Your wildlife community - Maine Audubon

Scarborough Marsh Opening!

Join us for opening weekend May 25-27

Upcoming Events at Maine Audubon

Barred Owl

May 23, 2024

Curious by Nature Virtual Program

Online

6:30 pm - 7:30 pm

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May 23, 2024

Maine’s Biggest Trees with Jan Santerre, Maine Forest Service

Hybrid

7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

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May 24, 2024

Mast Landing Trail Maintenance Volunteer Workday

Mast Landing - Freeport
65 Upper Mast Landing Rd., Freeport, ME

8:00 am - 11:00 am

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Scarborough Marsh

May 25, 2024

Opening Weekend Celebration at Scarborough Marsh

Scarborough Marsh - Scarborough
92 Pine Point Road, Scarborough, ME 04074

All Day

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News & Notes

Plant Festival & Sale: June 8

Mark your calendars! The 2024 Native Plants Festival and Sale is on Saturday, June 8, from 9 am until 3 pm. There will be more species available than ever, with many of the usual suspects, but also some less common species such as Flowering Big-bracted-dogwood, Great Rosebay, and Sassafras. Here’s a full list of our anticipated inventory. We’ve got a great lineup of special guest speakers too. Details here >

Loon Restoration Project

Loon on a Raft: Loon Restoration Project Update

May 23, 2024

Common Loon by Emerson Frost

Meet Emerson Frost, illustration intern!

May 22, 2024

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Marking Maine Arbor Week 2024

May 17, 2024

Volunteers help with a fence

The Important Role of Sanctuary Stewardship

May 16, 2024

The Piping Plovers’ Favorite Habitat

May 6, 2024

Sheep Laurel

The May Tree and Shrub Sale is open!

May 1, 2024

Find Your Sanctuary

All this wildlife, just outside of Portland at Gilsland Farm

Current Projects

Maine Audubon initiatives bring together elements of conservation, community engagement, advocacy, and education.

Forestry for Maine Birds

Forestry for Maine Birds integrates bird conservation with forest management and planning by improving habitat for priority forest birds and a variety of other wildlife species and engaging woodland owners in forest stewardship.

Maine Loon Project

Maine Audubon works with residents and partners statewide to promote healthy lakes, clean water, and quality habitat for loons and to understand trends in their population over time.

Bringing Nature Home

Maine Audubon works to restore and rebuild Maine’s natural biodiversity by planting the native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees that support the widest array of wildlife.

Rare and Threatened Species

In the field, Maine Audubon’s Coastal Birds Crew works to protect endangered Piping Plovers and Least Terns. In the last session of the legislature, our advocacy team helped pass a bill to add protection of endangered species habitat.

Birding In Maine

Birding events, resources, regional guides, Young Birders checklist, maps, and more

maineaudubon

We have a few spots available for Discovery Kids (

We have a few spots available for Discovery Kids (K-3) for July 1-3 and July 15-19 at Gilsland Farm in Falmouth. Visit our Day Camps page for more details and to register! Head over to maineaudubon.org/camps or via the link in bio!

#daycamp #summercamp

Maine Audubon's Bringing Nature Home Program Manag

Maine Audubon's Bringing Nature Home Program Manager Andrew Tufts will lead off this discussion tomorrow evening, May 14, 6-8 pm in Yarmouth.
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Bringing Nature Home: Sustainable Landscaping for the Backyard and the Block
Tuesday, May 14, 6-8 pm
317 Main Community Music Center

A discussion on the value of sustainable landscaping to mitigate the effects of climate change and protect local ecology, on an individual level and throughout the community

Andrew Tufts, “Bringing Nature Home,” Maine Audubon
Zack Rouda, Rewild Maine
Jesse Lamarre-Vincent, Cumberland Lands & Conservation Commission
Rebecca Rundquist, Frank Knight Foundation, Sea Meadow Marine Foundation, Cumberland Woodbank

🦅 COOL NEW PROGRAM! Interested in birds, but n

🦅 COOL NEW PROGRAM! Interested in birds, but not sure if your little ones would be as well? Love looking at nature and wildlife, and want tips on how to do this as a family? We've got the outing for you! On Saturday, May 18, from 1-3 pm, young birders of all ages and skill levels, with their grown-ups, are invited to join us for a fun afternoon of learning about and observing birds! Choose your own adventure and activity level. We'll have bird-related games, crafts, and activities with Early Childhood Education Manager Emma Ottenheimer, and Field Naturalist Andy Kapinos will guide you to watch birds feeding and nesting around the orchard. For those that want to explore further, Andy will lead two short walks at 1:30 pm and 2:15 pm. Register at link in bio > maineaudubon.org/events

Our Backyard Bird of the Month for May is the Red-

Our Backyard Bird of the Month for May is the Red-eyed Vireo! "Here I am! Where are you? Way up here! In the tree!" So goes the song of the Red-eyed Vireo, heard in nearly every forested area between Kittery and Fort Kent from May until early autumn. True neotropical migrants, Red-eyed Vireos spend the nonbreeding season in the Amazon Basin, especially in Colombia, Brasil, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Peru. Most depart South America during April, and over the course of a few weeks or a month, make their way up through Central America and the southeastern US, migrating on clear nights and refueling during the day by feasting on the abundance of newly-emerged insects. The first males can reach Maine by the first week of May, but the majority arrive in the second and third weeks, just in time for the emergence of leaves and insects in the canopy of our forests.

These canopy-dwellers are heard far more often than they are seen, and possess a huge vocal repertoire, combining various “syllables” into “phrases” that don’t repeat. In fact, there is often no similarity between the songs of males whose territories are right next to each other. While the males generally sing from treetops, Red-eyed Vireos forage and nest in the mid- and understory, and require forest habitat with layers of native shrubs and small trees. Their nests are usually built at these lower levels, with layers of foliage above to hide the nest from predators. They raise their young on insects, especially caterpillars and other larvae, before eating increasing amounts of fruit later in the summer, which they subsist on throughout the nonbreeding season. The return of Red-eyed Vireos to their breeding territories in Maine is a yearly reminder that conserving healthy forest ecosystems is important not only here at home, but also in the neotropical forests where they spend the rest of their lives.

Backyard Bird of the Month is a feature by Maine Audubon created for the Maine Home Garden News, the newsletter of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension: Garden and Yard

Photo: Jeff Schmoyer, used with permission

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