Dear Katie,

June is here! Below are just a few of the posts from our Harpswell Nature Watchers Facebook group. Want to see the rest? Click here to join.

What are you seeing out there? We'd love to hear from you! Click here for more information about Harpswell Nature Watchers.

A fascinating group of spiders. According to my research, these are argiope spiderlings. Garden spiders that aren’t poisonous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something like this before. 

(Submitted by Liz Incze. May 30, 2023)

A new one to me. Grey plover, aka black-bellied plover. I thought they were yellowlegs when I saw someone else taking pictures, but he told me they were black-something plovers, so I took my own pictures.

(Submitted by Howard Marshall. May 28, 2023)

Sleepy fox in South Harpswell.



(Submitted by Glen Grauer. May 26, 2023)

Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis)

These plants are everywhere—on the road edges, in the understory of the forest—a very common sight. So much so that you really don’t take notice of them. But you really should, because right now, they are hiding a lovely, unusual flower under their umbrella-like canopy of leaves. Wild sarsaparilla are about 1 to 2-feet tall and have tiny white-green flowers arranged in a sphere. They will produce blue-black berries in mid-summer. The root is spicy and aromatic and has been substituted for sassafras in the making of home brewed root beer. The plant is in the ginseng family. Its cousin, bristly sarsaparilla (Aralia hispida) has different leaves and very prickly stems. It will produce similar flowers held on a long stalk high above its leaves later in the summer (last picture).

(Submitted by Lynn Knight. May 24, 2023)

A porcupine in a tree at Potts Point!

(Submitted by Shannon Grauer. May 13, 2023)

Geese in Potts harbor.

(Submitted by Barry Coflan. May 7, 2023)