Day 13.234: Alewive Woods Preserve

As Exile #2 mentioned, we had a short trail walk yesterday afternoon. Another new-to-us local spot - Alewive Woods Preserve.

The trail started out fairly uneventfully, but soon gave way to a very unusual-looking woodland - with lots of tall but relatively young trees - all very straight and orderly. We speculated that perhaps it was regrowth after a fire and we were right - apparently these red pines were planted after a fire in 1947.

The far end of the preserve has nice views of Alewive Pond. I'll tell you about our few wildlife sightings tomorrow.

Day 13.233: Exile #2's Sunday Column #311

Exile #2 writes...

We felt very virtuous after our big basement tidy up yesterday, even if some items were only moved purposefully to another part of the house. With a sprinkle of admin jobs and the conversion of some of our tomato bounty into sun dried tomatoes, it was a productive weekend all round. This being Maine, they are actually oven dried tomatoes but the effect is the same and they are delicious.

As a reward, we treated ourselves to a short but sweet hike and the final couple of episodes of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, season one. Exile #1 and I decided to rewatch it so Exile #4 and E5N1 could enjoy it too. It’s hard to describe. There’s plenty of music. It’s funny, surprisingly deep, and occasionally, like today, very, very sad (I’m not crying!... well, yes I am, quite a bit actually). We’d recommend, if you’re looking for something a little bit different.

Day 13.232: Rainy summer Saturday

I woke up to the realization that it was Saturday morning - and a day filled with possibilities. Then I realized I could hear rain. In fact it rained for much of the day, but we seized it anyway and decided to have a basement clear-out.

It may not be very different looking even to me, but many piles of "stuff" have been dealt with, the carpet has been vacuumed and both the desks have some clear space on them again.

Day 13.231: A lonely bun

When you forget how big the dinnertime family is at the moment:

Day 13.230: Plants at Timber Point

Plants are easier to photograph than birds - you can get closer to them before the run away and they tend to stay still for long periods of time.

They are harder to identify, but here are: some Queen Anne's lace, some roses and hips, apples on the tree that was being visited by hummingbirds on our last trip, blackberries, some flowers, some more flowers and a plant that brings its own soft-focus:

Day 13.229: "Refuses to die"

There were a number of signs on the first trail we walked at Massabesic Experimental Forest back on Day 13.221. Many of them had numbers or letters - presumably for some kind of educational tour. Most of the rest had the names of species of trees, but there were a few oddballs. This was the oddest:

And what was the sign referring to? Not easy to see at a first glance:

But that fallen down tree - as the sign says...seems to be refusing to die (see top left here):

Day 13.228: College student

This is how I documented this morning:

...but in case I fall in to the trap as remembering myself overcome with emotion as I tearfully said goodbye and left Exile #3 in her college dorm room...

I should also mention that she is on the 5th floor (4th floor UK-style) and I got incredibly sweaty and nearly overcome in a different way carrying her extremely heavy suitcase up all the stairs in the heat wearing a mask (followed by several more trips with other items) before getting emotional saying goodbye to her as I left her in her dorm room.

Day 13.227: Birds at Timber Point

Catching up with a few more photos from our vacation week trips.

Here are some birds we saw at Timber Point - a cedar waxwing, a gray catbird (presumably we were too near its nest for it to return there with its catch until we left), a common eider (we saw several - all females) and what I am reasonably sure is a spotless spotted sandpiper.

Day 13.226: Exile #2's Sunday Column #310

Exile #2 writes...

We’ve had a lovely staycation week, with lots of walks and good food. Perhaps the nicest surprise has been the discovery that there are still places nearby that we haven’t visited. But as always, there have been.new things to see at old favorites.

All this has slightly, but not always, distracted us from the fact that Exile #3 is heading off to college on Tuesday morning. True, she is not going to be far away, but as we know from her dog sitting jaunts, we really do miss her when she’s not around.

The other young Exiles still have a couple of weeks left of vacation but we have collected one school iPad already, and there is the sense of a new school year tentatively rolling forward.

Day 13.225: All the Saco beaches

Exile #2 and I walked the length of the Saco beaches this morning just after low tide. We parked at Camp Ellis, and walked along past Ferry Beach and Bayview and Kinney Shores to Goosefare Brook and back.

The major excitement started when we saw what seemed to be a large bird having just dived into the water. I snapped this quick picture:

I couldn't tell what it was, but from its size and behavior, I suspected an osprey.

I never got definitive confirmation, but I got some decent photos that removed any doubt once they could be viewed properly:

Later we saw a second one (there may have been three in fact), but this one seemed a bit uncertain as it was mobbed by some gulls - it seems to be a young one:

Closer to us, were some sandpipers (almost certainly semi-palmated):

and it was a lovely day for a walk apart from all that too!

