Greetings! Please enjoy our June edition of Nature Watchers! What are you seeing out there? We'd love to hear from you! The following posts are from some of our local Harpswell Nature Watchers. All of the contributions below are seen immediately in our Facebook group. Click here to join. Unfortunately we can't share videos in our monthly email, so be sure to check out the Facebook page to see videos! Click here for more information about Harpswell Nature Watchers.

There's a house finch family that moved in above the breezeway at our house. They are in a very awkward spot as can be seen from the electric wires. I don't know if they fell down or if they pulled them into that configuration, but that's where they insisted on building despite our activity in the area! They fly off the nest whenever we open the door, even when they were building it... but they seem to have quite a few mouths to feed, so it doesn't seem to matter to them! Today the male was stuffing their beaks one after the other. (Photos and video through the glass on the door). To see the video, visit our Facebook group. (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 27, 2022)

Green Heron, perched on a tree at the edge of our yard. LeAnne spotted it in a tree near our driveway, and then it flew across the yard and into this tree overlooking the marsh on Ash Cove. Moments after I took this picture it flew off over the end of the cove and out of sight. (Submitted by Howard Marshall. June 26, 2022)

Slate-colored Junco eggs! I discovered them accidentally while weed whacking. (Submitted by Cristine Bachor. June 26, 2022)

Thanks to HHLT, David Reed guided us on a marvelous dragonfly walk at Otter Brook Preserve! With David's (and a few others') nets, dragonflies and damselflies (both Odonata) were captured. He told us about their wings, eyes, habits and abilities.... and what was happening on the pond—their sex life! We also saw funnel spiders and leaf hoppers (both in their cloak of spittle, and one landed on Priscilla's net!) and butterflies. The pond at Otter Brook has an amazing assortment of dragonflies and damselflies darting around, well worth a visit (but do watch for ticks). To see videos from the event, visit our Facebook group. (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 25, 2022)

Taken today at Giant’s Stairs, Bailey Island. (Submitted by Donna Johnson. June 23, 2022)

A snowy egret fishing at Long Reach seemed to be having some success today. I was looking up those bright yellow feet at the end of the long black legs—some websites say they scare fish. A pretty sight down there with what I think are thousands of periwinkles on the mud flat. To see videos of the egret fishing, visit our Facebook group. (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 22, 2022)

I saw the splash first, and then finally figured out I was seeing two harbor seals having ”a moment”….so glad that was what it ended up being. (Submitted by Elizabeth Gundlach. June 20, 2022)

Common wood sorrel (Oxalis montana) is blooming. These plants contain oxalic acid and were used for various medicinal purposes by Native Americans. It can, however, be toxic at certain quantities. I saw lots of twin flower (Linnaea borealis) blooming in the woods too. The nodding, trumpet-shaped flowers occur in pairs on a Y-shaped stalk. The leaves too occur in pairs along the trailing stem that runs along the ground. It is said that it’s Latin genus was chosen for the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, the “father of modern taxonomy,” because it was his favorite flower. (Submitted by Lynn Knight. June 18, 2022)

Glossy ibis were at the south end of Long Reach today! I thought the one coming in for a landing was going to clip the one in the marsh. There was a snowy egret there also—that beak didn't look nearly as effective as those of the ibises! To see a video of the ibises, visit our Facebook group. (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 16, 2022)

Eastern bluebird and American goldfinches in Cundy's Harbor. (Submitted by M.W. Bittle. June 15, 2022)

A porcupine was headed toward us as we were leaving Long Reach the other day. I'm glad our dog was on a leash, because even though the porcupine ran away, it wasn't very fast getting to the tree it climbed! I've only ever seen them sleeping on a branch, and while I've seen evidence that they are here in Harpswell, I've never seen one here before. To see the video, visit our Facebook group. (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 15, 2022)

My fourth grader and I found several rock gunnels and this orange mass in the lower intertidal zone. Thank you Betsey Bennett Stacey and Susanne Skyrm for the help ID-ing this orange sheath tunicate! (Submitted by Caroline Smith Loyas. June 12, 2022)

Card Cove night light. (Submitted by Elizabeth Gundlach. June 12, 2022)

Eastern painted turtle. (Submitted by Elizabeth Gundlach. June 12, 2022)

Eastern Phoebe hatchlings over my front door on Harpswell Neck. (Submitted by Jennifer Morris. June 10, 2022

