Day 14.110: Mergansers in Biddeford

I'm rather pleased with this photo of a pair of red-breasted mergansers taken from the beach while E5N1 was at his birthday gathering last Sunday below Ocean Ave in Biddeford Pool:

 

Day 14.109: A slurred moaning?

How would you describe the sound in this video from our weekend visit to Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park? You may need to crank up the volume a bit (I promise no jump-scares):

We weren't at all sure what it was, but a few minutes later we saw the group of common eiders that were making it. Peterson's field guide "Birds of Eastern and Central North America" describes the males' vocalization as "A slurred moaning" - I suppose that works. Here are some of the eiders:

 I also took quite a nice photo of this merganser, but sadly I still can't work out which kind it is:

And our final bird sighting of the day was this turkey - as were leaving the park:

Day 14.108: This little fella...

...seemed pretty skittish when we first saw him, but eventually settled down to have a little fir cone snack or two while we watched and waited.

The trail went right by where he'd stopped so eventually we had to disturb him. As you can see from the last picture he went to a crook in the tree at about eye level and watched us go by - presumably to then return to his spot by the trail.

Day 14.107: Osprey at Wolfe's Neck

We saw quite a lot of interesting things at Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park on Saturday (more to come), but the first sighting was one of the best. We had the benefit of a sign telling us what we might see but would you have spotted it?

I didn't but Exile #2 did!

This might make it a bit easier:

Although we see them much more commonly than at any of the previous places we have lived, I don't get tired of seeing these beautiful and powerful birds.

Day 14.106: Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park

On Saturday morning, Exile #2 and I seized the day and drove 45 minutes or so up to Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park - a place we have only visited once before - six and half years ago.

It was a beautiful morning and in retrospect we wished we had tried harder (or at all) to persuade the kids to join us.

The bay-side trail was fairly busy but not uncomfortably so even in in COVID times although we did spurn a few information signs and coast-access side-trails. Instead, we decided to do the biggest single loop of the park - which soon got much quieter - and had a lovely walk as a result.

Here are some general views of trails and bay and woods:

Day 14.105: Exile #2's Sunday Column #343

Exile #2 writes...

Today, to celebrate the birthday of E5N1’s friend, we had the extraordinary experience of going out and meeting up with people. It was at the slightly drizzly beach, and we were relatively few in number, but it was very nice to hang out and chat for a while.

 

We had wondered if it would be called off. I’m never sure how our rain tolerance compares, but Mainers seem to live by the Scandinavian principle that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes, so perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised that the show went on!

Day 14.104: Birding update

Exile #2 and I had a lovely outing today, but before I tell you about that here's a catch-up post with some birds from our last couple of beach walks

Sightings have been fairly few and far between (except for gulls and crows at least). Pictured: a cormorant, a chickadee, a great black-backed gull, an unidentified duck and (flying barely over the waves) a long-tailed duck:

Day 14.103: E5N1 to the rescue

We set E5N1 to work for a while during this beautiful afternoon to get the top of this stool back in useable shape. It used to have a layer of cork on top but it has gradually been degrading and it was time to remove it all.

Day 14.102: Bark and bite

Today was a vacation day for me - planned some time ago to coincide with the school vacation week. However, the day after my second dose of vaccine was a rough one - thirsty, tired and nauseous. With the help of some painkillers I rallied in the afternoon and we went for a walk on the beach:

It was windy, remarkably cold and - yes - a few flakes of snow fell on us.

 

After we turned to face the wind for the walk back along the beach we decided to seek shelter by diverting through Ferry Beach State Park. We walked through the Tupelo swamp - for perhaps only the second time and having laughed at the signs that say something to the effect of "somewhere here are some tupelo trees", we saw this one with impressive looking bark which could be one - and was interesting anyway. We then walked back along the trail and saw another tree that had recently had some impressive work done:

At this end of the day I'm feeling closer to normal - so hopefully the second day of the vacation will be a little more successful.

