Day 17.343: Birding birds

Some of the birds we sa yesterday:

Red-bellied woodpecker

Pileated woodpecker 

Another red-bellied woodpecker after the sun had climbed a little

Northern pintail (L) and mallard

The pintail again

Red- breasted merganser out on the river

View out over the marsh around dawn

Day 17.342: Morning birding surprise

We did indeed see some birds on our birding walk this morning, but the biggest surprise was a sighting of a different kind - a coyote on the marsh by the river.

There is some concern that it seems to have some fur loss on its back - possibly indicating some sickness. Nevertheless, it was a majestic sight in the early morning light.

Day 17.341: Choral

It was the second and final night of the winter choral concerts tonight. The centerpiece of the concert is a processional by the full concert choir to a version of “O Holy Night” we first experienced it when Exile #3 had just started high school 8 years ago and have had one or more children in it every year since (except for one year when it didn’t happen due to COVID).

E5N1 also sang in the auditioned choir including a solo tonight and played some percussion for a few songs. Here he is after the night was done.

Day 17.340: Delay: instrumental

This time of year is normally rather busy, this year it seems excessively so. Last week was the instrumental concerts and this week the choral concerts except that the storm caused a power outage that caused the second night of the instrumental concert to be canceled (at first) and then later rescheduled to yesterday.

E5N1 playing trumpet in the jazz band

E5N1 after playing French horn in the concert band

And, in addition to that, this week I have senior management visiting at work, our holiday party and a video to edit while Exile #2 also had a drive to bring Exile #4 home from college - all in addition to the normal two nights of the choral concerts. We didn’t go tonight, but we plan to be there tomorrow. 

Day 17.339: Three minutes of birds at the feeders

As part of my preparation for the dance show video, I set up the DSLR on a tripod on Saturday with a mains power supply and shot some video with it. Here's a three minute edit.

Day 17.338: Exile #2's Sunday Column #504

Exile #2 writes...

Here’s another photo of E5N1, courtesy of his school Facebook page. Underneath this gloriously hideous holiday sweater he had two thermal layers, and a fleecy jacket. It still wouldn’t have been enough for me! I had many, many layers on, thermal and otherwise, but still needed to curl up with a hot water bottle when we got home!

Exile #1 has spent the afternoon today in his side hustle as dance videographer. He is currently at the slightly nerve wracking data transfer phase but is hoping his now years of experience will make for a quick editing process!

Day 17.337: Parade of Lights

It was chilly and dry for the parade of lights this evening. We were especially looking out for the dance school (I'll be spending some more time with them tomorrow), E5N1 marching with the school performing arts department and some of our birding friends representing Saco Bay Trails. This is how some of it looked:

Including; Slugger (member of the Mascots Hall of Fame), festive Mandalorians and Santa in the fire boat.

Here is the school group:

And E5N1 - adding puppeteering to his performing arts roster:

He had a great time having his puppet alter-ego high-five the little kids along the far side of the road,

The funniest moment was this snowman starting to limbo as the inflation pump stopped just as the float passed us. He was almost horizontal before he stood back up again after a technical intervention.

But the most surprising moment was the float that brought the snow storm to this chilly evening.