Columns

Salt ’n Spar
Looking out into Broad Cove. PHIL DI VECE/Wiscasset Newspaper

Nine years ago, I first told you about Wiscasset’s Eaton Farm Preserve, a part of Chewonki Foundation’s Back River Trail System. Bo, my dog and I returned there recently to see how the network of…

A Bird's Tale
Grosbeak

Author’s Note: This column was written from Jeff’s perspective following a recent work-related trip to Newfoundland. 

Ever since Nanny and Grandfather Chase returned from their one…

The next public supper will be Oct. 16. The menu will consist of borscht (beet soup), salad, German rye bread, knockwurst/bratwurst, German red cabbage (rotkohl) and apples, spaetzle, broccoli and…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #wiscasset newspaper, #penbay pilot, #birds, #maine, #weskeag marsh, #snowy egret, #great blue heron, #great egret

Another gorgeous September weekend day here in Maine and we were drawn to a peninsula that we haven’t visited much in recent years. We headed over to Thomaston and then drove south past the big…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #shorebirds, #Wolfe’s Neck Center, #Freeport, #Maine, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds

It’s a cool, early-September evening on the Maine coast. On the point across the water from where we’re standing, tall white pine trees create a light green curtain against the impossibly blue sky…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison Wells, #maine, #cornell, #archie ammons, #mushrooms

Life forms that live all around us but that we never (or almost never) detect may be kind of freaky to think about. Viruses, bacteria, prions—those microscopic living (or maybe not really living,…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #bird migration, #migration, #birds, #boothbay register, #penbay pilot, #wiscasset newspaper, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #american white pelican

We wrote last week about our luck visiting Wharton Point in Brunswick as the tide turned and shorebirds of various kinds made themselves visible on the expanding mudflats. Well, someone else was…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #birds, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #boothbay register, #black-bellied plover, #wharton point

A few weeks ago, in early August, we were lucky.

Without having glanced at a tide chart, we happened to stop by Wharton Point in Brunswick just as the tide was receding from its high point…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #maine, #bird, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #gray catbird

On cooler, early evenings these August days, we have been out sitting comfortably on our porch, our little black dog happily beside us sniffing the air. We haven’t been using our noses but instead…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #birds, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #maine, #winter wren

On one of the oppressively hot and humid summer days we have been experiencing lately, we had the good fortune to be at the cool, shady camp of brother Andy and sister-in-law Nina on the shore of…

#bird-column, #birds, #cicada, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #maine, #anhinga

Over the weekend we decided to join in the birding fun that we wrote about in last week’s column…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #tropical kingbird, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds

We might be far from the tropics, but the temperature sure has felt downright tropical here in Maine (and across much of the nation) over the last few weeks. Maine and much of the country also got…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #maine, #chimney swifts, #bald eagles

We may have a recent preoccupation with swifts. They seem to have been finding their way into these columns a disproportionate number of times lately as compared to other birds. But we make no…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #chimney swifts, #maine, #birds, #northern cardinal

June in Maine is when the miracle of new life abounds in birds. Most of the birds that breed in Maine—build nests, lay eggs, nurture their young—do so in June. This year, we have been happy to see…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #indigo bunting

There are two birds in particular that are so striking, so tropical-looking, that most people think they’re rare here in Maine.

But they aren’t.

In fact they’re quite widespread…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #least bittern

It may have been an unconscious reaction to last week’s excessive heat, but over the weekend we were drawn to local lakes and marshes to look for birds. It is hard for us to believe, but some of…

A Bird’s Tale

Sister-in-law Nina called, breathless, a few weeks ago. While walking the dogs along a quiet road in Georgetown, she was astonished to find a tiny, newly fledged saw-whet owl sitting on the back…

A Bird’s Tale

We’ve recently had the opportunity to spend some time in the Big Apple, otherwise known as New York City. There’s a lot going on down in that place – people streaming by on sidewalks everywhere.…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #maine, #hog island, #osprey

Imagine a place on the Maine coast where your dinner conversation might range from talking with an Indigenous Guardian about the experience of living and working in a remote First Nation in…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #a bird’s tale, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #willow ptarmigan

There is no doubt that the sight of an all-white, chicken-sized bird with feathered feet walking around on the ground somewhere here on the coast of Maine in spring would make just about anyone…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine, #black tern

Over the weekend, we were out doing some errands in Augusta when it occurred to us that we could easily add one more “errand” into our itinerary.  Only a few minutes farther north from the Augusta…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #perham stream birding trail, #natural resources council of maine, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #maine, #high peaks alliance, #birders

Looking for a new place to go birding? We’ve got just the place for you. It’s called the Perham Stream Birding Trail, and it’s located in Madrid, Maine.

