Pages

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Best Nature Sites Midcoast Maine

 Here's an interesting tidbit for an icy day...did you know that the hippocampus of a black capped chickadee grows over 30% as winter comes on?

It does, researchers feel it might be so they can better track where they've stored food.  Not sure that applies to humans as well, but there should be some reward for making it through the cold.

Here are a couple more questions:

Which U.S. state is the only state in the lower 48 to have a breeding population of eiders?
(can you guess based on the blog title?)

How did Native Americans use false hellebore to help select the most worthy candidates?

If you enjoy having bits of trivia on hand to add to a conversation, or like exploring a series of ecosystems, Best Nature Sites of MidCoast Maine might be the book for you.  It covers public locations along U.S. Route 1 from Brunswick to Belfast, but it's real strength is in the interesting details it includes about the many flora and fauna found in these locales.

We found this book at MaineSport in Rockport, but it should be at many other locations.  It is also available  online.
Answers to the questions in the comments.

3 comments:

  1. Maine is the only state in the lower 48 with a breeding eider population.
    Lore says Native Americans used false hellebore to test resilience of candidates. The last to vomit was the most worthy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll have to check it out..maybe I'll take a run down to Maine Sport today..thanks for the headsup..

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love the shot of the chickadee. They are one of my favorite birds, especially since they are my winter buddies. I feed them out of my hand when I have time on weekend mornings. I didn't know that their hippocampus grows. That is pretty cool. I do remember reading that they store their food (mostly insect larvae from the summer months) in more than 1,000 different locations and know where to go back and find it. That is pretty amazing, and would certainly take a brain with some power! Thanks for sharing about the book. Very interesting find.

    ReplyDelete