My family and I took a great staycation day at the Maine Wildlife Park. It is a very beautiful nature preserve with many different flowers, trees and animals. It is a very affordable place to go for an afternoon and provides hours of walking adventure. After entering the gate you are greated by the aromatic smells of many beautiful flowers in the Maine Wildlife Garden.
There is a great owl display that features a Snowy Owl. During unusaully cold winters with deep snow on the Arctic tundras,these owls move south to Maine to hunt for food. Eating primarily lemmings in the arctic, they hunt for small mammels and birds here. They can be seen in open coastal area and even around airport runways.
Another owl featured is the Saw-Whet Owl. This little owl often winters in Maine, and then migrates north to Canada to nest and raise young. It can be found in dense evergreens in woodlands, parklands, and suburban areas. Extremely tolerant of people, it can be closely approached. It eats small mice and other rodents.
The Great Gray Owl is also on display here. This huge owl of the north wanders into Maine when the snow is deep and food scarce in its regular range. It hunts for mice and birds during the day from a low perch in dense evergreens edging open meadows; and is often tolerant of humans.
The final two owls are the Great Horned Owl and the Long-eared Owl. The Great horned Owl is found statewide in wooded uplands with large, mature trees. Our earliest nesting species, these owls lay and incubate their eggs in late February and early March; and eat rabbits, rodents, snakes and even SKUNKS! The Long-eared owl ins fairly common in Maine, this owl prefers coniferous woodlands and swamps, foraging for mice and other small mammals, frogs, insects and small birds. In winter, flocks of 5 to 25 birds roost together in dense evergreens. This owl can stretch out next to a tree trunk and blend in so well it becomes nearly invisible.
No visit to a Park like this would ever be the same without a visit to the Snack Bar or Gift Shop. My son found himself captivated with the 3 Mexican jumping beans he was able to buy at the Gift shop for a mere $1.60. They call the Snack Bar here the Friends Snack Bar and it is quite appropriate as the lady behind the counter seems to treat everyone as an old friend. They have a very large selection of candy in the snack bar, but very little food with nutritional value. Sugar them up and set them free to run wild in the wildlife park…
You can walk a tree trail and learn things about some of the trees native to Maine like the Douglas Fir and many others. There is a White Oak tree on site they has a sign near it proclaiming it to be as old as 275 yrs. The sign states it was there was George Washington was still alive. I find this pretty impressive that a tree could live this long, maybe it has a better diet than we do. White Oaks apparently have been found around that were as old as 375 yrs, so this one is relativelyyoung in comparison.
Somehow halfway around the tree trail I found myself fishing my son’s crock out of a small pond he was able to find. He thought it would be pretty neat to cross a moss covered log to get to the other side and found on his way back, that is was much more slippery he remembered. He sure looked cute with that muckall over his face and legs, although he didn’t think so.
There were several white tail in a very large fenced off area down a different trail. On this same trail you come across a small caged in area with 3 porcupines in it. There were actually 2 albino ones and one that appeared to be normal. They didn’t seem fazed to have people looking at them all the time as they just sat there. They were building three other penned in areas for some future exibits on this trail as well. I look forward to returning to see what these will house. The one creaure that didn’t seem to be caged, but was surely everywhere including in with the Deer, Bear and several other animals was the very cute little Chipmunks. These little critters are quite fast and playful. Quite an amusing site to watch I might add.
There were also a couple of Moose in a very large fenced off area. There was one calf in a different area all by itself. They seem to have created a special area for this calf and several other fawns. I think I may have even spied a Bald Eagle in a small pen behind the calf’s pen. Moose(Alces alces) live in forests, lakes and swamps all over Maine. I find it hard to believe a creature as large as these are can live on a diet of twigs, buds leaves and aquatic plants.
There were two Bobcats on display who seemed to be very playful. They were so cute you almost want to reach out and pat them. It is a good thing they are fenced off from the people or some fool might actual try and end leaving with a few less fingers then they came with. Bobcats are very secretive, shy,solitary and are very seldom seen in the wild. They usually den in a hollow log or rock ledge and often rest on a low branch or boulder, waiting to pounce on prey.
One of the more elusive cats on display here is the Lynx (Felis lynx). They tend to live in deep woods well removed from human activity. They are noctural and solitary. They tend to be active all throughout the year. They like to eat small birds, rodents and even snowshoe hare. The one thing I never would have guessed is they are excellent swimmers.
No trip to a wildlife park would be the same without a mountain lion (felis concolor). The one on display here was napping during our visit in a very high loft. We never got to see it completely , but it sure did look beautiful for what we did see. Mountain lions were eliminated from Maine before the turn of the century, there is no known breeding population in the state.
There were a few different raccoons (Procyon lotor) on display here including a brother nd sister pair, one of whom is an albino. I think these are the same pair that used to owned by a friend of mine. Raccoons are opportunistic omnivores. They will eat just about anything that is edible. They love to raid cornfields and poultry yards. The name raccoon comes from the Native American “Arakunem” meaning “scratching with his hands.”
I will end this part of the blog here and continue the story in part 2.
