The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens # 3

The Slater Forest Pond

Pond Lilies

Pond Lilies

Sculpture on Loan

Peaceful Respite

Go to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens #4

The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens # 2

     For the past three or four years my wife and I have taken an annual ride to Boothbay and the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.  Each time we visit, depending on the season, we have a totally different experience.  The people there have done a fantastic job creating ever changing gardens that will please even the fussiest visitor.  The beauty there during virtually any season is completely overwhelming.  That is why I have chosen to taken the time to dedicate a series of posts demonstrating just that point.  Please keep in mind that I am sharing just a very small sample of what one might see while visiting this very special destination.  Please enjoy my second post!
 

Lerner Garden of the Five Senses

     In June of 2009 the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses opened. This exquisite garden of about an acre adjacent to the Visitor Center allows all visitors to get in touch with their five major senses. It includes many features that make its delights accessible to the disabled.  

Go to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens #3

The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens #1

     For the past three or four years my wife and I have taken an annual ride to Boothbay and the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens.  Each time we visit, depending on the season, we have a totally different experience.  The people there have done a fantastic job creating ever changing gardens that will please even the fussiest visitor.  The beauty there during virtually any season is completely overwhelming.  That is why I have chosen to taken the time to dedicate a series of posts demonstrating just that point.  Please keep in mind that I am sharing just a very small sample of what one might see while visiting this very special destination.  Please enjoy!

    After 16 years of planning, planting and building, we celebrated the Grand Opening of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens on June 13, 2007.  Since then, the Gardens has become one of Maine’s top attractions and one of the most distinguished botanical destinations in the country. Its exquisite gardens, dramatic and compelling natural landscape, stunning Visitor Center, and waterfront make it unique, charming and totally captivating! The Gardens presents limitless potential to inspire learning about natural history, habitats, botany, horticulture and ecological connections.
     This magnificent and ambitious project began when a group of mid-coast Maine residents who shared the belief that northern New England in general, and Maine in particular, were in need of a botanical garden, founded the grassroots organization in 1991.
     In 1996, after a thorough search for an appropriate site, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens purchased 128 acres of pristine land with 3,600 feet of tidal shore frontage in Boothbay. This was possible due to the unhesitating willingness of some Directors to use their own homes as collateral. With steadfast commitment to the organization’s vision, these members and hundreds of volunteers established a foundation of insightful planning, which helped to make Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens a jewel of rare quality among North American gardens.

Visitors Center

    The enormous scope of the plan included designs from Maine landscape architects, as well as firms of international renown. Bruce John Riddell, ASLA, an exceptional landscape architect from Bar Harbor, Maine, was part of the design team for the Rhododendron Garden, and also designed the waterfront Vayo Meditation Garden, which features a carved stone basin and granite from throughout the state. He created initial planting plans for the Central Gardens and designed the Haney Hillside Garden with its one-of-a-kind landings and stone benches. Significant renovations to this garden to respond to changing light and drainage conditions began in late summer of 2010.

Visitors Center

     Maureen Heffernan joined the small-but-growing staff as executive director in early 2004. She contacted Herb Schaal, FASLA, a widely acclaimed landscape architect who is associated with Aecon in Colorado, and with whom she had collaborated on a previous project. He was then hired to complete the final landscape master plan for the Central Gardens. Terrence J. DeWan Associates of Yarmouth, Maine, also provided design services. Jorgensen Landscaping of Bath, Maine, built the Central Gardens.  Concurrently, Quinn Evans Architects of Washington, D.C., designed the elegant Maine Cottage-style Visitor Center which officially opened in the spring of 2007.

Rose Arbor

     In 2005, the Gardens received an incredible gift of an additional 120 acres from the Pine Tree Conservation Society.  As a result of this generous gift of land adjacent to the original 128 acres, the Gardens now comprises 248 acres, which makes it the largest botanical garden in New England. The property boasts nearly a mile of tidal salt water frontage. It is also one of a very few waterfront botanical gardens in the United States. Detailed planning for the new land will begin after the main campus is completed.
     In June of 2009, we opened the Lerner Garden of the Five Senses. This exquisite garden of about an acre adjacent to the Visitor Center allows all visitors to get in touch with their five major senses. It includes many features that make its delights accessible to the disabled.