Day 14.101: Second dose

Mood: grateful.

Definitely feeling a little more in the way of side-effects this time, but still very happy to have got both doses and started the countdown to "fully-vaccinated" status.

Day 14.100: Shots shot

The rest of the eligible members of the family got their first COVID-19 vaccination doses today. I had mine a few weeks ago and get my second dose tomorrow.

Mood is grateful!

Day 14.099: Stormy seas

As we mentioned, it was a bit brisk at the beach on Saturday morning. The sea was quite riled up:

I've mentioned the weird sorting effect that occurs fairly regularly where a patch of beach has a lot of the same kind of thing - clam shells, pieces of wood, mussel shells with kelp stems etc. Saturday's version were these bits of weed that looked like scallions or spring onions:

Day 14.098: Exile #2's Sunday Column #342

Exile #2 writes...

We have the kind of phone that announces who is calling, usually so we can ignore the call completely. I don’t know if it is just a Maine thing, or a US thing, but lately these caller IDs seem to have been having an attack of honesty. For a few months we’ve been receiving (and ignoring) calls from the delightfully named “SPAM RISK”, but this week, it’s been joined by a newcomer on the scene, “PROBABLY FRAUD”. On reflection, we decided to let them both go to messages. Does anyone else have honest caller IDs? If so, who has been calling you?

Day 14.097: We felt a bit British

Exile #2 had some minor oral surgery this week but she's recovering pretty well.

This morning we decided to attempt a walk on the beach even though rain was in the forecast. As we pulled out of the garage it started to rain or so I thought. Exile #2 corrected me - it was wet snow.

Naturally, we went to the beach anyway:

It was a bit cold but we didn't get wet.

Day 14.096: Yes I took these today

We didn't have many good snowstorms during the winter, but it's a bit late to make up for it now.

Day 14.095: One more for luck

The last bird (also with prominent red) we saw during our walk at Fuller Farm was this noisy fellow:

The luck, I suppose, is not living close enough to hear this on a regular basis.

Day 14.094: Birds (red edition)

For some reason, the four birds I got photographs of at Fuller Farm all had significant red. Three are pictured below - a pair of bluebirds and a fine (and noisy) cardinal. The fourth was a distant robin.

It looks like spring!

Day 14.093: Fuller Farm and Nonesuch

On Sunday, Exile #2 and I had a walk at Fuller Farm. The trails looked like this:

We also took a side trail that was signed as leading to a bridge over the Nonesuch River - the river that later flows through Scarborough Marsh. Like that of its neighbor Goosefare Brook a few days ago, the water was quite brown:

We suspect it's a seasonal effect of some kind since we know Goosefare at least runs clear in both summer and winter, but what causes it we do not know.

Day 14.092: Couldn't let the boys have all the fun

...so before we finished tidying up the yard on Saturday afternoon, we had a quick game of cornhole:

That is the face of defeat incidentally!

Day 14.091: Exile #2's Sunday Column #341

Exile #2 writes...

We were very thankful for the sunny weather this weekend. It meant E5N1’s second pandemic birthday was better than his last, and warmer than others we have attempted celebrate outside - April is rather unpredictable. The boys seemed to have fun in the fresh air and we gave the grill its first use of season.

In the late afternoon, Exile #3 went over to her former dance school, where she has been putting in a few hours as a teacher/choreographer for the youth dance company. The dancers performed the piece she had worked on, along with a selection of others they had choreographed themselves, just as Exile #3 used to do.

After all this excitement, today, Exile #1 and I escaped for a morning walk. It was a little overcast but it was still lovely to get out. Although the wildflower meadows are not grown yet, things are starting to green up a little, and there is always this beautiful tree at the heart of it all:

Day 14.090: Birthday party (COVID-style)

E5N1 had a couple of friends over to celebrate his birthday this afternoon. They stayed outside and wore their masks. but seemed to have a lot of fun - left their chairs and their devices for a while to play cornhole: