The Natural History Center

21/05/2024

Live cams for watching birds have become quite popular, but what is better than watching one for a place we love such as Mount Desert Island. The MDI High School has a live feed of their Ospry nest! (Click on the link below to be redirected to the live cam.)

05/05/2024

Photos taken yesterday at Acadia National Park's Sieur de Monts Spring. This time of year, you expect Summer Tanagers In Virginia and south.

03/05/2024

Today marks our 14th year in business!

02/05/2024

Please help or friends at Maine Natural History Observatory with this fundraising request.

Help get MNHO back on the road (and on the water)!
⁠
Here’s what’s going on. In 2013, the Observatory bought its trusty 2001 Toyota Tacoma as a used vehicle with over 133 thousand miles. Now, 10+ years and 160 thousand miles later, we’ve just learned from our mechanic that the frame is rusting away. We’ve been budgeting to make this replacement for several years, but this sudden rust issue means that we have an immediate shortfall of about $8,000 in our truck budget.

You can help by sending a gift by June 1st so we don’t lose any fieldwork days this summer! Learn more at www.mainenaturalhistory.org

The truck is essential equipment for all the work the Observatory does surveying Maine’s flora and fauna.
It is used for:
1. Towing and launching boats into salt water upwards of 40 times a year to conduct fieldwork on Maine islands.
2. Numerous trips to remote areas in Maine to survey birds on logging roads.
3. Travel up and down the coast to conduct seaweed, plant, owl, and nightjar surveys.

How you can help:
1. Become a member of the Observatory (there are lots of benefits to membership!) or renew your existing membership at www.mainenaturalhistory.org.⁠ 100% of your membership dollars received during May will go toward this project.
2. Donate to the truck replacement fund online at www.mainenaturalhistory.org
Thank you!⁠

22/04/2024

Earth Day and the return of Wood Ducks are sure signs of spring. Happy Earth Day!

21/04/2024

Some sort of amphibian eggs along Acadia National Park’s Wonderland Trail.

16/03/2024

The amazing story of the Steller's Sea Eagle continues. It was just posted to the "Steller's Sea Eagle in Canada" Facebook group that it was seen at Robin Hood Bay Landfill in St. John's, Newfoundland! This is the photo that was posted.

07/03/2024

A Gray Whale was seen off Nantucket. This is exciting: it's one of only five Gray Whales observed in the North Atlantic Ocean in the past 200 years (and all of those have been in the past 15 years!).

The whale was spotted 30 miles south of the Massachusetts island Friday diving and resurfacing, appearing to feed. Scientists say climate change may be why the species has reappeared.

16/02/2024

Here is a sampling of nature photos from West West Texasn New Mexico, and Colorado.

16/02/2024

Tomorrow begins the Great Backyard Bird Count. For the next four days, people around the world will share their bird observations. It's fun! It contributes to science. It's free. And did I mention it is fun? If you already post your observations to eBird, you need do nothing else other than go birding. It only takes 15 minutes per day. (I'll be birding down at Hueco Tanks State Park in Texas.)

Each year people from around the world come together to watch, learn about, count, and celebrate birds. Join us in February!

08/02/2024

"Birds of Maine" is an amazing book! If you are interested in Maine's avifauna, especially from an historical viewpoint, you can order this book for an amazingly cheap $12.50!

A comprehensive and beautifully illustrated overview to the birds of Maine

09/01/2024

I was excited to learn that, once again, Wisdom, the female Laysan Albatross that has been nesting for decades on Midway Atoll, is back!