Rose Arbor

      In July of 2010, the Bibby and Harold Alfond Children’s Garden opened.  With themes derived from beloved children’s literature by authors with a Maine connection, this garden appeals to the imagination of youngsters and their grown-ups. It offers endless exciting opportunities to learn about and interact with nature.
     The grand opening for the Bosarge Family Education Center – a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum, net-zero-energy structure and the greenest building in Maine –was on July 15, 2011. This building’s flexible plan allows for many different types and sizes of educational activities, as well as for office space for education and administrative staff. The landscaping for this building is not only beautiful, but offers valuable lessons in ecologically sound planting.

Go to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens #2

The American Kestrel

     North America’s littlest falcon, the American Kestrel packs a predator’s fierce intensity into its small body. It's one of the most colorful of all raptors: the male’s slate-blue head and wings contrast elegantly with his rusty-red back and tail; the female has the same warm reddish on her wings, back, and tail. Hunting for insects and other small prey in open territory, kestrels perch on wires or poles, or hover facing into the wind, flapping and adjusting their long tails to stay in place. Kestrels are declining in parts of their range; you can help them by putting up nest boxes.

      The slender American Kestrel is roughly the size and shape of a Mourning Dove, although it has a larger head; longer, narrow wings; and long, square-tipped tail. In flight, the wings are often bent and the wingtips swept back.
    American Kestrels are pale when seen from below and warm, rusty brown spotted with black above, with a black band near the tip of the tail. Males have slate-blue wings; females’ wings are reddish brown. Both sexes have pairs of black vertical slashes on the sides of their pale faces—sometimes called a “mustache” and a “sideburn."
     American Kestrels occupy habitats ranging from deserts and grasslands to alpine meadows. You’re most likely to see them perching on telephone wires along roadsides, in open country with short vegetation and few trees.

Kestrel Video

The Great Horned Owl

     The great horned owl is the second raptor (bird of prey) that we are visiting. In the archives one can find photos and information on the Bald Eagle, the largest of the raptors that we checked out some time ago. The male is smaller than the female and has a much lower-pitched call.  They have a body that ranges from 18 to 25 inches with a wing span of 3.3 to 4.8 feet and they weigh from 2'to 5.5 pounds.  Their average life span in the wild is anywhere from 5 to 15 years.
     The great horned owl is the most common owl of the Americas, easily recognizable because of the feather tufts on its head. These "plumicorns" resemble horns or, to some, catlike ears.
     They have horizontal breast barring with gray to brown, mottled bodies.  Their face has a dark outline with a lighter brown center and sometimes a white bib under the chin.  They have sharp, black talons and beaks.
     They have large, round gold eyes.  Like all owls, their large eyes cannot move.  To look up, down or to the side the owls must move their entire heads and are able to turn their necks 180 degrees.
     Great horned owls are adaptable birds and live from the Arctic to South America. They are at home in suburbia as well as in woods and farmlands. Northern populations migrate in winter, but most live permanently in more temperate climes.
     These birds nest in tree holes, stumps, caves, or in the abandoned nests of other large birds. Monogamous pairs have one to five eggs (two is typical), both the male and female incubate, and the male also hunts for food. Owls are powerful birds and fiercely protective parents. They have even been known to attack humans who wander too close to their young.

     Like other owls, these birds have an incredible digestive system. They sometimes swallow their prey whole and later regurgitate pellets composed of bone, fur, and the other unwanted parts of their meal. Owls are efficient nighttime hunters that strike from above, and use their powerful talons to kill and carry animals several times heavier than themselves. Owls prey on a huge variety of creatures, including raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, domestic birds, falcons, and other owls. They regularly eat skunks, and may be the only animal with such an appetite. Thismis because they have no sense of smell.  As a result their nests have been known to reek.  They sometimes hunt for smaller game by standing or walking along the ground. Owls have even been known to prey upon unlucky cats and dogs.
     Great horned owls are largely nocturnal so they can be difficult to spot. But in the dark after sunset, or just before dawn, they can often be heard vocalizing with their well known series of five syllable "Hoo Hoo, Hoo Hoo Hoo's".

Great Horned Owl Video

The Red-Tailed Hawk

     My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Oregon to visit our daughter and her family.  While there we visited the Gorge Discovery Center where we attended a presentation by a naturalist on raptors. It was so good I thought I would share some of the photos I took as well as information on these interesting birds of prey.  I sincerely hope you enjoy my findings that I will present in three separate posts.

