THE RELEASE OF RESCUED FEMALE ORIOLE B-14-12

The Center for Wildlife will be releasing the rescued and rehabilitated female Oriole on April 19, 2012.  She recovered from a number of injuries during her 3 month rehab, including an infected leg and an injured or weakened wing. When she was placed in an outdoor flying cage in March, she gained weight faster than her wings could support her. A staffer called it “flying tank” syndrome.  The prognosis for her was not good when I last spoke to CFW staff about releasing the Oriole, about 3 weeks ago.  Then all of a sudden, she started to fly normally and regained her strength. With the sighting of Orioles in southern Maine, the time has come to let her go.  Because we are Down East, we won’t be able to collect the bird and let her go near our home in Kennebunkport but a CFW volunteer will transport her to town tomorrow and release her nearby.  

OH MY DOG!

On the day of an old fashioned snow storm there’s a cinnamon roll recipe in the Press Herald. How good does that sound on a day when you don’t expect to go outside? The dough hooks were whirling away when the stand mixer suddenly accelerated and then, PZZZT, pop, sparks and smoke, blew up. Oh, well, worry about that later, for now the dough is looking pliable even though the yeast was 5 months past the use-by date.

While the dozen or so rolls were spread out on a cookie sheet for the second rise, I decide to give them a boost by setting them in front of the fireplace. A few minutes later I notice the dog over by the fireplace, eating something…the rolls! Is cinnamon poison for a dog? I know raisins are but there weren’t any in the recipe. Thank goodness for the emergency animal hospital. They refer me to a poison control hotline for animals. They want to know right away if there were raisins in the cinnamon rolls.

Five minutes and a $65 credit-card charge later I’m feeding the dog a mixture of 3%hydrogen peroxide and Greek yogurt. She laps it up like dessert. It seems that the raw dough is very bad, according to the ominous-voiced vet. Yeast dough can expand – there’s no better host for dough to rise than intestines – and the dog can become drunk from the yeast.

I follow the dog around for a few minutes, expectantly holding a towel so she can throw up into it. Then I get distracted. But suddenly good news! She’s puked on the rug, the one that was just sent out to be cleaned. But there isn’t much dough there. She ate 4 or 5 raw rolls. So I call the poison center again to find out if she should have another dose of peroxide. I tell them she didn’t throw up all the dough but there was some carrot in it, something she ate hours ago. “Unfortunately, dogs don’t throw up chronologically” the kind woman tells me.  

While I’m engaged in that conversation, my husband comes into the room and shouts “Goldy puked on the couch!” That's wonderful. Now we have action so I can end the phone call, and indeed, the dog has expectorated everything, there it is, laid out over the blanket covering the couch. Now we just have to watch her for a few hours to see if her abdomen gets distended or she acts drunk. But she can have her usual dinner! This is so confusing.

The next day all is well. The crisis passed, I take a shower and get dressed and as I’m returning to the bathroom there’s the dog eating something, there’s paper all around her on the rug. It’s only the paper that the new bar of soap was wrapped in. The paper I put the soap remnants in! Quick call to the vet where I am reassured this is not a life-threatening situation. At most, she could have diarrhea.

Now I wonder, what are the chances that she would have diarrhea on the same rug she puked on yesterday? It’ll probably hit her when there’s no one here to let her out, while I’m at the store buying a new stand mixer.

RESCUED FEMALE ORIOLE B-14-12

We rescued an immature female oriole during a snowstorm in mid-January. The dog found her on the ground and was picking her up in her mouth when I happened to look out the window. The bird allowed me to take her into my cupped hands after Goldy spit her out. In the house, I held the chartreuse-tinted bird near the wood stove until we rigged up a plate with a towel for bedding and a cover using the inside section of a salad spinner, the piece full of holes.

This cold little bird, her legs frosted with snow, sat by the fire while we consulted with the York Center for Wildlife. They wanted to see the bird that day to make sure she could be treated for whatever injury sent her to the ground.

This wonderful organization takes in birds and critters that have been injured and nurses them with the goal of returning them to the wild. The unfortunate birds who cannot return to the wild, many of them birds of prey, find a permanent home in the unique buildings constructed to house owls and falcons.  Owls are most commonly injured by cars, a sad commentary about modern life. They go to the streets for road kill or are hit as they swoop for prey.

It’s worth a trip to the Center to meet Freya, the peregrine falcon who is now the office mascot. She perches atop a swivel chair in the entry room that serves as an intake and reception center. Freya was so young when she was brought to the Center that she imprinted with the people and now cannot return to the wild. It’s an indescribable thrill to be within 4 feet of a magnificent creature like her.

The injured female oriole, B-14-12 (B for “bird”, 14 because she was the 14^th rescue bird and 12 for the year of her rescue, 2012), has been convalescing at the CFW for about a month now. She spends 24 hours a day in the outdoor aviary where she is able to perch and is relearning how to fly. The CFW staff will let us collect her for release in our yard when the rest of the orioles start coming through again on their spring migration north.

