When my binoculars focused on a Blackburnian Warbler in the front yard of our Mount Vernon home, I was hooked.

For years we watched our neighbor, Dona Seegars, binoculars plastered to her face, walking our property in the spring. When she finally got Linda and I out there with her, seven years ago, the number of warblers on our property amazed and thrilled us. And my first look at the wondrously colorful Blackburnian made me a bird watcher.

Invasive nonnative fish and plants have changed my life. Some have changed things for the better, others not so much.

Young Gabe Jacobs (in the accompanying photo) will enjoy catching whopper northern pike in the Belgrade Lakes - but never experience the spectacular landlocked salmon fishing there that I once enjoyed. Some idiot dumped northern pike into the Belgrades. These voracious predators have changed that lake system forever. My salmon are gone.

The annual Milfoil Summit is always engaging and sometimes entertaining, with a mix of speakers and an audience that is passionate about protecting our lakes from invasive plants.

WARNING: The following information may discourage you from venturing outdoors this spring, summer, and fall. Proceed (in both reading this and going outside) with extra special caution.

Lyme disease lurks outside your door. And the alarming statistics about the growing problem here in Maine don’t fully portray the extent of the problem - because this debilitating disease usually goes undetected in medical tests and doctor’s visits.

If there’s one thing that made me a life-long advocate for and customer of LL Bean, it’s the company’s guarantee for everything they sell. If I don’t like it, for any reason, at any time, Bean takes it back. No receipt required.

This week the legislature considers Governor Paul LePage’s three nominees for the Land for Maine’s Future. All three are exceptional. This is an “A” team, but we’re putting them into a race car that is out of gas – with nobody in the pit to fill up the tank or change the tires.