Day 18.075: Check, check, …?

A small water leak in the basement has been fixed. 

Yesterday, I installed a new dishwasher:

And…maybe tomorrow…our bathroom will be done and useable again. 

Day 18.074: Morning after

The snow and ice has mostly cleared at this end of the day, but this was how things looked this morning:

As we expected, the not-recently-treated roads were rather slick, but we managed our morning travel without any significant issues. 

Day 18.073: Spring in Maine

As we walked in light jackets under blue skies on Saturday morning we joked that it certainly looked like snow was on the way. We knew it was, but it certainly did not look like it.  We expected a coating of snow followed by rain, but it’s been mostly snow at times falling as enormous flakes. The roads are slushy at the end of the day with a freeze to come overnight, so the morning may be a bit messy. We shall see. 

Day 18.072: Exile #2’s Sinday518

Exile #2 writes...

Some of E5N1’s friends have been on vacation from college and that has meant some fun get togethers, perhaps appreciated all the more as those still in high school are getting ready for the craziness of the school musical next week.

One of the get togethers was at an axe throwing venue. I’m not sure if this particular leisure pursuit has made it across the Atlantic yet but it is much as it sounds from what I can gather - throwing axes (and other things) at a target. “It’s OK. They’re not very sharp.” E5N1 informed us before, in the next breath, admitting to having accidentally sliced through his shirt with one. Well, at least he came home in one piece…

Day 18.071: East Point birding

Exile #2 and I drove over to Biddeford Pool to visit East Point Sanctuary. On first arrival, we thought there weren't many birds around, but they were all on the pool channel side, away from the worst of the wind. We were also grateful to spend most of our time on the sheltered side.

Here is some of what we saw.

Common eider

Common loon

Surf scoters - a small group in full breeding clown-face

Red-breasted merganser

Great cormorant - first seen on the rocks in the channel, then it flew out off the point to the post where we've seen it before

Black scoter - we saw more than thirty in total

Day 18.070: Commuter ducks

These ducks don’t travel the roads to an office job, but I do and yesterday, my route took me (with camera in the car) right past the pond where they were hanging out, so I doubled back and took a few photos. 

Common merganser (female)

Common mergansers and ring-necked ducks

Common mergansers (male)

Day 18.069: Less than 12 hours later

Our regular nature walk came just a few hours after our woodcock outing. Here is some of what we saw:

Song sparrow in … song

House finch side-eye

House finch drama

House finch unmoved by drama

Mourning dove

Spring has arrived for the willows

Chickadee

Spring has also arrived for the daffodils (a bit late for St. David’s Day)

I’m not sure why these ones are so yellow but they are quite striking against the dark wet leaf litter