Star-Nosed Mole

Star-nosed mole
(𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒚𝒍𝒖𝒓𝒂 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒂) 
Status: Least Concern (Population stable) 

Photo Credit:  gordonramsaysubmissions/Flickr

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Facts: The star-nosed mole can be found as far north as Quebec and Newfoundland, West to North Dakota and south to Virginia. However, these creatures might be hard to spot. They spend a majority of their lives in tunnels underneath many different ecosystems, including forests, wetlands, marshes, and peatlands. This extensive network can extend 270 m or almost 866 ft! However, while many moles stay within their tunnels, the Star-Nosed Mole can swim, and often their tunnels lead out into a river bed or stream where they can easily enter the water to forage for food.

 Fun Fact: Ever wonder what a mole’s nose is used for? The hairless nose is made up of 22 pink tentacles that are used keep the dirt out of their eyes while tunneling as well as feeling their surroundings during foraging. While foraging, the tentacles move so fast that they touch 12 items per second!  

 Source: https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Condylura_cristata/#16c8232cbbc6789ac9316321a6eaf3a9 

Wood Duck

Wood duck
(𝑨𝒊𝒙 𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒂)
Conservation Status: Least Concern (Population increasing) 

Photo Credit: LandBetweentheLakesKYTN/Creative Commons 

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Facts:  Wood ducks stand out with their boxy, crested head, thin necks and long broad tails. The males have iridescent green and purple heads with a white stripe running from the eye to the end of the crest. The females have a gray–brown head and neck and a brownish, green crest with a white teardrop shaped patch around the eye. They live in forested woodlands, wooded swamps, rivers and ponds, sticking to wet areas within trees or cattails. They feed on aquatic plants and their seeds, fallen seeds from trees, acorns, crustaceans and insects. You will often see wood ducks in small groups of less than 20 individuals, apart from other species of waterfowl. If you do, listen for their calls: the females emit a loud Wooo---eeeek! While the males have a softer jeeeee? Or ter-weeeee? 

Get Involved:  Interested in helping out your local population of wood ducks? You can create a nesting box for woods ducks by checking out these simple instructions:  https://www.audubon.org/news/how-build-wood-duck-nest-box  

Sources: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wood_Duck/overview, https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/wood-duck, https://www.ducks.org/hunting/waterfowl-id/wood-duck 

Beach Plum

Beach plum
(𝑷𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒖𝒔 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒂)
Conservation Status:  Endangered in Maine 

Photo Credit:  USFWS Northeast Region/Creative Commons

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Facts:  Beach plum is normally a low, trailing deciduous shrub, but on rare instances can be tree-like and grow up to 13 feet in height when cultivated in a garden. The oblong leaves are finely toothed and hairy beneath and the flowers are small and have white petals. The sepals have a fine covering of short hairs on the inside surface, unique for native Maine plums. It blooms in mid-May through June. Fruits, which ripen in August and early September, are ½ to ¾ inch wide and range in color from purplish-black to red or yellow.  

In Maine, this plant is known to grow on sandy coastal beaches from southern Maine northeast to the mid-coast area. It’s a rare plant mainly due to suitable habitat being scarce. The Beach plum is considered endangered in Maine and has not recently been seen on many beaches due to commercial and beachfront development, which has reduced the naturally small range of this species in Maine. 

Interesting Fact: Due to the fruit being quite sour, it is most often grown commercially to make jam. Beach plums are much smaller in size when compared to the longer cultivated Asian varieties found in the supermarket.  

Uses: Beach plum is most useful in the secondary stabilization and restoration of coastal sand dunes. On Cape Cod, MA, efforts are being made to develop and promote the commercial fruit production of this native plum. This native shrub is utilized by Maine’s coastal wildlife for shelter and food.

Sources:  https://plants.usda.gov/factsheet/pdf/fs_prma2.pdf, Maine Department of Conservation Natural Areas Program, https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mnap/features/prumar.htm 

Blanding's Turtle

Blanding’s turtle
(𝑬𝒎𝒚𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒂 𝒃𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒊)
Conservation Status: Endangered in Maine

Photo Credit: USFWS/National Digital Library

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Facts: If you live in York or Cumberland County and visit vernal pools in the spring, you may be lucky enough to spot one of these rarely seen Blanding’s turtles feasting on amphibian eggs and larvae, insects, worms and plant material upon emerging from hibernation. It may seem like an overindulgence, but Blanding’s turtles consume the bulk of their annual food requirements in May and June alone! Once full, Blanding’s turtles travel overland between small, acidic wetlands, and sometimes larger marshes and swamps. Typically, in mid-June females move up to 1 mile away from the wetlands to find sandier soils in gardens, pastures and road edges with sun exposure in order to build their nests. Often it is near these roadside nests that we see the highest adult mortality rates for all of Maine’s rare turtles, including Blanding’s, due to car strikes. These roadside nests are also easily spotted by predators and often graded by summer roadwork crews, leading to low survival rates. Roads also create habitat fragmentation, further isolating small groups and putting populations at risk. Blanding’s turtles can live to be more than 75 years of age with female sexual maturity not occurring until 14 to 20 years of age; therefore, the loss of even a few adults in any given year can lead to long-term decline of a pocket population. 

What we can do to help: Encourage your municipality to conserve vernal pools and Blanding’s turtle habitat by limiting building permits that can degrade wetlands (ie. dredging, filling); also, request that your town avoid paving and road widening projects near known turtle habitat during spring and summer months. 

Sources:  https://www.maine.gov/ifw/docs/endangered/blandingsturtle_72_73.pdf, https://www.fws.gov/international/cites/cop16/blandings-turtle.html 

Black Cherry

Black cherry
(𝑷𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒖𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒂) 
Conservation Status: No current status rank in Maine 

Photo Credit: Matthew Beziat/Flickr

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Facts:  Black cherry can be found in floodplains, forests, wetlands and anthropogenic (manmade or disturbed) habitats. They have a snake-like trunk with a look of burnt potato chip bark. The bark of twigs and leaves have a distinctive unpleasant smell when scratched or crushed, as  hydrocyanic acid is released. White 5-petaled flowers are numerous in the end of May/early June. Black cherries produce an abundant amount of seeds, which allow seedlings to establish quickly following disturbances, such as fires and logging. The cherries are an important wildlife food source, especially for songbirds and gamebirds, which provides for long-distance seed dispersal. 

Black cherry is broadly dispersed throughout Maine and is one of our State’s most valuable timber trees, although not abundant in sufficient size, with uses in furniture and cabinet making, interior finishing, woodenware, tools, fence posts, toys, scientific instruments, crafts, veneer and plywood. Here in Maine it is also appreciated as firewood due to its high heat value and pleasant odor. Eastern tent caterpillars and a common fungus known as black knot are common threats to this species in Maine. 

Interesting Facts:  Black cherries are commonly used by people to flavor rum, brandy and wine, and are often referred to as rum cherry. Historically, the inner bark was used as a cough remedy, tonic and sedative. Land owners with grazing livestock need to be cautious, as wilted leaves and other parts of the plant can be poisonous to some ruminants. Interestingly, white-tailed deer can graze the leaves without harm. 

Sources:  https://gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org/species/prunus/serotina/, https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_prse2.pdf, https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/publications/handbooks_guides/forest_trees/pdf/black_cherry.pdf, 359eb1ddd9dd6eadf1e9240575187562-Black Cherry.pdf 

Common Eider

Common Eider
(𝑺𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒂 𝒎𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒎𝒂)
Conservation Status: Least Concern 

Photo credit: Alan Schmierer/Flickr

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Facts: The Common Eider is the largest sea duck in the Northern Hemisphere. They can be found on coastal islands or along ponds and lagoons near the ocean and are often seen floating on top of the water in flocks up to several thousand. They nest on the ground near water and line their nests with vegetation and female downy feathers. They eat primarily aquatic invertebrates, especially mollusks, crustaceans and sea urchins, with the exception of while on their breeding grounds when they will primarily eat insects and some plant material.

Interesting Fact: The Common Eider’s down is famous for its insulation properties, helping keep their eggs warm in the freezing temperatures of the North. In Iceland, the down feathers are commercially harvested on “eider farms,” where nooks are created to encourage wild eiders to nest.

Sources: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Eider/lifehistory, https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/common-eider

Virginia/North American Opossum

Virginia/North American Opossum
(𝑫𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒑𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒗𝒊𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒂)
Conservation Status: Least Concern (Population increasing)

Photo credit: Steve Hillebrande, USFWS

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Facts: The Virginia Opossum are North America’s only marsupial! These omnivorous creatures eat just about anything they can get their paws on. While you might find them eating plants, insects and even dead animals, one of their favorite snacks are ticks! Consuming roughly 5,000 ticks every season, these animals help protect us from these disease-carrying arachnids.

Fun fact: Have you ever seen an opossum playing dead? This is a reaction to stress and fear! When exposed to extreme fear, a comatose, or frozen, response is triggered that can last anywhere from 40 minutes to 4 hours! Its body becomes limp, the feet curl underneath the body, and it looks and even smells likes it’s dead! You can poke it, turn it over and even pick it up and it won’t wake up; but don’t, as these animals are still alive!

Sources: https://nhpbs.org/natureworks/opossum.htm, https://vetmed.illinois.edu/.../06/05/the-helpful-opossum-2/, https://citywildlife.org/the-truth-about-opossums/