     Red-tailed Hawks are large, stocky birds. They are brown with a white breast and a rust-colored tail. If you can get close enough, the tail is the best way to identify them. Young Red-tailed Hawks are more dull in color, have more streaks, and are missing the red in their tails.
     This raptor (bird of prey) grows up to 25 inches long and can weigh up to four pounds (heavy for a bird; remember, they have hollow bones!).  It's wingspan can reach four feet.
     Red-tailed Hawks live in forests near open country. Nests are usually built near the edge of a stream, lake, or field.
     Red-tailed Hawks are most often seen soaring high above the ground, looking for food. They are very difficult to identify unless they come closer to the earth.
     This hawk soars very high in the sky, hunting for food. They have excellent eyesight which is much sharper than a human's. A Red-tailed Hawk can spot a mouse from a height of 100 feet.
     These hawks also hunt from perches, usually alongside a field. Most of their prey are small mammals, including: mice, voles, shrews, moles, squirrels, chipmunks, rats, rabbits, opossums, muskrats, cats, skunks, and bats.
     Although they eat mostly mammals, there is a great variety of other animals Red-tailed Hawks will prey upon, including: snakes, turtles, frogs, lizards, salamanders, toads, ducks, bobwhite, crows, woodpeckers, starlings, doves, Red-winged Blackbirds, kingfishers, robins, owls, other birds, crayfish, centipedes, spiders, grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, earthworms, and fish.

Red-Tailed Hawk vs Rattle Snake Video

     Red-tailed Hawks will also eat roadkill and other carrion (previously dead, but fairly fresh animals).

     Red-tailed Hawks mate in the Spring. They perform a sort of courtship "dance" where the male and female dive and roll in the sky. They will even lock talons (sharp toes) and fall together awhile before splitting apart. Both the male and female build the nest. They usually choose a very tall tree, such as an oak or pine, or a rock ledge.
Nests are built with sticks and lined with twigs, bark shreds, pine needles, and green plant material. The female hawk lays two or three white eggs with brown spots.
     While the female warms the eggs (for up to a month), the male hunts and feeds her.  Young hawks stay in the nest for approximately one and a half months.
     Once they leave the nest, the youngsters hop around a lot on the ground, looking for small prey such as insects and spiders. When they have perfected flying, they will begin to hunt larger prey from the air.
     Predators of Red-tailed Hawks include Raccoons, Great Horned Owls, and Red Fox. Red-tailed Hawks can live up to 15 years in the wild.

     These hawks swallow smaller prey whole. Birds are beheaded, then eaten. Larger prey are killed with talons, and then pulled into pieces with the hawk's sharp, hooked beak.
     Red-tailed Hawks will steal from other raptors, such as eagles, owls, or other hawks.
Mated Red-tailed Hawks will sometimes work together while hunting. An example might be chasing a squirrel around a tree until one of the hawks can catch it.
     Red-tailed Hawks throw up pellets. When they swallow prey whole, they regurgitate (throw up) small balls of hair, feathers, and bone.
     Red-tailed Hawks are very territorial. They will chase other Red-tailed Hawks and birds larger than them that get too close.

Baby Hats

     My wife has been making baby hats (fruit & vegetables) in new born,six months, and one year old sizes.  She has been selling them for $20.00 each.  If you know anybody who might be interested have them e-mail her at, sshaw1942@roadrunner.com or call her at (207) 236-2039.

Tomato

Apple

Strawberry

Eggplant

Blueberry

Pumpkin

Watermelon

The North American Moose

     When I was studying for my Maine Guides license, I attended a lecture by a gnarly old Master Maine Guide.  He was speaking on the animals one would find in the Maine woods.  After covering in detail just about every animal imaginable, he concluded by saying that, "when God had made all of the animals, he had just odds and ends left for parts with no brains; with that he made the moose".

North American Bull Moose

     The North American Moose is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males. Moose typically inhabit boreal and mixed deciduous forests in temperate to subarctic climates. Moose used to have a much wider range but hunting and other human activities greatly reduced it over the years. Moose have been re-introduced to some of their former habitats. Their diet consists of both terrestrial and aquatic vegetation. The most common moose predators are wolves, bears, and humans. Unlike most other deer species, moose are solitary animals and do not form herds. Although generally slow-moving and sedentary, moose can become aggressive and move surprisingly fast if angered or startled. Their mating season in the autumn can lead to spectacular fights between males competing for the right to mate with a particular female.