Day 13.224: The all-day sandwich

Vacation day seven was another stay-at-home day. The kids have been talking all week about the plan to spend all day making a sandwich and - with another hot day with the threat of some storms, it seemed like a good day for that.

The sandwich was a pulled pork sandwich - and the all-day part was smoking a big hunk of pork.

I didn't quite nail it, but in the end the pork was satisfyingly smoky and very tasty and we ate it in sandwiches at a fairly normal dinner time, so it was a success overall.

Day 13.223: Kennebunk Plains

Another vacation day, another first-time visit to a local place of interest.

We had a very nice two mile or so walk at Kennebunk Plains this morning:

Our best sightings were probably the insects - pictured are a monarch butterfly, a cicada-killer wasp, a fritillary (probably great spangled) and a widow skimmer:

The birds were less cooperative - we saw lots of sparrows, at least some of which were chipping sparrows. These two were the best of the photos - an unidentified soaring raptor and a perching flycatcher - possibly either an eastern wood pewee or a willow flycatcher:

We didn't see either of the snakes that this place is famous for - but maybe next time!

Day 13.222: Massabesic Experimental Forest

Sometimes a place has a name that roughly translates to, "It doesn't matter what is there, we have to go" - so it was that today we found ourselves at Massabesic Experimental Forest.

It's name may be remarkable, but so is the place - we walked about four miles of trails (and a little road excursion when I got turned around and mistook where we were). The woodland is amazingly varied and the trails were well tended.

There were not many animals visible, but we heard them around us. I resigned myself to taking pictures of things that weren't moving:

but I did catch a chickadee and a chipmunk:

The wood frog was probably the most interesting sighting and definitely the best wildlife photo of the day. The kids saw the frog - Exile #2 and I must have walked right past - and Exile #3 took the photo.

Day 13.221: On the wild side

Those of us who exerted ourselves yesterday were content to have a stay-at-home day - as were those who didn't.

Exile #2 baked some gluten-free wild blueberry muffins inspired by the ones she discovered in Bar Harbor several years ago. We ate them with a side of blueberries - of course.

Maine wild blueberries are highly prized and for good reason, but they are not - strictly speaking - wild. Rather they are "low-bush" blueberries as opposed to their larger, less strongly flavored "high-bush" cousins. Quite a lot of those are grown in Maine too, but today was all about dessert on the wild side.

Apart from this, Exile #2 and I sang some songs and did some crosswords and four of us had a game of Pandemic (non-Legacy-style) and a couple of rounds of cornhole (Steven Universe style).

Day 13.220: Bobcat Loop (with a Bobcat)

Vacation day 3 - with the coolest weather of the week predicted, we decided to take the opportunity to do a hike in the woods.

Our destination was the new-to-us Smith Preserve in northern Kennebunkport. Only three of us decided to attack this one - a 7.5 mile loop including the length of the Bobcat Ridge Trail. The terrain was surprisingly varied - including fern carpeted woods and pine clinging to the rocks (some of which are probably glacial erratics):

There were lots of birds and bugs making noise around and above us, but mostly staying out of sight. We did see a Bobcat on the trail though - that was E5N1 showing his school pride - but no bobcats.

The rest of the day saw some relaxation and a quick board game - pretty good all around.

Day 13.219: Exile #2's Sunday Column #309

Exile #2 writes...

Unlike other places we have lived, our plans here are often more dependent on the tides than the weather. So it was today. We decided to enjoy a leisurely morning with yummy French Toast first, before popping out to Timber Point at low tide so we could make it across to the island, which is inaccessible at high tide.

The kids on the way to the island

We even bumped into some friends who were also out enjoying the dramatic surf.

Not one of our friends - but the surf in question

Aside from a very bold sea kayaker heading out through the swells,

we enjoyed seeing the many monarch caterpillars busy with the important business of eating milkweed.

Day 13.218: Mount Agamenticus (including 2nd Hill)

Day one of my vacation week saw us take on a family hike at Mount Agamenticus. It's a favorite spot of ours, but a search of the blog reveals that the last time we were all there was nearly five years ago, and the last time any of us were there (E5N1, Exile #2 and me with my sister and brother-in-law) was December of 2017.

This time, we ventured off to find our way to the second hill - or to give it its official name...oh yes that it its official name, "Second Hill" as well as the main peak:

Our most interesting nature sighting was these impressive ant mounds (Exile #3 bravely stepping close for scale). They appear to be Allegheny mound ants, which actually kill trees to keep the sun on their mounds to keep their nests warm.

The views were a bit misty today, but here they are - looking NW towards the White Mountains and SE towards the ocean: