WOODS & WATERS
Get to Know Your
NEIGHBORS
Some of the springtime neighbors you might meet if you look closely: a mink and a sora rail.
MAY IS A GOOD TIME TO LOOK BY BOB DUCHESNE
MAY IS A GOOD MONTH to meet the neighbors. That is, if your neighbors live in a swamp. Maine is wet. Don’t believe it? Go camping for a week. All that water creates a variety of wetlands, each teeming with wildlife that mostly goes unseen. Beavers, muskrats, minks and otters make a home among the fish. A multitude of birds dwell in marshes. Wetlands are breeding pits for amphibians and insects. Wetlands come in all shapes and sizes, from Moosehead Lake down to the smallest vernal pool. Vernal pools are small, forested wetlands that dry up in summer. Although vernal pools are typically smaller than one acre, so much life springs forth from them that scientists estimate the total biomass of critters emerging each spring exceeds the mass of all mammals and birds living in the surrounding area. Some animals could not exist without them. Spotted salamanders and blue-spotted salamanders lay their eggs in vernal pools. Wood frogs can fill a pool with eggs. Maine’s rarer species, such as Blanding’s turtles and ribbon snakes, require vernal pools as part of their lifecycles. After breeding, a multitude of critters walk, crawl or slither out of the pools and spread out across the land. Most are silent, so you might not be aware you have these neighbors. May is a good time to look. Marshes are especially fun this time of year. Although they may be hiding in the reeds, these neighbors are anything but quiet. A chorus of spring peepers can be so loud, it’s audible from a halfmile away. Multiple species of frogs are present, all of them vocal. Bullfrogs, green frogs, leopard frogs and pickerel frogs may be your neighbors. Frogs are stealthy, and have interesting survival strategies.
MAY IS A GOOD TIME TO SEARCH THE WETLANDS NEAR YOU AND MEET THE NEIGHBORS.