North American Cow Moose

     In Northeastern North America, the Eastern moose's history is very well documented: moose meat was often a staple in the diet of Native Americans going back centuries and it is a tribe that occupied present day coastal Rhode Island that gave this deer its distinctive name in American English. The Native Americans often used moose hides for leather and its meat as an ingredient in pemmican, a type of dried jerky used as a source of sustenance in winter or on long journeys from home.[12] Eastern tribes also valued moose leather as a source to make moccasins and other decorations.

North American Bull Moose Video

The Cape Elizabeth (Two Lights) Lighthouse

Cape Elizabeth (Two Lights) Lighthouse Video

     "The Two Lights of Cape Elizabeth stand up at the end of a long and narrow granite ridge raised fifty or sixty feet above the low ground around it. ...The outlook opened to us here, whether of sea or shore, of windy cape or tumbling surf, is uncommonly fine, if only one could get rid of the train of ideas that these roaring reefs on one hand, and the life-saving station on the other ...so infallibly suggest. Even in the season of calm seas and serene skies these gray little cabins by the sea constantly remind us of lurking dangers..."

        -- Samuel Adams Drake, The Pine Tree Coast, 1891.

The West Inactive Lighthouse

The East Active Lighthouse

     When the English explorer Captain John Smith sailed along the coast of New England in 1614, he named a prominent cape in what is now southern Maine after Princess Elizabeth, sister of Charles I. Two-hundred-acre Richmond Island, a short distance off Cape Elizabeth to the south, was the site of the earliest European settlement in this part of Maine, beginning in 1628. The settlement that later developed on the cape was, for many years, part of the town of Falmouth.
     Cape Elizabeth was incorporated as a separate town in 1765. In 1895, the northern half of the town was incorporated as South Portland. It was the development of Portland Harbor, along the north side of the cape on the Fore River, that led to the need for better aids to navigation in the vicinity. The harbor rebounded after the Revolution to become the most important seaport in the state.
     The approach to Portland Harbor from the south was treacherous, and as maritime trade increased, so did shipwrecks. One of the most heart-rending near Cape Elizabeth was the July 12, 1807, wreck of the schooner Charles, which was dashed to pieces on a reef in fog and heavy seas. At least 16 men and women died in the disaster.
     A 50-foot stone black and white pyramidal stone day beacon was erected in 1811 on a rocky promontory at the southeastern point of Cape Elizabeth, at the southwestern limit of Casco Bay and about five miles southeast of Portland Harbor.
     A sum of $4,500 was appropriated for a light station at Cape Elizabeth in February 1828. It was determined that the station would have two lights, one fixed and one revolving, to differentiate it from Wood Island Light (revolving) to the south, and from Portland Head Light (fixed) to the north. The stone marker was torn down to make way for the first pair of Cape Elizabeth lighthouses, built for $4,250. The east light was built on the former site of the marker, and the inner or west light was built directly to the west, 895 feet away.
     Both 65-foot towers (to the tops of the lanterns) were octagonal and built of rubblestone, with octagonal wrought-iron lanterns. The east tower had 15 a fixed white light 129 feet above mean high water. The west tower had an apparatus that revolved to produce a flashing light, 132 feet above mean high water.

     The lights were in service by the end of October 1828. They were considered among the most important on the coast; mariners approaching Portland Harbor would line them up to know they were on course (similar to the Kennebec River Range Lights only much larger).