This immature female was one of 3 immature or juvenile orioles who visited our suet bag this winter, one female and two male. They didn’t have the sense to leave Maine last fall. Probably they were lulled into staying by the unseasonably warm weather and lack of snow cover. CFW says many songbirds failed to migrate this year and were caught unawares as the inevitable cold and snow settled in.  My neighbor thinks these birds should be tested for mercury poisoning as their failure to migrate south indicates that they are brain-damaged.

One of the 2 males continues to visit our suet bag daily.  Every morning I watch for him. Is it too much to hope that he might eventually be reunited with his once weaker but perhaps now stronger companion?  Let us hope that the older, more experienced orioles will figure a way to force these two reckless juveniles north to breed and nest and then south again next fall.    

TO BE CONTINUED…..

't ain't Town No More

There was a time when locals referred to Lower Village as “'t ain't Town.” The derogatory nickname derived from the comparison of Lower Village to downtown Kennebunk and to Dock Square in Kennebunkport of which it was neither. Lower Village defied definition but it did have a personality of its own.

Over time, retail shops in Lower Village have tried to capitalize on what was perceived as Kennebunkport’s cachet by listing their address on shopping bags and advertising as ”Kennebunkport.”  A friend and her houseguest spent a frustrating morning trying to locate an antique business which advertises itself as being located on Route 9 in Kennebunkport, but which is physically located on Route 9 on the way to Wells, about a mile from Dock Square and on the Kennebunk side of the River  - just outside of Lower Village.

Essential services which used to be located in Kennebunkport – the hardware store, gas station, grocery store, Laundromat, among others - closed or migrated across the river. Over time, Lower Village became the “downtown” service center Kennebunkport lost as its “downtown” was converted to tourist-dependent retail stores and restaurants.

                                                                                

Those familiar with Lower Village for a half century or so hardly recognize the place today and those who do remember it are concerned about what is happening.

A few years ago the Town of Kennebunk relaxed parking standards on many structures in Lower Village. For years, property sales and commercial development were held back by the requirement that parking be located onsite. The relaxation of the parking requirement was directly responsible for what seems like a commercial development boom.

The first conversion from a home to a business which produced a collective jolt was Tia’s Restaurant. The stately home which was a private residence only 18 months ago has morphed into a 2-story seasonal restaurant with no parking but plenty of tiki-torches and even an outdoor fire pit.  Next door, an art gallery lawn is littered with sculptural whirly-gigs, death to all birds who venture near.

And now everyone is talking about the shocking transformation of a federal-style farmhouse, whose proud façade graced Chase Hill since its construction 150 or more years ago. The new structure, modestly labeled “The Grand” but more accurately described as "The Super-Colossal", is over-scaled, too high and too large in volume.  It towers above everything around it and seems especially imposing as it sits on a high point overlooking the river basin.

Ironically, now that the Town realizes that relaxing the parking requirement worked too well, there is no place for the patrons and employees of all these new businesses to park! Tax payers are being asked to foot the bill for a public parking lot. Stay tuned, there may be trouble ahead on that front.

Old timers in Lower Village are beginning to throw in the towel and put their properties up for sale. When the Town undermines the zoning ordinance that provides protection to the value of your greatest asset, your home, it’s time to take the money and move on.  I feel sorry for people who bought a house as part of a residential neighborhood and now find themselves surrounded by commercial enterprises in structures that once housed families.

Still to come is a large scale overhaul of the Lower Village “streetscape”, beginning in April 2012. There will be new sidewalks, new lighting, a proposal to cantilever a walkway 20 feet into the River, replacement of the wooden railing along the Riverside and many more “improvements”.  It seems like too much to take.

Goodbye, 't ain't Town. We didn't realize how much we liked you until you changed. We took you for granted and now you are gone.

IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER

Some of the conclusions in a recent Journal Tribune editorial concerning lighting in Kennebunkport deserve further discussion. The impression left with readers is that there are no street lights throughout the village area but in fact, there are many and they've been sufficient for years.

The area proposed for more lighting is entirely outside the business zone and
consists of nearly all of the National Register Historic District of homes in
the Village Residential Zone, next to Dock Square. Some of the lights are more than a half mile from the downtown.

While employees and customers of downtown businesses park along town streets and in a parking lot outside the business district, they, as well as residents, have been walking these streets without the proposed lighting for decades, without any apparent consequences. The justification for spending more than $160,000 to purchase these lights - not to mention the cost of installation - just isn't there.

This is an idea that might be nice when times are flush or if business interests are willing to pay, but they haven't offered.  Times are tough and taxpayers are tired of funding needs for tourists and businesses.

When many Kennebunkport village residents look toward the north, to Biddeford, we see an unnatural glow in the sky. When we look to Dock Square from the Historic Zone, there's a similar glow.  The village residential zone outside Dock Square isn't the Maine Mall, Biddeford Crossing or downtown Biddeford. Many of us who live here enjoy the distinction and would like to maintain our residential quality of life, including the ability to look up and see the stars at night.

