kris used custom-built-traps to look for salamander in five different wetlands and captured both Spotted

Salamanders and Unisexual Blue-Spotted Salamanders. She is also starting work on environmental education and out-

reach materials, and visited the Refuge this spring to film salamander eggs and chorusing Wood Frogs. Stay tuned for

more about Kris’ research in the next newsletter.

Spotted Salamander Eggs Blue-spotted Salamander Eggs

Vernal Pool along Trapper’s &

Vernal Pool Trail

This cocoon (4cm x 2cm; 1.5 in x 0.75

in) is made of a neatly folded fiddle-

head fern leave.

+

It was the home of this 6.4 cm (2.5

inch) caterpillar who had molted its

skin 5 times (within 3-4 weeks) be-

fore wrapping the well-nourished

body in this leave, tied together

with a silk thread.

=

Wildlife: mobile & stationary

2-3 weeks later, unless it is

near winter, a Luna moth will

emerge. It has a wingspan up

to 11.5 cm (4.5 in)! The adult

will not eat and only focus on

reproducing off-spring. The

antennae of the males are

bushier & larger than those of

females.

One of the three fox kits of this year’s

litter

Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

blooming in abundance this sum-

mer along both sides of Pushaw

Stream. Bright red, cannot miss it!

Late summer bloomer who likes

moisture.

Page 10 Summer Newsletter