    In his 1843 report to Congress, the civil engineer I. W. P. Lewis was very critical of the construction of the towers. Lewis also reported additionally that the fog bell could not be heard above the roar of the surf.  George Fickett, keeper since 1841, complained that the great distance between the two towers made his work arduous, especially when snow filled the valley between them.
     Hiram Staples followed Fickett as keeper in 1844. During his tenure in 1847, it was recorded that the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who lived in Portland, visited the station and climbed the west tower.
     In 1853, J. B. Coyle of the Portland Steam Packet Company complained that the fog bell was “entirely too small for one occupying so important position.” At a cost of $2,500, a larger bell and new striking machinery were installed in the following year. By the end of 1854, the towers got new cast-iron stairways, and both were lined with brick. Fresnel lenses were installed in the towers around the same time, replacing the old multiple lamps and reflectors.
     In the summer of 1855, it was announced that the west light was to be discontinued, and the characteristic of the east light would be changed to occulting. Despite protests, the change went into effect on August 1, 1855. Under this arrangement, the single revolving light was often hard to distinguish from Wood Island Light to the south.
     On April 1, 1856, the two lights were returned to their former condition, and the light at Wood Island was changed from white to red to eliminate any chance of confusion.
     During the Civil War, Asbury Staples, the assistant keeper in charge of the west light, enlisted in the Second Maine Battery Light Artillery. His father, Michael Staples, who was also an assistant keeper, requested that his other children be officially appointed as assistants. His teenaged daughter Amelia and her younger brother, Charles, became responsible for keeping the light and related equipment.
     Amelia and Charles assisted in the grim task of draping the towers in black at the news of President Lincoln’s assassination.

    The lights were repainted in 1865 in an effort to make them easier to recognize in daylight. The west tower received one large vertical red stripe, while the east tower was painted with four horizontal red bands.

The Signal Building with Modern Fog Horn in Front

       A steam fog whistle with a powerful eight-second blast was installed in 1869, with a new building to house the equipment.  A larger brick fog signal building, 32 by 32 feet, was constructed in 1886.











     In 1872, the Lighthouse Board announced that the two tower had deteriorated to the point that they had to be rebuilt. A pair of identical 67-foot cast-iron towers replaced the original towers in 1874, after a congressional appropriation of $30,000. The cast-iron segments of the towers were manufactured at the Portland Machine Works.  The lighthouses were given delicate Italianate architectural detailing and a new wood-frame, one-and-one-half-story dwelling was built for the principal keeper near the east tower in 1878.

     The west light was discontinued again in 1882; again it was relighted after complaints that the remaining light was too easily confused with Wood Island Light to the south. The towers were painted brown during two separate periods; they have been white since 1902.

     Marcus Aurelius Hanna, a Medal of Honor winner in the Civil War, was keeper in 1885 during one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the light station. On the night of January 28, Hanna was suffering from a bad cold. A storm hit and increased in severity as the night progressed.
     Hanna sounded the steam fog whistle all night despite being ill and exhausted. Assistant Keeper Hiram Staples relieved Hanna at 6:00 a.m. The blizzard was by then "one of the coldest and most violent storms of snow, wind and vapor... that I ever witnessed," Hanna later said. The keeper had to crawl through enormous snowdrifts back to the house.
     Hanna was soon asleep. His wife extinguished the lights in both towers after sunrise. Then, at 8:40 a.m., Mrs. Hanna looked out toward the ocean and saw a schooner aground on Dyer's Ledge near the fog signal building. The vessel was the Australia out of Boothbay. The schooner had been headed for Boston with a cargo of ice from the Kennebec River in the hold and 150 barrels of mackerel on deck. The captain had already been swept away by the waves; only two crew members remained alive. The men had climbed to the rigging and were practically frozen alive in the bitter cold.
     The keeper's wife shouted to her husband, "There is a vessel ashore near the fog signal!" Hanna rushed to the signal house. Amazingly, Assistant Keeper Staples hadn't seen the wreck through the thick snow. Hanna and Staples hurried to the edge of the water near the schooner.
     The keeper said later, "I felt a terrible responsibility thrust upon me, and I resolved to attempt the rescue at any hazard." Hanna tried a number of times to throw a line to the vessel but failed. Feeling the situation was hopeless, Staples returned to the fog signal building. Meanwhile, Hanna's wife alerted neighbors.
     Hanna, practically frozen by this time, waded waist-deep into the ocean and again threw a line to the schooner, this time hitting his target. Crewman Irving Pierce managed to pull himself from the rigging and tied the line around himself. Hanna somehow pulled the helpless man through the waves and over the rocks to the shore. According to Hanna, "Pierce's jaws were set; he was totally blind from exposure to the cold, and the expression of his face I shall not soon forget.
     After several tries, Hanna landed the line on the Australia again. The other crewman, William Kellar, tied the rope around himself. Hanna's strength was giving out and he faltered as he tried to pull the man to safety. Just then, Assistant Keeper Staples and two neighbors arrived. The four men hauled Kellar to the shore, then carried the two sailors to the fog signal building. The men were given dry clothes and, once they had thawed enough, hot food and drink. After two days they had recovered enough to be taken to Portland by sled.
     Six months later, Marcus Hanna received a gold lifesaving medal for "heroism involving great peril to his life," after what has to rank as one of the greatest lifesaving feats at an American lighthouse. In August 1997, the Coast Guard launched a new $12.5 million 175-foot buoy tender named the Marcus Hanna. A replica of Hanna's lifesaving medal is mounted on board. The cutter's home port is South Portland, Maine.

