Red-winged Blackbird Agelaius phoeniceus Cool Fact: Red-winged Blackbirds can reach flight speeds up to 30 MPH and will travel as far as 50 miles to feed, returning to their roost at night. After last month’s feature about spring peepers, it seemed fitting to recognize another species that’s a harbinger of spring: the Red-Winged Blackbird. Its Read More
Creature Feature
The Natural Resources Council of Maine works to protect important wildlife habitat for our vast array of animals that live in our state. Our Creature Feature is a way to highlight those animals and share "cool facts" and other important information about them.
NRCM's Creature Feature highlights birds, fish, mammals, and other wildlife that play an important role in the nature of Maine. We have featured "creatures" that are directly affected by our work to protect our clean waters (sea lamprey, Atlantic salmon, lobsters, etc.) and protect wildlife habitat in Maine's North Woods, including in our new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument (moose, Canada lynx, black bear, etc.)
Creature Feature: Spring Peeper
Spring Peeper Pseudacris crucifer Cool fact: Spring peepers survive the winter by becoming dormant under leaf litter and under logs, relying on the same sugars they use as nutrients to also serve as a kind of natural “antifreeze” that keeps the tiny frogs safe to temperatures around six degrees below zero. The northern spring peeper became Read More
Creature Feature: Northern Cardinal
Northern Cardinal Cardinalis cardinalis Cool Fact: Or in this case…”cold” fact—Cardinals don’t migrate or fly south for the winter like most other birds. They will shiver and tense their muscles to generate heat, having the ability to drop their body temperature 3 – 6° in order to survive cold temperatures. Named by early European settlers because of their resemblance Read More
Creature Feature: Wood Turtle
Wood Turtle Glyptemys insculpta Cool Fact: * The temperature of the developing eggs determines whether the offspring will be male or female. If eggs incubate above 87.8 °F the babies will be female; if below 81.86°F, they will be male. Wood turtles have likely been in New England for about 10,000 years, following the retreat Read More
Creature Feature: Bobcat
Bobcat Lynx Rufus 3 Cool Facts: Did you know that the bobcat’s fifth toe is raised on its front feet, so there is no fifth impression when it walks? Bobcats can run at speeds up to 30 mph — the same speed as domestic cats. President Calvin Coolidge once had a pet bobcat named “Smoky.” Read More
Creature Feature: Woodchuck
Woodchuck Marmota monax Cool Fact: Woodchucks are also called whistle pigs (because of the alert whistle they make when alarmed), earth pigs, land beavers, and grass rats! Most of us are familiar with the legend of the groundhog seeing its shadow (or not) to determine whether there will be six more weeks of winter or Read More
Creature Feature: Black-capped Chickadee
Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus Cool fact: Studies have shown that the Black-capped Chickadee grows new brain cells every fall, in part to help it remember where it has cached the thousands of seeds it hopes to feed on through the winter ahead. Maine chose the chickadee as the State Bird in 1927. Although the specific Read More
Creature Feature: Common Loon
Common Loon Gavia immer Cool Fact: In the non-breeding season when they are on the ocean, loons show modest gray upperparts and white underparts, but in the summer months (breeding season) adults have a striking black and white neck and back, and a black head and bill. Common Loons are among Maine’s most beloved and Read More
Creature Feature: Dark-eyed Junco
Dark-eyed Junco Junco hyemalis Cool facts: The oldest recorded Dark-eyed Junco? At least 11 years, 4 months old when it was recaptured and rereleased during banding operations in West Virginia in 2001. It had originally been banded in 1991, also in West Virginia. Interestingly, a flock of juncos is often referred to as a “blizzard.” Read More
