MOOSE SIGHTING!

Last Tuesday (the 7th) while driving back on Rte. 9 from Eastport Charles Wellman enjoyed the close company of a MOOSE trotting about 20 feet from his car on the shoulder of the road. Charles said he guestimated the weight of his "companion" at no less than 1200 pounds - no rack - but it could have been a male since we're told racks are often shed in March. Since he was focusing on staying on the road, Charles didn't get close enough to check anything else to determine the gender, but he said the moose was more mottled gray than dark brown and could easily have blended into the woods had it been further away. Charles said he he's never seen such a huge moose. Fortunately, the moose considered the road wide enough for Charles' car since it kept him company for some distance.

The ice went out from Davis Pond on April 6 this year - and the loons came in at 5:30pm on the same date. I had the pleasure of the company of sighting two crusing by right in front of the house just as I was checking the progress of the ice. I've seen four since then.

The next day about 4:30pm I watched four teenage bald eagles fly in and settle down on a shale piece of ice sliding east to west into the cove by Mansfields' (Fifield Estates). I guess the ice was so thin even the eagles felt it wouldn't support their weight as the third eagle jumped up and flew a bit further away from the first two when its feet started sinking. Standing at my windows watching the third, and then the fourth fly in - landing further away from the third - was pretty awesome. All of them had some white feathers in the under wing span but the rest of their feathers were still dark. Guess they were checking to see if any fish were swimming up close to the surface of the water. I can't say these guys are the hard working fishermen the adults are. They sort of wait around for the fish to just "show up." :-)

And the Red Fox came visiting, too, staying at least 10 minutes stopping to scratch for fleas a couple of times and then settled down for a brief nap on top of a tree trunk nestled in amongst some rocks on the lot next door. I had seen it crossing the back of my lot while on the phone with a friend and then watched it progress to the lot next door. Needless to say, last week was a wonderful NATURE experience - not to mention the single rack of deer antlers found while taking pictures of the rushing waters coming down from Rte. 9 during the rain storm Tues. More about that later in another blog.

Let me say this though- that Shoreland Ordinance that wants to prevent timber harvesting is NOTHING compared to what water erosion from Rte. 9 is doing to the trees, green growth and soil erosion/drainage into Davis Pond. I took photos on Tues. that I'll be presenting to the Eddington Board of Selectment at their meeting on the 16th (with subsequent communication to DOT and DEP). The photos will show uprooted trees and total devastation caused by the water erosion to personal property not to mention the tree growth. Looks like the after-effects of a firestorm!