Coming down to the point at Long Reach, I've been hearing a high pitched peeping and then the other day I got blasted with sound from a female hairy woodpecker, so I knew the peeping must be a chick. But I could not figure out where the high pitched peeping came from. I feel a little silly for not identifying the hole in the tree sooner, but today revealed! It's pretty high up, she shouldn't be worried! Although mother woodpecker is up higher than the hole. I felt like the chick was a ventriloquist because the sound seemed to move around, but in the video you can see the chick pops its head out of the hole while peeping and sort of throws the sound, so it kind of is! To see the videos, visit our Facebook page. (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 10, 2022)

Here are a couple of snowy egrets in the marsh behind the Great Island Church of the Nazarene. I saw one of them when I got there, then a few minutes later another one flew in and landed near the first one. There was a bit of posturing, but I think it was actually a celebratory greeting, they seemed quite comfortable hanging out together, and then flew off together. The light was flat and the water was smooth, so there are some nice reflections in most of the pictures. To see more photos, visit our Facebook group. (Submitted by Howard Marshall. June 10, 2022)

The Alert traverses Harpswell Sound before a stiff breeze at sunset. (Submitted by Peter Shaw. June 10, 2022)

A lone male eider was foraging at the water's edge by our dock. (Submitted by Howard Marshall. June 10, 2022)

There were 3 ospreys at the new cell tower today. One remained perched on a post for nearly the whole time I was there; my guess is that that is the female of the mated pair building a nest there. Two others came and went. At one point, one of them arrived with most of a fish in its talons and perched on the next post over from the one that I think is the female; my guess is that that was her mate. Another came and went a few times, but as far as I could tell, he only hovered around near the female and never perched; my guess is that he is trying to convince her that she could do better. I am only including a few of the pictures here, and will follow with a couple of posts, each with a series of shots with of one of the two "suitors." (Submitted by Howard Marshall. June 10, 2022)

Brown-headed cowbird. There were three of them on our lawn this afternoon. They were not bashful. I was able to take a number of pictures of them while they wandered around foraging in the grass. The one with the bluish back and reddish head is the male (second picture), and the other two, mostly grayish-brown, are females. (Submitted by Howard Marshall. June 10, 2022)

An eastern phoebe in the trees behind the Harpswell Town Office. (Submitted by Howard Marshall. June 10, 2022)

Was I ever lucky this morning to see this hermit thrush singing beside the Cliff Trail! In the video you can hear another in the distance. What a nice melody! To see the video, visit our Facebook group. (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 7, 2022)

Did you know…It is illegal to pick Lady Slippers as it is to pick other plants in a public park. These plants are very special as their reproduction is extremely slow. The germination rate is very low as well. Lady Slippers take up to 10 to 14 years just to flower from seed. If one is picked, the cycle is broken. The plant will then be short lived and no seed will be produced for another generation. Why can’t one transplant Lady Slippers? Lady Slippers require a certain specific fungus in the soil for survival. There is only a 5% success rate when transplanting from the wild. They need to stay where they now grow. So perhaps we can all collectively spread the message and provide the information when we see someone eyeing the Lady Slippers wherever we are! Many times they do not know the consequences of their actions. Or perhaps they “come from away”. Those of us who have grown up here were likely told as a child not to pick Lady Slippers, now you know why! Conservation. It takes all of us to educate to preserve this beautiful orchid for future generations. (This post was written by Dixie Armstrong and submitted to the group by Amanda Brillant. June 7, 2022)

A few more #HarpswellHikingChallenge sights to see. A strange polypore at Curtis Farm Preserve and lady slippers 'drowning' in a sea of Canada bunchberries, to a swallow either visiting a bluebird, or, more likely, having taken over one of the houses at Mitchell Field! A bobolink in the field, and there's been heavy pollen on the water, and some strange waterbugs at Otter Brook Preserve. (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 6, 2022)

A mother osprey on her nest. Cox Ledge day marker, Bailey Island. (Submitted by Peter Shaw. June 6, 2022)

Harpswell's Hiking Challenge (for National Trails Day) has one more day to go! Visiting so many nature sites/sights in one day was almost an overload. From purple pinecones on the Cliff Trail to a green crab washed up at Devil's Back looking like a monster ready to eat the rockweed, to frogs in the bog at Long Reach (make that two!!), and guttation on a polypore along the brand new trail at Little Pond! Also, what Merlin Bird ID said was a swamp sparrow! All kinds of fun. (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 4, 2022)

I saw my first iris of the season at Long Reach along the bog bridge. I never noticed the iris' corrugated leaf edges! (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 2, 2022)

Eider chicks with adults in Gunn Point Cove yesterday! They had to paddle pretty hard to keep up. For anyone interested, also saw a couple American black ducks in the distance in the marsh at the south end of Long Reach. You can see the similarity but also the difference in bill shape.  (Submitted by Gina Snyder. June 1, 2022)