Skywatch - Misty Maine

The Camden Hills as seen from the breakwater at Rockport, Maine. This signals the end of the good weather for several days on my recent trip. A light rain was falling here.

For the rest of Skywatch, go here.

Acadia National Park (a post in which I briefly pretend to be one of the ocean science bloggers)

Penobscot Bay seen from the summit of Cadillac Mountain

After departing Colby, and before heading south to New Hampshire and Massachusetts, Leon and I headed over for a couple of days on the coast of Maine. We got to Acadia on Sunday afternoon and headed over to a hike called Wonderland that led through the woods to the ocean.

Rhodora (Rhododendron canadense)

Three-toothed Cinquefoil (Potentilla tridentata)

I really enjoyed getting to see the flora of northern New England. In low spots the last of the rhodora was still in bloom. I can recall seeing pink drifts of it in the woods along Route 95 when I would drive home from college for the summer. Acadia has a huge populattion of three-toothed cinquefoil. This plant grows in rocky areas, either on mountain tops or right along the coast. I have seen in in Manchester before, however it's quite rare as far south as coastal Massachusetts.

Sponge? Tunicate? Something else?

At the shore, we admired the view and poked around in tide pools. There were lots of snails and limpets, and a really cool green creature. I'm not sure whether it's a sponge or a tunicate. If it's the latter, I'm reluctant to even call it an invertebrate. Perhaps one of my marine bio friends can help me out here. Rick? Jim? Kevin?

Pitch pine (Pinus rigida) on the summit of Dorr Mountain

Monday morning, we drove up Cadillac Mountain and hiked a half mile over to the summit of nearby Dorr Mountain. Lots of rock scrambling was involved, and I regretted not changing into my sneakers. The summit of Dorr Mountain is dotted with stunted pitch pines. There just isn't enough soil here for the trees to establish any height.

Tiny robberfly

Brown Elfin (Callophrys augustinus)

The weather was beautiful, so we saw lots of insects. I was excited to see a tiny brown elfin butterfly. I've only ever seen that species once before.

Surf at Thunder Hole

After lunch we drove the loop road for more tide pool exploration. The tide was not quite right for good wave action at at Thunder Hole, but we did get to see a Black Guillemot jst off shore.

Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle)

Further down the road, we found more invertebrates in the tide pools, including some really cool anemones.

Anemones in tide pool

Smaller anemone with mussel

Stripey snails

This would be our last day of nice weather until Saturday. It was hard to leave the beauty of Maine, but the difficulty was made easier by knowing that our next stop would be with Will and Fritz.