Taken from a moving vehicle at about 50 mph.

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

I took this photo from a lobsterman’s dock in Eastport, Maine. Running nearby to the dock I was standing on was the remains of an old pier. As you can see in the photo, vegetation of this variety has little difficulty growing on top of the remains. And of course two likely suspects don’t mind settling down in the growth while keeping a watchful eye on any likely scavenged meal.

Photo by Tom Remington

Tom Remington

A 79-year-old Gorham man died Tuesday night a short period of time after he was involved in an ATV incident in Standish.

Roland J. Levesque, 79, of Gorham was driving an ATV at a slow rate of speed down a rocky hill between Boundary and Middle roads in Standish after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30. He was in an area called Nature’s Way, and on a trail that in the winter is used by snowmobilers. The part of the trail where the incident occurred has experienced erosion because of all of the recent rains.

Mr. Levesque was traveling with a friend, Andrew Wheeler of Gorham, who assisted Mr. Levesque at the scene and who called rescue personnel at approximately 5:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Mr. Levesque was conscious when he was transported to Maine Medical Center, but died a short time later.

The incident is under investigation by the Maine Warden Service.

Photo by Tom Remington

As the summer rush of beachgoers begins this holiday weekend the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife , Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, and Maine Audubon would like to remind people to be considerate of fellow beachgoers: piping plovers and least terns.

The piping plover is federally listed as threatened and both species are on Maine’s endangered species list. Piping plover and least tern nest and raise their chicks on Maine beaches, with June through August being the critical nesting and chick rearing period for these rare birds. Unfortunately, this also is the busiest time at Maine’s beaches.

Even under natural conditions the summer nesting season is a challenging time: the rigors of coastal storms and predators take there toll. Currently our 26 piping plover pairs are at various stages of nesting, and this Fourth of July weekend is a critical time for these birds. Beaches can be crowded with visitors at a time when plover and tern families are exceptionally vulnerable to disturbance from people and their pets, resulting in nesting failure and the death of plover chicks. Plover and tern chicks are capable of roaming large areas of beach, away from protected nesting areas, depending on constant vigilance from their parents for protection.

This year, the Maine Warden Service will patrol beaches in southern Maine throughout the holiday weekend to ensure a safe holiday for beach visitors and the endangered species that make their home on our beautiful beaches. Game Wardens will patrol beaches from Ogunquit to Scarborough to make sure that beach visitors are respectful of the piping plover nesting areas and keep dogs on leashes and away from nesting areas.

Everyone can do his or her part to make the Fourth of July holiday enjoyable and safe for ALL beach residents.

You can help assure the survival of these remarkable birds by observing these simple guidelines:

· Steer clear of nesting areas. These areas are fenced with stake and twine and posted with “Restricted Area” signs. Enjoy these beautiful birds from a distance by using binoculars .

· Keep pets off the beach or leashed from mid April to mid September. Plovers and terns perceive even leashed dogs as potential predators and may abandon their nest or young when approached.

· Fly kites well away from nesting areas. Plovers and terns mistake kites for hawks and leave their nests to ward off the “intruders.”

· Take your trash and food scraps with you when you leave the beach for the day. Garbage attracts gulls, foxes, raccoons, and skunks which prey on plover and tern eggs and young.

· Call your local police department or the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to report harassment of birds by people or dogs.

Currently plovers and/or terns are nesting on: Wells Beach, Ogunquit Beach, Crescent Surf Beach in Kennebunk, Goose Rocks Beach in Kennebunkport, Goosefare Brook in Saco, Western Beach and Higgins Beach in Scarborough, Seawall Beach in Phippsburg and Reid State Park in Georgetown.

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

During my recent vacation trip around the state of Maine, Milt Inman and I had the pleasure of accompanying our friend Gordon on his lobster boat that he moors in Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island.

Photo by Tom Remingon
This is Gordon’s lobster boat - “Jacquelyn”

Photo by Tom Remington
First you need to grab a small pitch fork and move the bait from the tub to a holding bin.

Photo by Tom Remington
I nice tub of ripe smelling herring seems to be the bait of choice today.

Photo by Tom Remington
Pulling traps is done mechanically these days and not so much by hand.

Photo by Tom Remington
Once the trap is up, hopefully you’ll find some legal-sized lobsters. Once the trap is cleaned out, it is baited again and dropped back into the sea.