Wisdom a mōlī or Laysan albatross has returned to Kuaihelani (Midway Atoll) and was sighted on December 3, 2023 by US Fish and Wildlife Service Supervisory Wildlife Biologist, Jon Plissner doing al…

03/01/2024

While I eagerly await skiable snow, I am set to thinking about polar adventure. Herbert George Ponting (1870-1935) was a photographer and cinematographer best known for his work capturing some of the most enduring images of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Ponting's 1911 poem, “The Sleeping Bag” is a fun play with words:

"The Sleeping Bag"

On the outside grows the furside. On the inside grows the skinside.
So the furside is the outside and the skinside is the inside.
As the skinside is the inside (and the furside is the outside)
One 'side' likes the skinside inside and the furside on the outside.
Others like the skinside outside and the furside on the inside
As the skinside is the hard side and the furside is the soft side.
If you turn the skinside outside, thinking you will side with that 'side',
Then the soft side furside’s inside, which some argue is the wrong side.
If you turn the furside outside – as you say, it grows on that side,
Then your outside’s next the skinside, which for comfort’s not the right side.
For the skinside is the cold side and your outside’s not your warm side
And the two cold sides coming side-by-side are not the right sides one 'side' decides.
If you decide to side with that 'side', turn the outside furside inside
Then the hard side, cold side, skinside’s, beyond all question, inside outside.

12/12/2023

Just finished reading this seaweed mini-guide. It is AMAZING! If you are interested in seaweeds, you can download a digital copy from https://mainenaturalhistory.org/seaweeds .

06/12/2023

Today is the last day of Maine Natural History Observatory's Seaweed Art Auction (it ends at 7 p.m. tonight). You still have time to bid on all kinds of cool artwork and books. And there is even a birding tour with The Natural History Center. Check it out and support this amazing organization!

Your gift will help purchase 10, specially designed songbird recorders to better understand the importance of island habitats for bird species seeking refuge from climate change.

29/11/2023

Here's a chance to get some amazing seaweed art AND to support a worthy cause. The Maine Natural History Observatory (MNHO) is hosting an auction to support the field work and publication of the highly anticipated "Seaweeds of Maine" field guide. The art consists of high-quality framed pressings by Jordan Chafant. There are other MNHO field guides available. And there is a half-day bird tour with The Natural History Center.

https://event.auctria.com/c78174c6-2415-49eb-ba4c-95cb3f0d577b/aa6cd270-8751-11e9-a741-3fcfcb35cbb0

20/11/2023

My daughter just texted me from school: she saw a kid reading my book in the cafeteria! That's awesome! And if you are looking for the book for a gift, DM me. I can send signed copies anywhere.

Rich’s first book, Little Big Year: Chasing Acadia’s Birds , has been published! Read about his year-long adventure to see all of the birds of his corner of Downeast Maine. This story-telling narrative weaves information about each species with his experience finding them and draws on his years....

07/11/2023

The AOS (American Ornithological Society) is moving to update bird names, changing those named for people, especially as so many of those past people had a tenuous relationship with civil rights. Many people will object to these name changes, but we need to look to the future, embracing people of diverse backgrounds, not excluding people because of an archaic adherence to tradition. I, for one, am excited for this changes.

If you had the opportunity to name the species on the left what would you call it? The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is embarking on a long-term process to revise English common names of birds in the Americas named after people, starting with a pilot program focused on the US and Canada.

30/10/2023

For those of you anywhere near Mount Desert Island this coming weekend, the MDI High School Gear Sale has been rescheduled to Sunday. There will be veritable tons of gear for sale: bikes, cross-country and telemark skis and gear, camping gear, all manner of outdoor apparel, tents, sleeping bags, at least one pair of vintage Koflach mountaineering boots, and so much more.

06/10/2023

Thanks to our friend John-David for sharing this amazing video. You have a Whale Shark. You have a cormorant diving for food. What’s not to like about this?

27/09/2023

A boy and his dog on a mountain in Acadia National Park. This is what I do after work.

13/09/2023

To all you naturalists out there, I am downsizing my library (I know, HERESY!). Here are a collection of books and audio recordings (mostly cassette tapes--remember those?). Goes as a lot, free for the taking. They can be picked up in Bar Harbor, Maine, or, if you pay the postage, I will ship the lot to you anywhere in the U.S.

29/08/2023

Found my first-ever sculpin on a recent tide-pool tour! We do regularly find rock gunnels. These eel-like fish are most certainly NOT EELS; rather, they are a bony fish. Both like to hide under rocks.

22/08/2023

This morning’s sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.

22/08/2023

Look what we found during today’s tide-pool tour!