My advice to businesses concerned about their customers and employees walking at night: pool your resources and provide a shuttle service to outlying parking areas.

My advice to taxpayers: hold onto your wallets! Pretty soon, we won't be able to afford to live here. Those who can afford to pay increasing taxes may be able to read inside their homes at night without turning on interior lights.

"NO BETTO IN BIDDO"*

Despite the endless and repetitive television and radio advertising in favor of betting in Biddeford, it came as no surprise that voters statewide rejected that racino proposal as well as the one designed for Lewiston.  Voters have said “No” to gambling proposals in Maine eight times in 11 years according to today’s Portland Press Herald.  It would be easy to lose count without the paper of record reminding us how many times we’ve been down this road.  

We’ve come a long way in one year, since the voters in Biddeford authorized municipal leaders to negotiate with Scarborough Downs and Ocean Properties, Ltd., to bring a racino operation to their city. In Biddeford, the racino proposal won approval in yesterday’s election but not by enough votes to override the “no” votes elsewhere in Maine.

Joanne Twomey, the Mayor who championed the racino proposal for the jobs it would provide, finds herself out of a job the day after the election. Her opponent, Alan Casavant, who did not support the racino, pledged to negotiate a better deal for the city if the proposal got statewide support.

In the mysterious world of politics which cannot be explained, nearly the same number of people who voted for the racino voted for the anti-racino candidate for Mayor.

Biddeford and the towns surrounding it should have some optimism today for the future of this much-maligned former mill town.   Mayor-elect Casavant wants to work on improving the community’s downtown core instead of casting his lot with the racetrack and slot operators out by the Maine Turnpike. Good for him.

Biddeford contains historic buildings in its downtown Main Street and including the former textile mills which line the Saco River. With the growth of University of New England and the expansion and development of communities around it, Biddeford seems poised to begin to capitalize on its assets. 

The election result for Question 2, soundly rejected by voters statewide though equally strongly supported by voters in Biddeford, seems to be a case of outsiders intervening and saving Biddeford from making a terrible and irreversible mistake. It just might be that people will look back on this vote as a turning point for the city.

*Bumper sticker credited to Richard Rhames who was elected Councilor-at-large in Biddeford's election yesterday.

THE VALUE OF PUBLIC LAND

The Kennebunkport Conservation Trust has had remarkable success acquiring and saving land from development. From the islands of Cape Porpoise Harbor to the meadows and streams of the Emmons Preserve, the KCT now holds vast acreage within the community and we are all grateful for this.

Recently, the Trust accepted about $1 million to rebuild on its original site the Olde Grist Mill, a 250-year old tidal mill which was owned continuously by the Perkins family until its destruction by arson in the 1990’s.  

Another million dollars will be used to reconstruct an enclosed shed linking the Goat Island Lighthouse to the lighthouse-keeper’s home. The shed or one like it was destroyed by a storm decades ago. The Coast Guard, its prior owner, wisely decided not to rebuild it.

When these decisions were made to invest in buildings rather than land, financial times were bullish. The Trust even found the funds to erect granite markers denoting some of its holdings which is a far cry from the hand-painted sign which used to signify the entrance to the Trust headquarters on Gravelley Brook Road, the only unpaved public road in Kennebunkport. Times are different today and the economic climate is less certain.

Now we read that the Trust is desperately seeking about $1 million in order to buy land and an island off Goose Rocks Beach and Biddeford’s Granite Point, called Timber Point. This 110-acre parcel, which includes Timber Island, is described as one of the last large parcels of land under single ownership along the coastline between Kittery and Cape Elizabeth.  The $1 million to be raised is only a portion of the roughly $5 million price tag.  The partnership attempting to buy the property includes the KCT, the Trust for Public Land, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Rachel Carson and Maine Coast Heritage Trust.

The clock is running down on the acquisition deadline, September 15.

Sometime during the last 10 years the KCT began a new quest.  The organization expanded its mission from simple land acquisition to include preservation and maintenance of properties which reflect the heritage of the town. It was at this divergence, when the mission was expanded, when some began to question the core principals of the beloved land conservation organization.

One wonders why an organization devoted to saving and acquiring land would get into the business of restoring and maintaining historic properties in the first place. Organizations which are in that business could probably advise why they are getting out of doing this very thing.

The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) adopted a policy some 20 years ago not to accept donations of property without an endowment.  This non-profit, which owns dozens of historic residences throughout New England, recognized its inability to raise enough funds to maintain the properties it wants to preserve.  Kennebunk’s Brick Store Museum reluctantly but wisely decided to sell the Edith Barry home on Summer Street.  Maintenance costs for the house threatened the organization’s ability to operate its museum and house its collection.

We can all hope that some generous benefactor will come forward to ensure the deserving preservation of Timber Point and Timber Island.   Maybe the KCT will rediscover the value of saving land for wildlife and limited public use.   There aren’t any other organizations standing in the wings, prepared to make major land acquisitions here.  The townspeople of Kennebunkport need a KCT recommitted and dedicated to saving land, not buildings.