NATURE NOTES FROM ACADIA

Hardy Birds

A lone robin has spent this bitter cold winter in and about the haw hedge which grows on the Acadia National Park Office grounds, while an unusually approachable blue jay has been seen time and again at Sieur de Monts Spring. In Bar Harbor, in small pools of open water just off the wharf, flocks of buffleheads and goldeneyes defy the piercing winter blasts which sweep over the frozen expanse of the bay. Although under ordinary circumstances they are fairly approachable, these ducks, especially the attractive little buffleheads, appear almost wholly unconcerned about one's presence when strong biting winds send the mercury far below the zero mark. On February 9, with the mercury around 20&dg; below zero, I was able to come within a few yards of some buffleheads which were resting in a little pool of open water.

- A. S.