Read about the summer adventures of Hunter and Julie, Student Conservation Association (SCA) interns working with the park's Division of Interpretation to present programs to the public.

(You can also read about the adventures of SCAs in their blogs from previous years.)

August 20, 2008. Hello Acadia enthusiasts!

Summer has finally arrived here in Maine. This past week we had temperatures in the high 80s and even 90 degrees! It seems weird now to have such summery weather when our HawkWatch is starting. The migrating raptors are a telltale sign that autumn is coming our way. Personally I’m fine with that; it is my favorite season, especially in New England. Another special event this week was my birthday! I got to see a migrating peregrine falcon as a present, along with almost 20 other raptors on top of Cadillac.

I’m super excited to have some fun on my birthday, and it seems many other people are excited to be in Acadia as well. This over-exuberance seems to be leading to some nasty accidents around the park. It is always very important to be aware of your surroundings wherever you are. Wearing correct shoes, like hiking boots, and bringing lots of water are two of the most important steps you can take to have a fun, safe vacation. I learned an important lesson today about sunscreen. I now have a lovely ranger-tan (forearm) on only my right arm. It is quite attractive. Tomorrow, even if it is rainy, I’ll be wearing sunblock on both my arms. The sun is harsh on your skin, but don’t forget about your eyes! Sunglasses are key to preventing headaches and fatigue on those sunny days. The best way to have a great vacation is to relax and enjoy the sights around you. Don’t worry about seeing everything, but concentrate on what you see in the moment. 

So enjoy scanning the skies for raptors or swimming at Sand Beach, but whatever you do be safe. Happy trails!

—Julie

Hunter enjoys 19th-century games at Carroll Homestead.

August 12, 2009. Greetings, avid SCA blog readers! These past two weeks have been really fast-paced as we reach peak visitation at Acadia National Park. I usually prefer fewer crowds, but these August visitors seem to be parting the clouds and bringing the sun in their suitcases. When I first arrived at Acadia in June, SCA Julie and I considered a good-sized group on a ranger program to be ten or more people. In these first two weeks of August we have consistently had more than one hundred visitors at our tide pool and astronomy programs. Two months ago I couldn’t even fathom speaking in front of fifty or a hundred people, yet I’ve strangely become accustomed to it as the groups keep growing.

I love teaching people about crabs and lobsters at Tidepool School. Prior to this internship I knew nothing about crabs or lobsters, and now I can’t get enough of them. For example, crabs and lobsters use two very different strategies to spread their young out into the world. Crabs will lay millions of eggs, and when they hatch the larvae is at the mercy of the strong currents of the ocean. Most of the crab larvae become food for other marine creatures, but some survive and settle to the ocean floor to become young crabs. Lobsters sacrifice the power of numbers for mobility—they lay only tens of thousands of eggs, but the larvae develop into tiny lobsters that have the ability to swim around the surface of the ocean with claws outstretched like superman hunting for food. Scientists have dubbed these mini-superheroes “superlobsters.” When a superlobster grows to be about 1 inch long, they dive down to the sea floor in search of a nice hiding spot to molt and become tiny versions of the lobsters that we eat. Lobsters and crabs also have a special muscle at the base of each limb that can trigger a mechanism to cut their own leg or claw off. If a large gull grabs a hold of a crab’s claw, the crab has to make a really tough decision: lose the claw or risk being the gull’s lunch. If the crab does detach its claw, fortunately it can grow the limb back in just a few molts.

Although I have spent most of my time recently preparing for ranger programs and helping lead ranger programs, I’ve luckily had a few small gaps in my schedule to continue exploring Acadia through the eyes of a new visitor. For instance, last week I tagged along with another intern to the Carroll Homestead Open House. The Carroll Homestead is an 1800s farm home that was eventually donated to Acadia National Park. Four generations of the Carroll family lived on this farm from 1825 to 1917. Afterward it was maintained as a mountain house getaway for the Carroll family until it was donated to the park in 1982. My fellow intern and I showed up at the Carroll Homestead expecting to take a quick tour of the house and be on our way. First we did take a nice self-guided tour exploring every nook and cranny of the house. Unexpectedly when we stepped outside there were loads of fun activities set up for visitors: cross-cut sawing, stilt-walking, nineteenth century clothing, and a bunch of old outdoor children games. I must have spent an hour running around the field chasing wooden hoops with sticks, dressing up in old farm clothes, and playing a game of catch with two wooden wands and a small thread-covered hoop. I would have never imagined you could have so much fun with some wooden sticks and hoops.

—Hunter

August 4, 2009. So, Hunter thinks that I prematurely started the end of the summer count down. Well, maybe a little, but I only meant that mathematically there is less time left in our summer. End of the summer blues or not, I’ve been having loads of fun with Hunter, the other interns, and rangers of the park. Everyone always has a great story to tell about something that happened to them that day. That is just what happens in a park as popular as Acadia.

