Yes, elections have consequences. One of the places Camden finds itself as a result of the June election is at the start of a new path, one of possibilities not imagined by the last town administrators. Instead of splitting ourselves apart over issues, suffering from a lack of leadership, unable to imagine the town we’d like to inhabit a year, or three or five years from now, we now get to set forth in an exciting new direction.

Now is the time to put grievances behind us. Last spring, candidates for Camden’s Select Board spoke about the need for town unity, suggesting community-based events

Terns eat fish. We all know that (don’t we?). Many’s the time we have watched these graceful, long-winged birds hovering over the ocean surface before plunging down into the water headfirst or with a dramatic swoop to snatch up a manageable fish.

But wait.

Surprise, surprise—not all terns specialize in fish (and even those that sometimes eat things other than fish).

The Maine birding world has been abuzz this past week by the appearance of a tern species that is famous for eating things other than fish. A gull-billed tern appeared at Popham Beach a few weeks ago and has since been spending

Elections have consequences.

That phrase is often treated as political, depending on who says it and who hears it, but the statement itself is true.  Elections change leadership.  They change priorities.  They change the tone of a community.

Camden has just come through its June Town Meeting and now has a new Select Board, with a new Chair.  That is the normal process of local democracy.  New boards have the right to set priorities, ask hard questions, and sometimes make big changes, but they also have a responsibility to be careful.

In my opinion, Camden’s decision to part ways with Town

Yesterday we celebrated the Fourth of July, and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The birthday of the United States.

For the eighth year running we marked the occasion on a little piece of land on the shore, with our new found family. 

Back in early 2018, two people still grieving their partners of 50 years met each other. My wife made me aware that some guy in a big black truck had picked up my mother for a “drive’. Never a family to keep secrets, we soon met this mysterious gentleman, Don French, and he, and his family, have been part of our lives ever

Over the weekend of June 27, our Maine neighbor Dhavalkumar Patel was taken from his place of occupation while working. Mr. Patel is the owner of a grocery store and small restaurant in Friendship. Mr. Patel was behind a counter when ICE officers came into his business during working hours, handcuffed him and took him away in their vehicle. 

As we have learned since this event occurred, Mr. Patel was given no verbal or written information as to why he was being forcibly removed from his property.  There are many questions related to this assault which his family, his friends and neighbors

We are fortunate to have a very leafy green neighborhood. Maples, ash, ornamental crabapples, the occasion red oak, a few black locust—the sightline from our porch in June and July is of beautiful verdant curtains made up of thousands of leaves and with the rounded green domes of taller trees reaching up into the sky behind houses and along distant streets.

There is, though, this one tree. An elm, across the street, whose top branches lost all their leaves a few years ago.

Since then, it has become one of the most popular spots in town for chimney swifts. They fly into the tangle of thin dead

It was around 25 years ago that we built the sauna.

Backyard saunas are an odd feature of Midcoast Maine, surprisingly common due to a long ago influx of Scandinavian immigrants, mostly Fins. There is no close Scandinavian ancestry in this family, but back in the 1970s, my parents got the idea to build a sauna in the barn.

The sauna was removed when that part of the barn was converted into the weaving shop, and frankly, having a room designed to get that hot in an old tinderbox of a barn seems like a questionable idea in the first place.

My old man did love a sauna though, and the idea of

Oystercatcher. It’s an evocative name. Even if you didn’t know that it refers to a bird, you would probably imagine some living thing that catches oysters. Even without considering its wonderful name, the American oystercatcher (there are 11 other oystercatcher species worldwide) is a memorable species. Its big, bright orange bill, black head, orange ring around the eye and bold white stripe visible against its otherwise dark brown wings and back—this all makes for a striking sight. Add in its loud, piping, whistled calls and you have a bird that is somewhere between a garish clown and an

This home where I grew up and continue to live is old. Not by any stretch among the oldest in this little town, and far from the finest, the most opulent. Just an old farmhouse and barn, extensively added to, expanded and modernized over the last 150 years. A place where farming was once attempted, evidenced by the old rock walls hidden in the trees that border the back pasture. Where my own parents raised a series of dairy cows, a few pigs, and goats once upon a time. Turkeys, chickens, terrifying hissing geese, and an old gray pony. We only do laying hens now, the latest batch of babies

A few nights ago, we took our little black dog Loki, out for a last chance to answer “nature’s calling” before we retired for the evening. We had been lured into watching a good show rather late; it was around midnight when we stepped outside into the cool night air. The stars were brilliant in the dark sky, the neighborhood was peaceful and quiet, when suddenly, erupting from the hedges across the street, came the boisterous music of a song sparrow.

Just one phrase, just once. Then all went silent.

We all know that there are species that vocalize primarily at night (owls, whip-poor-wills)

Someone recently commented to me that Camden feels more like Camden, Incorporated rather than Camden, “where the mountains meet the sea.”

Given where Camden seems to be heading recently, based on a pattern of town government postures and initiatives, I must say, I resonate with this perspective. 

Increasingly, Camden feels like it’s being operated like a greedy, self-serving corporate entity rather than a helpful and welcoming municipal one.  Camden, Inc. is in full force with little regard for the residents of neighboring towns, for its non-resident taxpayers and property owners, for its

I would like to thank the students and their teachers from Troy Howard’s Eighth Grade Class for their  beautiful and timely art work currently on display in the Kramer Gallery, at the Belfast Free Library. It is a terrific show and I am encouraging everyone who cares about creative expression that addresses the problems that our world is facing in a dynamic, original and hopeful way to see it! 

I was astounded to see the articulate and talented  work of these students, and the fact that 8th graders are addressing the same concerns I have, gave me great hope. As their write up about the P.O.W.E

My family was deeply worried to hear about the potential closure of the birthing center at MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital. We welcomed our son there in 2024, and the care, compassion, and support we received during one of the most important moments of our lives is something we will never forget. As we consider growing our family in the future, it is difficult to imagine going anywhere else.

For many families in the Midcoast, this is not simply about convenience. A local birthing center provides comfort, safety, continuity of care, and a sense of community during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum

What a beautiful week we have had in this little town on the coast of Maine. Bright sun, a bit of rain, fog rolling in off the bay in the morning, everything green and growing. Our summer neighbors have returned, and the inns and motels are filling up with visitors.

The other night, my wife and daughter convinced me to join them at McLaughlin's for steamers and a beverage. Maybe also to check up on our middle child, who was on hosting duty that night.

We sat at the bar, where Lynnette McLaughlin was holding court. I started chatting with my neighbor Mike Hutchings.

Mike is one of Lincolnville

There’s no doubt that we birders find a thrill in seeing rare birds—birds from somewhere else that make their way to wherever we are (in our case, Maine) unexpectedly. Why they come our way is often mysterious, but one thing is certain: The fewer the number of individuals that make up a species, the fewer there are that should be available to wander from their normal range.

This is why we find it curious that there has been an apparent uptick in the number of loggerhead shrikes found in here Maine in the last few years. Don’t get us wrong; a sighting of a loggerhead shrike in Maine is still

It was quite a week in the household at Sleepy Hollow. Our daughter’s graduation from Camden Hills Regional High School was a multiple day affair, starting with the baccalaureate on Monday, and ending with Friday’s graduation. 

As we were returning from the third night in a row of senior events (scholarship night), my wife made the observation that this served to make her graduation more than just a single moment in time. The march down the center of Camden, bedecked in cap and gowns, the streets lined with cheering locals and bemused tourists. Senior Night, with a much more casual celebration