Most of us are familiar with poison ivy and know to avoid its shiny three leaf plants and vines, but not everyone recognizes even poison ivy and knows the painful itching that can occur from contact with this plant, especially those who have never seen it. We have many visitors from Quebec here, and apparently Read More …

Here in Ogunquit we have a bee, butterfly and bird garden, a gift to the town, on the Marginal Way. The idea is that this garden, planted with sweet fern, butterfly weed and cone flowers among other plants, will attract these insects and birds, a noble plan. However, it’s not clear to me if pesticides Read More …

If you read last week’s blog about Doug Tallamy, that University of Delaware professor who advocates planting native trees and shrubs, you might have realized that there were a few key ideas missing. You might have thought that letting bugs and caterpillars chow down on your shrubs and trees might be going a bit far Read More …

Have you heard of Doug Tallamy?  He’s chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. He’s visiting Maine this summer, lecturing as he moves up the coast, and recently he spoke here about the necessity of planting nativetrees and plants. Why? What’s wrong with planting ornamental plants from Japan Read More …

Ogunquit Beach hosts more of our federally and state protected piping plovers than ever before, a good sign of a healthy beach with few predators.  At best estimate we had 18 adults, 15 chicks and 3 fledglings – chicks with their flying feathers but not ready to fly on our beach.  These are amazing birds, Read More …