For those who may be a little rusty…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #maine, #pine siskin

A few weeks ago on a fine spring day, we were walking our little black dog around the neighborhood. Walking up the hill on one of our favorite routes, we stopped in our tracks to enjoy the…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #migration, #ruby-crowned kinglet

We’ve been serenaded most mornings this week by a loud, whistled “Old Sam Peabody-Peabody-Peabody”—the sweet sound of a white-throated sparrow tuning up the song that he will soon be singing…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #loggerhead shrike, #rare birds, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #penbay pilot, #birds

Reading the rare bird sightings here in Maine in the past week could make you think you were in the southern U.S.. Summer tanager at a Portland cemetery. Another in the same Cape Elizabeth park…

Community of Hope

Domestic abuse research and reporting often focus on physical violence. But this narrow frame may be misleading. Between 60% and 80% of domestic abuse survivors seeking outside supports (i.e.,…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #birds, #maine, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #bates college, #bowdoin college, #fish crows, #rugby

The early April snowstorm left most surfaces, even a week later, with several inches of snow. But the rugby field on the Bowdoin College campus in Brunswick, where we went to watch our son play on…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #birds, #boothbay register, #total eclipse, #solar eclipse, #jeff and allison wells, #bohemian waxwing, #maine

There is something elemental about a solar eclipse that, for many people, causes an emotional response—a reckoning, perhaps, with the knowledge that we are tiny parts of a vast universe. That a…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #university of iowa, #caitlin clark, #greater yellowlegs

A mellow “tu-tu-tu” echoing across the mudflats at low tide. The smell of salt and fragrant pine and spruce in the air. The spring sun trying valiantly to warm the still nippy morning air.

Where it’s at

I’ve got another shout out for the Boomers out there this week. Cast your memory back to your teen years at the beach with your friends. What do you hear? The rhythmic sound of the ocean waves,…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds, #american goldfinch

What’s your favorite sign of spring? Is it that first crocus pushing up through the last of the melting snow? Maybe it’s the gradually but refreshingly longer days.

For us, one of the most…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #american robin, #robin, #spring

On this morning’s walk around the neighborhood with our little dog, Loki, it was as if spring had soared in overnight. From every single yard, we heard the “pip-pip-pip” calls or the sweet “…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #birds, #maine, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #flocks, #shorebirds

Last week we saw the sleek, black form of our first common grackle of the year sitting by itself in the top of the tall, leafless maple tree across the street from our home. Its harsh “check”…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #evening grosbeak, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #birds, #maine

We were driving on a rural road a few days ago when a flock of 30 or so wild turkeys came ambling slowly across in front of us, stopping traffic in both directions. Suddenly, a male turkey, his…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #economy, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #eastern meadowlark

The economy is in the news every day as the countdown to the presidential election is underway for real. Inflation, interest rates, GDP, stock indices, bond returns – the numbers of ways…

62nd annual Windjammer Days

The 62nd annual Boothbay Harbor Windjammer Days will take place on Sunday, June 23 through Saturday, June 29. This year we will celebrate our local boatbuilders and shipwrights. Please visit…

New Hope Midcoast

Economic abuse can be just as devastating as physical abuse. To deny someone rightful access to money or basic resources is an attack on their fundamental existence. Managing and controlling one’s…

Salt ’n Spar

In January, I received an email from Ryan Gahagan, president of Mason Station Redevelopment Company LLC, based in Portland. His comments were in response to publication of a column I’d written…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #great backyard bird count, #mardis gras, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #american robin

The Birders’ Mardi Gras

The tradition of a February celebration has long been part of human history. A Carnival period, often in July, is a major tradition in many parts of the world, and…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #snow buntings, #maine, #birds

Deciding on which leader to follow is certainly occupying much of the media airspace for us humans in the U.S. at the moment and will be for months to come until the Presidential election.

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay register, #birds, #maine, #Kennebec, #bald eagle

While it’s true that a certain Philadelphia-based football team is on ice after a recent playoff collapse against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the inspiration for this column comes from the real…

Community of Hope

Since it was launched last year, the goal of this column has been to raise awareness about domestic violence and its widespread effects on our communities, schools and workplaces. We hope it has…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #boothbay register, #maine, #seal river watershed, #black scoter

A watershed in the Canadian province of Manitoba almost half the size of the entire state of Maine and  estimated to support more than ten million breeding birds took a significant step closer to…

Meanwhile back in the studio ...

For about four years now I’ve been checking in with artists during the winter months to see what they may be working on. This year, because he’s in Maine and not Texas or New Orleans, I visited…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #boothbay register, #jeff and allison wells, #short-eared owl, #birds, #maine

For more than 15 years we’ve been hoping.

We had said the phrase, “This is the perfect place for a short-eared owl,” so many times that it had become a kind of inside joke.

Birders…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #hepatic tanager, #jeff and allison wells, #birds, #boothbay register, #birds

It was Saturday. Grocery shopping needed to be done. Prescriptions needed filling. The floors needed a vacuuming and the towels needed to be folded and put away.

A major snowstorm was…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #western birds, #Townsend’s warbler, #hepatic tanager, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds, #spotted towhee

Something unusual seems to be happening.

Here in Maine, it started off with the discovery of the western sibling species to our familiar eastern towhee, a spotted towhee, at Fort Foster in…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #Jeff and Allison Wells, #boothbay-register, #birds, #christmas bird count, #murmuration, #carolina wren

The Augusta area Christmas Bird Count took place Saturday, Dec. 16. It was a very mild day for mid-December, another in a series of rather mild days that increasingly have become the new normal as…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #christmas bird count, #jeff and allison wells, #maine, #birds, #boothbay register, #evening grosbeak

Most people find birds beautiful, fascinating, even entrancing. Some recognize only a few that they see in the backyard and neighborhood—chickadees, crows, cardinals, blue jays. These they may…

A Bird’s Tale
#bird-column, #maine’s favorite birds, #jeff and allison wells, #boothbay register, #maine, #birds

We’ve all faced the dilemma: We want to show our love or appreciation for someone through a gift at the holidays but what is something that reflects who they are and what they enjoy in life?…