    In 1924, the government decided to change all twin light stations to single lights. The west light was extinguished for good.
     On December 20, 1925, the east light was electrified and increased to 500,000 candlepower, which at the time made it the second most powerful light in New England (after Highland Light on Cape Cod).
     Another famous wreck near Two Lights was the coal collier Oakey L. Alexander in 1947. The vessel broke in two eight miles from Cape Elizabeth in a March gale. The stern half, with 32 crew members aboard, drifted onto the rocks near the lighthouse station.
     Earle Drinkwater and his crew at the nearby Cape Elizabeth Lifeboat Station, with help from other Coast Guardsmen and local fishermen, rescued the entire crew by breeches buoy. The wrecked Alexander remained just offshore at Cape Elizabeth for years and was viewed by countless sightseers.
     Cape Elizabeth Light was immortalized in a few of Edward Hopper's paintings in the 1920s, one of which was reproduced on a 1970 postage stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of Maine's statehood.
     The light was automated in 1963, and the 1,800-pound second order Fresnel lens was removed in 1994.

Scuba Divers in Cove at East Light

     Local residents lobbied for the preservation and display of the lens. It was the last lens floating on a mercury bath in use in New England. The lens is now on display at Cape Elizabeth Town Hall and is insured for up to $500,000.
     Cape Elizabeth Light, one of the most handsome cast-iron lighthouses in New England, remains an active aid to navigation, and the optic and related equipment are still maintained by the Coast Guard. The grounds immediately around the lighthouse are not open to the public.

    Directions:  From Portland / South Portland, take RT77 to Cape Elizabeth.  Continue about four miles, then bear left onto Two Lights Road )Two Lights State Park is to the right).  Continue for about 1.5 miles, turning left at Two Lights Terrace; the active light and keeper’s house (private property) are on a knoll at the end of the road.  The inactive tower is to the left shortly after turning onto Two Lights Terrace.  The active lighthouse also may be photographed from a park area at the end of Two Lights Road.  It should be noted that neither light can be seen from Two Lights State Park.  Morning light is best for photography.

Return to Maine Lighthouses Index

Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse

     Spring Point Ledge is a dangerous obstruction on the west side of the main shipping channel from the south into Portland Harbor. Many vessels ran aground on the ledge before requests from seven steamship companies in 1891 convinced the federal government to build a lighthouse. The steamship companies had carried more than 500,000 passengers through the area during the previous year.
     Spring Point Ledge Light is a fairly typical "sparkplug" style lighthouse of the period, built on a cylindrical cast-iron caisson. Unlike many of this type, however, the tower is built of brick rather than cast-iron.

     It was first lighted May 24, 1897 by Keeper William A. Lane. The 54-foot lighthouse has a storeroom and cistern in the basement, topped by four levels including a keeper's office and two levels of living .  It is one of the only Maine lighthouses where the keepers lived in the actual light tower.




      An oil room in the basement contained a 239-gallon tank for the kerosene that fueled the light in its early days, until it was electrified in 1934.  A fog bell hung on the side of the tower, which sounded a double blow every 12 seconds.
     Spring Point Ledge Light was a "stag station," with a male keeper and assistant keeper living inside the tower. Keepers had to be creative in their means of exercise. Somebody figured that it took 56 jogs around the tower's main deck to make one mile. Once, a keeper was running laps in this fashion and forgot to close a trap door. He slipped through the opening and only a ladder prevented him from falling 17 feet to a rock ledge and swirling waves.
     In its early years, the lighthouse's foundation was battered and damaged by ice. Granite blocks were piled around the foundation to protect it, and there have been no further problems.

     Daniel J. Doyle was keeper from 1915 to 1918. He occupied his spare time by playing cribbage and building ship models. Keeper Doyle had a family living in Portland. His schedule called for him to come ashore after two weeks at the lighthouse, but stormy weather sometimes prevented him from leaving the station for up to two months at a stretch.

