2bnMaine

Every winter storm brings new life to some of Maine’s most appealing creatures.

This very charming species was spotted in Castine after the ‘Route One Blizzard’ of early 2010.

Here they are observed in their native habitat.

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It’s been a turkey of a year for lobstermen still struggling with the current market and various economic pressures, eventually resulting in scarey stories of shootings this summer.

The lobster story continues as Linda Bean, the L.L. Bean heiress, initiates her new Linda Bean’s Perfect Maine (Lobster) Company. Concerned about the plight of the local lobstermen, she’s invested millions into the company, with plans to open 100 franchises, nationwide, of her version of the lobster shack.

So this year, once again, give thanks to your local lobsterman by treating yourself to the luxury of a lobster dinner!

(A similar post ran last year and it’s still unforutnately appropriate this year. Don’t want to run it next!)

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Spiders hopefully won’t be found in the lines at Market Basket, Chases Daily, or Farm Fare, but they have a fantastic alternative.

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The quirky, and pretty, elver nets are back on the Union River that flows through Ellsworth. They’re quite puzzling if you don’t know what they are. Here’s last year’s post about fishing for elvers. Elvers are young eels.

And here are some really amazing American Eel facts:

1. The American Eel, Anguilla Rostrata, is considered to have the broadest diversity of habitats of any fish in the world.
2. It has survived at least one ice age.
3. The eggs are laid, and they hatch, in the Saragasso Sea — two-million-square-miles of warm water in the North Atlantic between the West Indies and the Azores.
4. The tiny transparent larvae follow the ocean currents and salinity in the water for about a year to arrive at various destinations. Some remain in the ocean, some go far up fresh water streams and others remain in estuaries. This is called facultative catadromy – meaning taking place under some conditions but not under others, or optional.
5. In the next phase they’re called glass eels because they’re still transparent but have developed their adult shape.
6. Their sex is eventually determined by the density of the population — more eels = more males, less eels = more females.
7. They can cover their bodies with mucus — ’slippery as eels.’
8. They reach sexual maturity at various times between 3 and 40 years!
9. They can move equally well forward and backward.
10. Some females can get to 5 feet, most males reach 3 feet.
11. They can breath through their skin and their gills, so they can travel on land.
12. They are carnivores and eat fish, frogs, insects, clams, etc. and any dead animal matter.

Here is more info from The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

The nets will remain in Ellsworth until the end of the month. So if you want to see them, you’d better hurry. You can also visit the wonderful Rooster Brother at the same time, and harvest some of their fantastic freshly roasted coffees.

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Time for the snowbirds to return. And the ladybugs too. That is, if you think they actually live outside.

Unlike the various native ladybugs, who hunker down outdoors, the Asian Ladybug, Harmonia axyridis, often makes itself comfortable in Maine homes, where they prefer to spend the winter.

They enter through those unsealed, unseen, cracks. Which means that if you have ladybugs in your house, heat is probably leaving the same way.

Ladybugs don’t like your heated rooms, but seek the cooler spots in the house where they can lower their metabolism and hibernate. If they get too warm they die. And when they die, you sweep.

In spring they awake, and hopefully find their way out of those unsealed cracks, to get on with their jobs —  devouring nasty aphids. Which is a nice way to pay us the rent they owe.

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