Photo by Tom Remington
Lobster traps can claim more than just lobster. You might find various shelled creatures, including crabs. In this one instance a sea sculpin was found flopping around in the trap.

Photo by Tom Remington
Really, you do find an occasional lobster - hopefully a lot more than that. This lobster was a pretty good sized one but with tiny claws. Lobsters do tend to lose their claws and nature is kind to allow them to grow back. In this case they just hadn’t had the opportunity to get back to full size again.

Unfortunately, the fog refused to lift. Although Gordon is a very proficient and experienced seaman, he is uncomfortable about being on the water in the fog as he doesn’t have a lot of trust in other boaters. We checked perhabs 25 to 30 of his 70 traps and headed back to port.

Tom Remington

Milt Inman Photo

I did a few interviews before the start of the lottery drawing. In the above photo I am interviewing Maine Rep. John Martin of Eagle Lake, Maine.

Milt Inman Photo

In the photo above, I am interviewing John Holyoke, outdoor writer for the Bangor Daily News .

Milt Inman Photo

Mike Paquette is owner of the Allagash Sporting Camps of Allagash, Maine. He and his business was the sponsor of the Skinny Moose Media coverage of the 2009 Maine Moose Lottery Drawing held in Fort Kent, Maine.

Tom Remington

Certainly one with any knowledge of what goes on in Maine and any hint of the facts of coyote and wolf biological science would automatically assume that a recent letter to the editor in the Bangor Daily News is a joke. Unfortunately it’s not.

Aside from the fact that just about everything in that letter is not factual, claims made by the writer cannot be scientifically substantiated. Most claims are merely perpetuated myths that have existed for decades or longer.

The writer speaks of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife ’s coyote policy. What policy is he referring to? One that he made up in his own mind? The only policy MDIFW has toward coyotes is that they have a liberal hunting season on them. Aside from that, even a mandate from the Maine Legislature to come up with a bona fide predator management plan has gone by with little action.

I chuckled though at this writer’s comments about a nationwide conspiracy to kill all coyotes.

Despite a nationwide attempt to annihilate an important predator, there are more coyotes in North America than there were in the 19th century.

The writer also claims that no matter how many coyotes get killed they will automatically do a numbers count and make a few adjustments to their reproductive system and birth more pups than got killed the previous year. Before anyone should go spewing this poor information in a public forum, they should at least have the common decency to provide uninformed readers where they can verify the claims.

Unfortunately, for those readers who really don’t know what’s going on and should read this misinformation, it actually can do more harm for all wildlife should they decide to accept this as fact. Making claims that all hunters, trappers and those at the MDIFW want to do is destroy every coyote in the state is laughable. The writer is a ball of contradiction, first saying that no matter what anyone has ever done through history to eradicate us from coyotes, nothing has worked. As a matter of fact, the writer claims there are more coyotes in North America now than ever before. How can we attempt to kill all the coyotes and now have more than ever before coming out of one corner of his mouth while out of the other corner we hear fear mongering that MDIFW’s policy, along with hunters and trappers are going to wipe out the coyote population.

And lastly, the writer alludes to the fact that we should let things become “natural”.

If we just left them alone they naturally would self-regulate.

We hear this garbage incessantly. One of the major problems with this Disneyesque philosophy is that how they intend to make it work is to get rid of man, like somehow man is not a natural species in the larger scheme of things.

The writer not only suggests we should just simply let the coyote “self-regulate” but that we should “allow” the gray wolf to repopulate the state. Is there somebody not allowing this to happen? Surely the writer wouldn’t be suggesting that we import some wolves? My, that wouldn’t at all be “natural” now would it?

There is no way that the MDIFW is going to create a policy that is geared toward the eradication of coyotes. And even if they and all the hunters and trappers statewide wanted to do that, as the writer suggests, it’s for all intent and purposes impossible to do. What knowledgeable and concerned outdoor sportsmen are hoping to accomplish as part of an overall plan to restore severely diminished white tail deer populations, is go to areas hardest hit by severe winters and reduced habit and reduce predator populations before we end up with non sustainable deer herds.

It would be just as irresponsible and a “wrong Maine coyote policy” to allow for the destruction of one species while “allowing” another to self-regulate as it would be to promote for the eradication of coyotes from the Maine woods.

Tom Remington

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

Milt Inman Photo

Milt Inman

*Editor’s Note* The log the turtles are resting and sunning on, was placed there by the photographer thinking it would provide a nice little sanctuary. I guess he had a vision.