Birds fly south in the winter and north in the spring. That’s probably how most people in the U.S. would describe the phenomenon of bird migration.

And it’s broadly and generally true. A great mass of billions of individual birds make a migratory trek to be in northern landscapes when those places are warm and full of food and mirror that movement to escape back south when the weather turns cold and food is unavailable. 

Individual birds that stray from the north-south pattern are what stoke the fires of many a birder’s passion. Here in Maine this winter, birders have excitedly traveled to

Cooks cooking cookies! Yes, it's time for our world-famous Cookie Walk on Friday, Feb. 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.! We are busy getting our best cookies ready for you. Stroll along tables full of cookies and build your own assortment.

More food for you! On Wednesday, Feb. 18, we're having another free community soup lunch with homemade soups, breads and desserts from 11:30 a.m. until we run out! Everyone is welcome.

On a serious note, we are badly in need of volunteer drivers for our People Helping People program which helps local residents who can't drive by taking them shopping and to

I wasn't sure whether to do a year two of our monthly list of good things that happened in or near Wiscasset. We noted five things a month in 2025; it sometimes felt redundant to either the reporting or editorials on some of those things. But as we this week have been in a slight break from the cold, or at least from the daytime cold, with another cold seige expected, and Punxsutawney Phil's prediction Monday for six more weeks of winter, I thought, for these and other reasons, we should try to celebrate local positives as much as possible.

So, here are January's honorees, as we start to fete

It’s Super Bowl week and am I excited? Somewhat. Not feeling the happiness and anticipation like I have in the past when the New England Patriots made it to the big game. This is their 12th appearance in the Super Bowl, more than any other team in the National Football League. Perhaps that is it – we fans have been spoiled by their success over the past two-plus decades. I should be more excited after suffering through the past two or three (or more) seasons, when they didn’t even make the playoffs. This year’s team sure exceeded expectations and I expect them to give the Seattle Seahawks a

An old-time cop once told me that the only government official who could quickly reduce crime was not the governor, mayor, or police chief. It was the weatherman. Sound silly?

For all their grand pronouncements and executive orders, coupled with profane exclamations, mayors, governors, tough-on-crime prosecutors, and cops all seem to fail at cutting the crime rate.

I know the nation’s crime is down and that may be due to demographics, not government policy.

The old cop explained it this way. Crooks are lazy. When it is pouring rain or as cold as it can be, they stay home rather than going out

If you were to take a stroll (safely accompanied by shipyard staff) around the historic Boothbay Harbor Bristol Marine property, you would be amazed by the amount of activity at every turn.

Presently, a full speed ahead repair project is under way on the main railway. Work is focused on the time-sensitive repair of the great ship Niagra. From the street, driving by, it would be difficult to realize what is going on under the huge white canopy that protects the ship and workers. So let me give you a little tour from my weekly photographs at the yard.

The on deck work involves new major sections

Winter has certainly descended on us with a vengeance leaving us with heavy snow and plunging temperatures -- even our snowbirds are experiencing some of the same weather issues.

All of this extreme weather has me counting the days until summer and our return to Ocean Point.

The beauty of Ocean Point in winter is not lost on us as several of our Ocean Point friends continue to post pictures as a reminder of how peaceful and picturesque our community is despite some harsh conditions.

I was happy to read that the bell at the East Boothbay Methodist Church has been repaired and is now in good

This Sunday is not a repeat of the last, no snow appears to be coming with this “storm,” just frigid temperatures and winds that make them feel much colder. The storm had an interesting descriptor, Bomb Cyclone, essentially a winter hurricane, fueled by cold temperatures. There are certainly more nomenclature for weather phenomena than there once were, though we still have just the five primary types, sunny, rainy, windy, stormy, and cloudy, their intensity and meteorological upgrades give us some of the current designations, like Polar Vortex, Atmospheric River, and this Bomb Cyclone. Weather

Dear Editor:

The businesses that closed their doors on Jan. 30 for the National Shutdown-Ice-out, did nothing but frustrate shoppers. Shoppers who on a bitterly cold day in January came to find you closed. Shoppers who don’t follow the political rhetoric and only came to support your business.

As a retired buyer, I looked for the best item at the best price to pass onto my customer. Never did I think how this purchase would play in the world of politics.

ICE agents are being brutally attacked by well-funded protesters. No one here is talking about the ICE agents and the FBI that found 6,000

Dear Editor:

Dear Editor:

Due to the limited number of words in letters to the editor you will have to write your own. Ask yourself these questions, if you're not 100% sure of the answers ask Google AI (a very good source).

Q1. What is a color revolution?

Q2. How would a group takeover the USA?

Q3. What are “World Communists?”

Q4. What are “Elite Communist” groups?

Q5. What is a “Street Communist?"

Q6. What tactics would the world communists' use to overthrow the U.S. government?

By this time if you’re still awake and really care you will see that this country is in the midst of a color revolution.

Which

Dear Editor: 

A complete embarrassment. That was not a State of the State address. Our governor is starring defeat square in its face. She nurtures the far left, as a Leon Trotsky sound-alike barks up the future voters tree.

Disgusted Republicans walkout of an angry, accusatory campaign speech. Meanwhile, a Maine senator quells heated tempers and potential street violence. The only adult in the room. For now at least, federal law enforcement is drawing back beefed-up ICE operations here. It took the sensitivity and intelligence of a Washington lawmaker to douse the sparks of conflict. Not the

When I was a teenager, on the rare occasions that I was allowed to drive my parents’ car, my mother would always say “drive carefully” as I left the house. I would nod in agreement – I mean, what else could I do? Years later when my own kids were teenagers driving my car, I found myself saying those same words, “drive carefully.” Time passes quickly and those teenagers have all grown up. Yet, after every time they visit us, I still think “drive carefully” as they drive away, even if I don’t say the words out loud.

My first car had a four-speed standard transmission. Even better, both the

Dear Editor:

Last week, a letter writer defended the deployment and tactics of ICE in “sanctuary states.” While I disagree with her thesis, she made me rethink my own stance regarding Steven Miller’s war on immigrants. Is there a middle ground between “Abolish ICE” and the indiscriminate, extralegal detention and deportation of immigrants and U.S. citizens?

Donald Trump regularly refers to “the worst of the worst” as targets for his campaign to expel non-citizens. If they are, as he claims, terrorists, gang members, rapists, murderers, drug dealers, and evictees from mental institutions, then

Dear Editor:

Money in politics limits the voices of everyday voters. We, the people, are continually drowned out by an avalanche of spending.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) positioned the Court as the nation’s chief decision maker about whether and how money in politics could be regulated. That ruling set the stage for Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Jan. 21 marked the 16th anniversary of the Citizens United decision, which ushered in unlimited amounts of money in our elections.

Billionaires and corporate donors have front-row access to our elected

Tax season is stressful enough, and scammers take full advantage of that with IRS impostor schemes.  

They reach out, claiming you owe back taxes and threaten legal action if you don’t pay immediately. These messages are designed to create panic and push you to act fast, often demanding payment by wire transfer, gift cards, or cryptocurrency — all guaranteed signs of a scam. 

Unless you’re already working with the IRS on a tax issue, the agency will generally not contact you, and if they do, it’s typically by mail first.  

When in doubt, disengage and verify by contacting the IRS directly

As Boothbay Harbor prepares to celebrate the 64th annual Windjammer Days, this year’s theme proudly honors the past, present, and retired members of the United States Navy who have served our nation with dedication and distinction. Throughout the coming weeks, we will feature a series of profiles highlighting local Navy service members—sharing their stories, experiences, and the lasting impact of their service. These articles are a tribute to the men and women whose commitment to duty reflects the maritime heritage at the heart of Windjammer Days and the deep appreciation of our community

This past week, I conducted a “4 Chaplain Ceremony” at an assisted living facility in Brunswick. The ceremony honors 4 chaplains who lost their lives, along with 672 troops, on board the troopship Dorchester that was torpedoed and sank in the North Atlantic on Feb. 3, 1943. The 4 chaplains were of different faiths: a priest, a rabbi, a reformed minister, and a Methodist minister.  The chaplains sought to calm the men and organize an orderly evacuation off the ship and help guide wounded men to safety. As life jackets were passed out to men, the supply ran out before each man had one. The

It was bitterly cold outside but warm and comfy inside at the Rotary Club meeting last week. Our guest speakers were John and Daniel, friends of the Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club. Independently, they found their way to Uganda and to a community of 4,000 people in the Kagunda Valley in an agricultural area southwest of Kampala. There they learned that the inhabitants – the women and girls, that is – spend most of their day, every day, fetching water from a single well that provided way too little of the precious commodity. This means, of course, that the women can’t grow food in a kitchen garden

Last Saturday, I bundled up, excited for the stories I would experience within the framed and unframed works in Boothbay Region Art Foundation's annual "Wintering" exhibition. 

Kharris Bill’s “Wintry View” brings us inside looking out a window one evening. Abstract bare trees of black stand in a depth of snow, wild and windy flakes of white swirls and squiggles among them. A delightful, free and whimsical scene. Caroline Clare Davis’ “Winter Trees” painting of a forest scene could be a still from a Disney fairytale film like “Snow White,” or an illustration of some other land bound between two