Day 13.142: Exile #2's Sunday Column #300

Exile #2 writes...

In these strange times, it sometimes feels like the only thing that changes is the length of the grass in the yard. We have, however, finally reached some significant milestones.

Exile #3 is done with High School studies, and has collected from school her graduation cap, gown and tassel, plus a very bright and shiny honors medal. She’ll get to use it this week in a socially distanced filming of her graduation walk. Picking up the gown was a moment of loveliness in the midst of many disappointments, as teachers and counselors stood at the curb cheering for each student that pulled up.

Exile #4 is also done with work and we got to go to her awards ceremony virtually. She picked up an award for being on the Honor Roll, plus awards for excellence in Geometry and History.

I picked something up myself -  this sign - that we are displaying on our front lawn, along with many other local parents of seniors. Its a bit corny but it’s actually quite special to walk around the streets and see them all out there.

Day 13.141: Camp Ellis beach

We had a lovely walk - along the beach from Camp Ellis - this morning. The beach was fairly sparsely populated (for near low-tide anyway) except by gulls enjoying a crab lunch (the crabs - not so much):

Day 13.140: Board games are back

For several months when the mood for board games arose, we played Pandemic Legacy (most recently season 2), somehow around mid-February the enthusiasm for playing a game based around a global pandemic dipped a little and as a result there has been less game playing altogether.

Over the last week or so though we've had a resurgence of gaming thanks to some old games and a new one. Here is some of the evidence - Catan and the new arrival Life Siphon:

Day 13.139: Plants at Timber Point

We saw lots of spring wildflowers - including lily of the valley, star flower, sea pea and wild strawberry (and several others unidentified or temporarily forgotten):

The sumac - such a big feature later in the year is just starting to come into leaf, one bush on the island was still holding onto some berries as it put out its first leaf buds and the woods were full of fiddleheads as the ferns push their way through the leaf litter:

Day 13.138: Lots of birds at Timber Point

Some of the birds we saw at Timber Point on Monday. Starting with - unexpected beach birds - featuring a gray catbird doing a strange tail in the air darting motion, an American robin, an eastern kingbird (we later saw its distinctive white tipped tail) and a red-winged blackbird:

Secondly - non-sea-birds out and about - featuring a northern mockingbird, a common grackle (not so commonly seen since we moved to Maine), a tree swallow (one of several swooping low over the beach), a brown-headed cowbird (presumably not caring for its own young), a chipping sparrow (ground) and a song sparrow (at the top of a bush - and yes it was singing!):

Sea and coast birds - featuring - double crested cormorants (the biggest flying group I've ever seen, a more usual solitary fly-by and one perched on a rock), a tern of some sort and more eider (a pair that seemed to come for a close look at us when we arrived and (between them here) a group including some with immature plumage:

And finally - birds in a blossoming tree - featuring a male goldfinch, a female yellowthroat (we are fairly sure) and a female ruby-throated hummingbird (we also saw a male feeding here) and there were lots of other small birds that were two skittish to photograph:

Day 13.137: Timber Point and Timber Island

From our lovely early-ish walk at Timber Point and around Timber Island on Memorial Day morning. Pictured - some makeshift monuments, an island  that we thought looked a bit tropical - although we know it is not, some colorful seaweed and an impressive inclusion:

not pictured: birds and plants - they will come to those who wait.

Day 13.136: Exile #2's Sunday* Column #299

Editor's note: Today is not Sunday, but it is the last day of the (Memorial Day) weekend, so this is a virtual Sunday column for a virtual Sunday (there's a lot of that going on at the moment!).

Exile #2 writes...

We made another attempt to visit one of our favorite places today. We’d tried last week but found the tiny parking lot full. Today, we got out nice and early and beat the crowds, larger this weekend due to it being the long Memorial Day weekend.

The preserve is one of a series named after Rachel Carson, the naturalist who alerted people to the dangers of using DDT in farming and it is gorgeous. The walk starts on a narrow road alongside a pretty cove. There are hedgerows on each side that are covered in wild roses in the summer. The path then branches off past a marshy reed bed and a butterfly garden, then through some woods before opening out into a meadow and then onto a pebble beach. It was low tide, so we were even able to cross the causeway to a small island. It was a lovely way to start the day.

Day 13.135: The grill is open

Despite the fact that it seems to have been March for three straight months, people are opening their pools marking the unofficial start of summer, and we - not having a pool - are marking the change of season by starting up the grill. Of course plenty of people use their grills all year, but we are not that committed.

Yesterday's dinner was burgers - grilled with a blast of hickory smoke:

followed by s'mores that started with grilled marshmallows:

and although most of us needed a warm layer in the rapidly cooling late afternoon, we ate outside on the deck:

Day 13.134: Plants at East Point Sanctuary

I don't know much about plants, but here are some that caught our eye at East Point on Wednesday:

and in the woods, the jack-in-the-pulpit was just coming into flower:

Day 13.133: Birds at East Point Sanctuary

It was a good day for bird sightings, and a middling day for bird photography. There were lots of common eiders - mostly pairs - either flying or swimming:

Other birds caught as they flew by were a double-crested cormorant, an American oystercatcher and a common tern:

Spotted perching were a barn swallow, a gray catbird - showing a nice glimpse of chestnut and a song sparrow that was drawing a lot of attention with - you guessed it - a song:

I also saw a common yellowthroat, but he was camera shy. Last but not least (by size anyway), this "bird" seen through the heat haze:

Day 13.132: East Point Sanctuary

We had a lovely visit to East Point Sanctuary yesterday. There were several other people there, but social distancing was pretty easy and we wore our masks when we were forced to pass relatively close to others.

The waves were crashing and the views were spectacular:

In fact it was clear enough to see Mount Washington - 75 miles away:

I'm still sorting through pictures of birds and plants - so I'll report on our sightings on another day.

Day 13.131: Hosta

I had the day off work today and Exile #2 and I split our time between doing some music and an outing. Both were a lot of fun, but I'm not ready to break them down for you yet, so here is a beautiful hosta just by the deck in our back yard. Spring has arrived!

Day 13.130: Some more birds

Here are some mediocre photos of some more recent bird sightings.

A large raft of ducks off Bayview beach which appear (the ones I could identify at least) to be long-tailed ducks, a piping plover at the same beach (the dunes are cordoned off at this time of year because they nest there), and a purple finch (probably - it could be a house finch) in our own back yard.

Day 13.129: Mealtime hummingbird

It didn't take long after we put the hummingbird feeder up before I disturbed a female ruby-throated hummingbird there as I went to open the door onto the deck. It was several more days before I attempted to get a photograph and even more before I managed to get one - a partial view of a female hiding behind the window furniture.

Then, a couple of days ago as we were eating, a male came and spent a long time feeding - moving from side to side around the feeder then sitting for a while, then moving again. Of course I had no means of getting a photograph within my reach.

Then today - as we were eating dinner - he came again and I was ready!

Day 13.128: Exile #2's Sunday Column #298

Exile #2 writes...

Our walk on the beach yesterday was definitely welcome, although it did cause E5N1 some melancholy moments. As we walked along, he couldn’t help but reflect on the things that would be different this year: no going on vacation, or eating out (which he loves to do). He is missing his buddies and missing being able to go play on the street with the neighborhood kids. We sense this will only get more difficult, as some of them are already playing together again but we’ll see how things go.

Not that he's not enjoying some of the permitted activities!

On the plus side, Exile #3’s dance teacher has been hatching ingenious plans to allow some sort of socially distant end of year show to happen, and the high school graduation ceremony is going to happen courtesy of safely filmed individual segments shown at the local drive-in movie theater.

Day 13.127: Packed

It felt like a very full day but I'm glad that three of us made time for a little walk on the beach after lunch. The beach was busy too - although "packed" would be a stretch. Still, social distancing was a little harder than on our recent visits. Summer is coming - ready or not.

Day 13.126: A very Maine puzzle

This was a fun one - especially because we do our puzzles without referring to the picture so we had no idea how this one was going to fit together:

In other news, I saw my first hummingbird today at the feeder we just put up earlier this week.

Day 13.125: Spring brings bugs

I was quite pleased with this photo taken with my iPhone of an insect on the outside of the window:

The fact that there are so many of the little critters around at the moment is less pleasing, but I guess it's part of the rapid onset of spring that we are experiencing right now. So we'll just have to take the bad with the green I suppose.

Day 13.124: Fill 'er up

30 cubic feet of garden soil later...

Now all we need is an end to these frost-risk nights and chilly days so that there is a chance that something that we want might grow in it.

Day 13,123: Middle Goosefare Trails and beaver-check

Here are some more pictures from the Middle Goosefare Trails on Sunday:

As we left, we went to check on the beaver dam - it's still somewhat functional (pictures below are two of the pond it forms from below and above and a close-up of the dam). It definitely doesn't look as well maintained as sometimes, so maybe the beavers have left, but it could just be that there has been a lot of water in the streams recently.

See yesterday's post for the coyotes we saw and this one from Day 9.094 for a much smaller E5N1 and his sisters on the same trails.