Have you heard about “Snark,” the first great blue heron in Maine to be outfitted with a GPS transmitter last spring, and the only one to be recaptured a year later? The great blue heron is a Species of Special Concern in Maine due to a decline along the coast.

By Regional Wildlife Biologist Chuck Hulsey and Assistant Regional Wildlife Biologist Bob Cordes, Region D For the past 28 years the Maine Department of Transportation (MDOT) Region 3 in Dixfield has been supplying our regional wildlife program in western Maine with salvage channel posts.  These are the heavy duty metal posts to which DOT affixes stop signs.  Instead of going to scrap metal, we give old rusted posts a new life as part of a simple fence and water leveling structure to keep beavers from plugging road culverts. After a plugged culvert is cleared of mud and stic

[caption id="attachment_2399" align="alignright" width="448"] IFW Fisheries Biologist Frank Frost holds a Big Reed Arctic charr.

By Tom Schaeffer, Regional Wildlife Biologist Ever heard of a “Thunder-Pumper?”  How about “water-belcher?”   I hadn’t either until I did some online searching.   These colloquialisms for a Maine marsh bird come pretty close to describing the spring courting call of the male American Bittern.  I was treated about a week ago to a rare opportunity to view both a male and female bittern in a relatively open set

By IFW Fisheries Biologist Wes Ashe [caption id="attachment_2391" align="alignright" width="496"]Here are a handful of quotes from the awesome pack of thank you letters I recently received in the mail.[/caption] Working as a fisheries biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, I often get the opportunity to present in front of various lake associations,

By IFW Fisheries Biologist Kevin Dunham A sure sign of spring in Maine is that smelts are running.