     One of the light's best known keepers was Augustus Aaron "Gus" Wilson, a native of Tremont, Maine. He gained wide fame as one of New England’s most accomplished carvers of wooden bird decoys. He carved a variety of ducks, shore birds, seagulls, and songbirds; it’s been estimated that his total production was in excess of 5,000 carvings. “Gus whittled every spare moment,” said Fred Anderson, a local man who spent much time with the keeper.
Wilson carved duck decoys by the hundreds and sold them to a store in Portland for 75 cents each. He was renowned for his carving skill and imagination, and his work became highly collectible. One of Wilson’s decoys fetched $195,500 at a 2005 auction. His work has been displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont.  A display in the lighthouse tells the story of Gus Wilson and his decoys.

     In 1951, a 900-foot breakwater was constructed with 50,000 tons of granite, joining the lighthouse to the mainland.

     Directions:  Spring Point Ledge Light is easily reached by land, and tour boats and ferries leaving Portland pass the lighthouse. The campus of Southern Maine Community College adjoins the property.  From ME 77 in Portland, turn east onto Broadway and continue to Pickett Street.  Turn right onto Pickett Street and follow it to the end.  Turn left onto Fort Road which ends at Fort Preble (now Southern Maine Technical College) and a parking area.  The light and breakwater are immediately ahead just to the right.

Go to Casco Bay Lighthouses Revisited

Go to Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse - August 2013 Post

Return to Maine Lighthouses Index 

The Black Squirrel

     The black squirrel is a melanistic subgroup of the eastern grey squirrel. As a melanistic variety of the Grey Squirrel, individual black squirrels can exist wherever Gray Squirrels live. The black subgroup is particularly abundant in the northern part of the Eastern Grey's range. This may be due to the significantly increased cold tolerance of black individuals. Large natural populations of black squirrels can be found throughout Ontario, and in several parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. Populations of grey squirrels in which the black subgroup is dominant can be found in these four areas as well as in smaller enclaves in New Jersey, Illinois, and Connecticut.

     I snapped this shot outside The Butterfly Conservatory in Niagaga Falls, Ontario.  Has anyone ever seen one in Maine?

The Whitetail Deer

Buck & Doe in My Back Yard

     White-tailed deer, the smallest members of the North American deer family, are found from southern Canada to South America. In the heat of summer they typically inhabit fields and meadows using clumps of broad-leaved and coniferous forests for shade. During the winter they generally keep to forests, preferring coniferous stands that provide shelter from the harsh elements.

     Adult white-tails have reddish-brown coats in summer which fade to a duller grayish-brown in winter. Male deer, called bucks, are easily recognizable in the summer and fall by their prominent set of antlers, which are grown annually and fall off in the winter. Only the bucks grow antlers, which bear a number of tines, or sharp points. During the mating season, also called the rut, bucks fight over territory by using their antlers in sparring matches.
Female deer, called does, give birth to one to three young at a time, usually in May or June and after a gestation period of seven months. Young deer, called fawns, wear a reddish-brown coat with white spots that helps them blend in with the forest.

Albino From A Distance (Very Rare Sighting)

      Occurring approximately once in every 30, 000 births, it is indeed a visual gift that few are privileged to receive.

     Albinism is a condition that exhibits a total lack of melanin pigmentation in the body.  It is a rare condition, but one that affects all vertebrate creatures.  It is always an inherited condition; one that involves recessive genes passed to an individual most commonly by both parents but, in uncommon instances, from only one parent.  When it does occur, it is displayed in humans and animals alike with extremely pale skin, hair and eye coloring.  In humans, the eyes are usually the palest of blue.  The eyes of animals, such as an albino deer, may appear red because there is insufficient color to block the visibility of blood vessels lying behind the eyes.

The Endless Summer Flower Farm V

     This is my fifth and final post on the Endless Summer Flower Farm.  I would like to sincerely thank Phil and Karen Clark for allowing me to tramp through their gardens, camera and tripod in hand.  If you want any information at about dahlias, please visit their web site at, "Endless Summer Flower Farm".  I hope you have enjoyed this sharing of my visit there.  If you would like to visit the gardens yourself, it is on East Fork Road in Camden, Maine.  Please keep in mind, the 47 dahlia blossom photos I have included is but a sample of what they actually have.  If you are ever in the area, it would be well worth a visit.

Once again, thank you for your support!