Day 16.049: Blue in the snow

It was a snow day today - in more ways that one. For E5N1, no school - something we were fairly sure would happen during the day yesterday, but the school still decided to wait until 5 am to announce it (and then start calling and texting us). For me, a work from home day - no need to be out on the roads in this late-pandemic era of effective remote working. And for us all - a day with lots of snow falling and blowing around.

It did provide a striking backdrop for the bluebirds who, having shunned us for a few weeks have been back in numbers again over the last few days:

Day 16.048: First of lasts

Today marks one year since I last saw my mother in person - we said our undramatic goodbyes while I stayed an extra day to spend some time with my sister. Earlier in the day we'd all gone for a short walk in the woods. Mum was a little unsteady on her feet, although she rallied considerably in the weeks after this.

Soon after I returned to the US, we started planning a family trip to see everyone in June. In the end, that trip would coincide with her funeral.

These anniversaries are hard, but filled with love and appreciation for the time we had together as well as sadness. 

Day 16.047: Exile #2's Sunday Column #429

Exile #2 writes...

It’s been a topsy turvy kind of week. Exile #1 spent the first part of it in Georgia, which would usually be the cue for the skies to unload a bounteous fall of snow, and true to form it did, but for once kindly waited until he had returned.

E5N1 spent most of what was a school vacation week with a grotty cough and cold. The rest of us picked up a version of it but mostly only enough to feel tired and achy.

Exile #3 continued the work of figuring out what on earth is going on with her head by going to the optician. He declared that there was nothing wrong with her vision but that she seems to have trouble focusing. “You don’t know the half of it, mister” was her later comment to us.

While she was busy being examined, I went and picked a few things up at the supermarket, where to my delight I found this:

Functional Granola

I wonder if they also make dysfunctional granola. I think that might be more our kind of product.

Day 16.046: Surprise hawk

When we see significantly fewer birds at our feeders, we generally converge on one of two reasons - firstly that the feeders need cleaning or the contents have gone rancid or are otherwise unappealing, or secondly that there is a predator somewhere that we can't see, but the birds are aware of. Since our feeders are fairly well protected from ground-based predators, the likely culprit is a raptor.

So it was, that during a third consecutive disappointing counting day (after two days last weekend), Exile #2's attention was drawn to two crows making a fuss about something which turned out to be this:

We're almost certain that this is a red-shouldered hawk. A rather rare raptor for this area and especially so in winter. Several sources suggest they shouldn’t be here at all but Vickery says they are uncommon but regular in winter in our comer of Maine. 

Day 16.045: Presidents week holiday

The February school break that started on Monday for E5N1 is sometimes referred to as Presidents week because it starts on Presidents Day. That day is also a holiday for the Maine office where I work. Since I spent Monday on a work trip to Georgia, l had today as a substitute holiday. The second wave of snow overnight had made everything very white again. When the sun came out, it  quite obligingly helped to clear the roads and generally make everything look brighter and more cheerful. 

Day 16.044: Winter returns

Last night:

This morning:

It stopped for a while this afternoon but now it’s snowing again. 

Day 16.043: Distant birds

We saw some birds in the sea off the beach on Saturday, but they were quite distant. I've been able to identify them from the pictures although I wouldn't have done much better than "duck" at the time. The flying ones were misidentified as geese at the time - even though both of our first instincts were that they were ducks - overcompensation for last weekend at the marsh.

Group of black scoters (there was a larger group than this)

Group of three long-tailed ducks

A female scaup (probably greater scaup)

Two flying mallards (not geese)

Day 16.042: Storm damage

Our walk on Saturday along the beach also took us through Ferry Beach State Park. We hadn't walked through there for quite a while and we were surprised by all the storm damage. One of the storms that brought us nearly a foot of snow dropped much more destructive freezing rain at the coast just a few miles away and the trees along the road through the park had suffered quite a bit.

Just a couple of examples of downed limbs partially blocking the road - there were more. Some clean-up will be required before the park opens for the season, but there may be more storm damage before then.

Day 16.041: How it started…

After 3:30 am alarm and a 4 am departure from home, this was my view at around 6 am:

How it was going by 9 am (approaching Atlanta Georgia):

All on what is nominally a holiday Monday. Despite this hot-take, it's actually been quite a good day.

Day 16.040: Exile #2's Sunday Column #428

Exile #2 writes...

Here’s a photo of Exile #1 in his happy place - right next to the stage, waiting for the show to begin. No rocking out tonight, though, but an early night so he can get to the airport in time for a 5 am departure. He’s heading south, maybe even to some proper warmth, while the rest of us stay here in chilly Maine. It’s vacation week, though, so E5N1 can enjoy a bit of extra pajama time!

Day 16.039: Peering in pools

We had a walk on the beach this afternoon just before low tide. For the first time in while, we clambered on the rocks to look in the tide pools. We didn't see anything very exciting, but that's fine.

Day 16.038: Lowell Winterfest

We had a fairly last-minute trip down to Lowell Massachusetts this evening to see The Collection (who we’ve seen various times in Boston and once long ago in their home state of North Carolina) play in a tent at Lowell Winterfest. They rocked it - and it was the shortest journey we’ve ever had to see them at about 80 mins each way. 

Day 16.037: Occasional drama

A lot of my weekend photos these days are of birds on and around our feeders to aid in identification for our Project Feederwatch counts. Most of them have little to no artistic merit, but there is...occasional drama:

Two house finches, a female standing on the left of the feeder;
on the right, a male is in flight coming in for a landing

Day 16.036: Chickadee in a pine tree

Our attention was drawn to this tree by the chickadees calling from inside it. The number of  'dee's in their call is an indication of the threat level (at least when it's more than three or four) and we got seven as we passed - a mild threat maybe increased when I stopped to take a photo - partly because of the impressive crop of pine cones near the top of the tree.

We always joke that a chickadee in a pine tree is the most Maine thing there is - the state bird in the state tree - as featured on the default-design license plates. It's also a thing that happens quite regularly in real life.

Day 16.035: Birds at the marsh

As promised yesterday - this is the bird report from Scarborough Marsh. As we left we joked that all the birds we’d seen were geese, except for the ones that definitely were not geese - some of which were in fact geese and the rest were crows.

We did see quite a few Canada geese:

and crows (not pictured).  But also…

Female and male common goldeneye:

Probably a rough-legged hawk which was sharing a thermal…

…with a bald eagle:

Day 16.034: Scarborough Marsh

We had a nice walk at Scarborough Marsh on Saturday. The weather seemed quite spring-like as we left home, but it was surprisingly cold out on the marsh exposed to the wind blowing over the largely frozen landscape.

We made it to the far side of the marsh, where the sheltered trail under the trees, still covered with ice and snow seemed unappealing enough to turn us around.

These trees caught our eye - one due to the perfectly round hole that something had made, and the other for its pleasing shape.

These twiggy shrubs also seemed noteworthy - quite a striking color and shape.

It wasn't a blockbuster birdwatching day, but what we saw will wait for a separate post.

Day 16.033: How it started…

The weekend started with the squirrels clearing up the seed I spilled filling up the bird feeder. 

At least until it saw me watching:

And as for how the weekend ended…?

That was with a certain football game. In some years it’s been the only football game we’ve seen all year, but thanks to pep band, we’ve seen a few - nothing quite like this one though.