Hunter already told you his awesome story about the peregrine diving right in front of him, and it is going to be hard to top that, but I’ll give it a go. This past week was the best week for Stars Over Sand Beach we’ve had all summer. Both nights were wonderfully clear, even if the quarter moon dimmed some stars. On my night on the beach, at the very end of the program when most of the visitors had left, we saw something spectacular. Shooting stars are very common, and we usually see several over the course of the program. But this was different. This shooting star, or meteor, was extremely bright and garnered a collective “Ooooooooh!” from the people left of the beach. Then a collective surprised, “Whoa!!!” FLASH! The meteor exploded in our atmosphere! The flash was quick, but it was bright. The people who were unfortunately tying their shoes (like Ranger Tony) didn’t see the meteor, but they saw the flash. It was so bright that some people thought it was lightning. I hope we have some more clear nights this summer so more people can see awesome things like that!

—Julie

July 27, 2009. Shiver me timbers! Another week has passed and it seems SCA Julie already started the end-of-internship countdown – a little bit prematurely if you ask me. We still have the whole month of August to look forward to. I keep telling myself (I have to tell myself) it will be a month accompanied by picturesque skies, our volunteer coordinator’s famous fruit-filled pies, and UV-protective sun tanning supplies.

Alas, as the month of August approaches there is one thing that puts a damper on those soon-to-be sunny days. The two juvenile peregrine falcons will soon be leaving their current home on the eastern cliffs of Champlain Mountain. As Julie mentioned below, the “Peregrine Watch” is one of the programs we assist rangers with each week. It’s really a neat program. We set up viewing scopes at the base of the cliff-face for three hours in the morning, keep a close eye on the state-endangered peregrines, and share the experience with any passing visitors.

On July 14 at the Peregrine Watch, I was fortunate enough to witness the extreme capabilities of an experienced peregrine falcon. We weren’t seeing much of the juvenile peregrines because they were like teenagers with drivers’ licenses—they flew away from the nest for long periods of time, occasionally returning to harass Mom and Dad for food. However, we were lucky enough to spot the adult female circling about 1,000 feet above us near the top of the cliff face. As we watched with binoculars at our eyes, she suddenly stooped into a speedy descent. The bird tucked her wings behind her body to achieve aerodynamic perfection and accelerated to at least sixty miles per hour across the cliff face. As the peregrine dropped below the tree line, I looked at the visitors around the small gravel viewing area to see if their jaws dropped like mine. Suddenly, WHAM!! I looked over my right should and saw the adult female peregrine emerge through a flurry of feathers with a robin-sized bird in its talons. The speedy peregrine looked as if it would nonchalantly continue its flight directly above us, but she accidentally dropped the prey adjacent to our viewing area. So, she was forced to come to a screeching halt only a few yards in front of us. I could almost feel the wind from her rapidly flapping outstretched wings as she miraculously maneuvered a U-turn while decelerating from her high velocity stoop. Within seconds she had swooped back down towards the prey, plucked it from ground mid-flight, and began the ascent to her food stash on the cliff. I’ll never forget the look on the interpretive ranger’s face as she jumped with joy and exclaimed, “I’ve been watching these falcons for eight years and I’ve never seen anything as incredible as this!”

—Hunter

July 21, 2009. I cannot believe that there are only 5 more weeks of my SCA internship. This summer has gone by so quickly. It must be the fact that it has only felt like summer for the past week or so. Acadia certainly has grown on me though, as I will be staying at the park until the end of October working for the education department. So look for me this fall on your school’s next fieldtrip to Acadia National Park.

With this year’s summer season in full swing I have been very busy. I help out on four different ranger-led programs: Tidepool School, Stars Over Sand Beach, Peregrine Watch, and Habitat Hike. Each program is so unique, every time I do a program I learn something new.

"Tidepool School" is this year’s version of “Beyond the Beach.” Instead of being on the beach we bring the tidepools to the people. I get to talk to the visitors about all different types of animals and plants. The stars of the show, however, are the sea cucumbers, especially when the squirt water all over people.

"Stars Over Sand Beach" is an awesome program…when the stars are out. So far this summer we’ve had one and a half good nights for star gazing. That has not deterred us from trying. Every week we go to Sand Beach hoping, praying, and begging the stars to come out. That approach doesn’t seem to be working. When the stargazing gods are not cooperating, we instead tell stories and give the history of astronomy so visitors have something to take with them.

The peregrine watch is also a very exciting and interesting program… when the falcons are around. The two young at the Precipice nest-site have been flying for a couple of weeks now. They rarely stay in one spot for long, but it is fun watching them swoop and dive at each other, honing their skills as the world’s fastest bird. You can read much more about how our peregrines are doing at the View from the Aerie written by the other interpretation intern, Jenna.

The last program of the week for me is the "Habitat Hike" over at Ship Harbor. This program was developed by Ranger Mike, Hunter and I. It was a huge challenge creating a program for the public, but at the same time a lot of fun. On the hike we see a great variety of habitats all along the short 1.3-mile trail. Attendance for this morning program is not extremely high, but I think the word will get out and by August it will be packed! Who knows what will happen in the next two weeks? Hopefully summer sticks around for a little longer. Tune in every week for the next installment of the 2009 SCA Blog.

—Julie

July 13, 2009. Things are starting to fall into place for me here at Acadia National Park. The ranger programs are going very well. On Monday and Wednesday, I helped out with the tidepool programs and managed to keep the large Jonah crab in my hands (the previous week I accidentally dropped it in front of terrified young children). On Tuesday I helped out at the bustling Visitor Center—a fantastic location for people watching. Thursday was probably the most exciting day of my week. I started off the day kayaking with my supervisor to an excellent new tidepool in Somes Sound (we obtained five sea cucumbers and a blood star). Then I went on an adventure along the coast in the afternoon, ate an enormous “Bean Supper” at a local church, and assisted with the astronomy program later at night. It was the first time this summer that we’ve seen stars over Sand Beach—the other four times we saw rain and fog over Sand Beach.

This morning I awoke with a strange stinging feeling across my back and shoulders. I thought to myself, “What in the world is this burning sensation??? It seems awfully familiar from past California summers, but here in Maine I had never experienced such a thing.” That’s right folks. I’ve been roasting in the sun here at Acadia and have a classic case of sunburn!!! Woohoo!!! Come one, come all! There is plenty of this island paradise to share.

—Hunter

July 7, 2009. Hello from Acadia National Park’s interpretation division! My name is Julie, the other SCA intern. My background is just slightly different than my partner Hunter’s. I graduated from Clark University in my home state of Massachusetts and received my degree in Environmental Science and Conservation Biology. Ever since high school I knew I wanted to work outside, which is why being an SCA intern at Acadia National Park is just about perfect for me.

There have been so many amazing things I’ve learned in just the five weeks that I’ve been up here. We began our internship with training that took us through Acadia like a whirlwind. Each day we learned about a different part of Acadia: biology, history, pre-history, geology, ecology. After training ended the learning continued. Shadowing rangers on programs and exploring Mount Desert Island have been very exciting. A few highlights so far, for me, have been attending a Wabanaki circle drum performance, seeing the Milky Way across our sky on Sand Beach, and swimming in Long Pond (brrrrr!). With 1/3 of the summer already gone I can’t wait for what’s to come.

We hope you decide to join us up here in Maine for your summer fun. If you aren’t able to make the trek, however, follow along with Hunter and me as we chronicle our adventures in Acadia National Park.

—Julie

July 1, 2009. Hey there! My name is Hunter. I’m currently one of the Student Conservation Association (SCA) interns at Acadia National Park. The SCA is a nationwide conservation corps for high school and college-aged individuals—affording confused students, such as myself, with opportunities to work in conservation in beautiful places across the country. I grew up in Petaluma, CA (north of San Francisco), and two years ago I moved 40 miles south to attend college at the University of California, Berkeley. So, up until this month I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area my entire life.

Life in Acadia has been quite the departure from my hectic college life in the Bay Area. I’m living in an extraordinary house conveniently located on the Park Loop Road at an epicenter of great hiking trails and carriage roads. On weekends, I walk outside and I have to ask myself a really tough question: what should I do today? Hmm, should I hike to the top of one of the surrounding mountains (Cadillac, Penobscot, Pemetic, Sargent)? Should I meander across the street and take a stroll around Jordan Pond? Maybe I could hop on my road bike and cycle around the smoothly paved 27-mile Park Loop Road? Nah, I'll avoid the cars by borrowing my roommate's mountain bike for a ride through the woods on the rustic carriage roads.

Okay, okay, it has not been all sunshine and dandelions. As a matter of fact it has rained in Acadia throughout most of the month of June. We’re hoping summer lands on a weekend in July or August. I've also had "work" Monday through Friday about 8 hours each day, but I have a hard time calling it work. The first couple weeks of work were like an extended cram session on anything and everything Acadia National Park. The cram session consisted of many hikes with fellow employees, a very detailed bus tour of Mount Desert Island, and a boat cruise to the nearby Baker Island. Since then, my schedule has been more geared towards four specific ranger programs that I will be assisting or co-leading with interpretive park rangers (the ones with the cool hats). For example, this past week we collected tide pool creatures for a program about life in tide pools. On Thursday I drove over to a nearby tide pool with my supervisor at low tide (at seven o'clock in the morning, yikes!) and scrambled out to a small peninsula in my sandals and bathing suit. This was the first time visiting the tide pool this season and it was teeming with life—sea stars, sea urchins, hermit crabs, green crabs, toad crabs, dog whelks, periwinkles, mussels, you name it! We could have spent all day scrambling around these tide pools if it weren’t for the rising tide and waves beginning to crash over the narrow peninsula. My experience here at Acadia so far has been amazing. If only the sun would show itself a little more often.

Ciao for now!

—Hunter