Day 16.141: Construction

Two more-or-less vertical structures have appeared in the garden. 

So far, so good. 

Day 16.140: What’s the word?

Today was back-to-work after the long weekend. Here’s a picture from one of yesterday’s activities - a very serious-looking game of Codenames. 

We were having a good time - honest.

Day 16.139: Memorial Day

We had a pretty classic Memorial Day - it started with the parade (including E5N1 marching with the school band):

and ended with grilling some burgers:

Is this what assimilation looks like?

Day 16.138: How about this one?

Exile #4 is the family member most likely to suggest a game. They like most of them - even being late to realize how awful Monopoly is - but the one exception is “the train game” a.k.a. Ticket to Ride. For some reason they have been set against it for years and so it has only been played on the occasions that they were not around or - rarely - not up for a game. 

Yesterday, to our surprise, when I half-jokingly suggested it they said OK. I suspect we may have broken the curse and it didn’t hurt that Exile #4 won a resounding victory despite our best efforts (and significantly more practice).

Day 16.137: I made the bed…

…but this was the closest I plan to get to lying in it:

The beds by the patio are looking good too:

Day 16.136: Jazz à la Mode

What a great evening. I have some video that I may share later, but this gives as much of an impression as still photos can of a musical event. 

Day 16.135: Red columbine

We spotted this showy wildflower while out with my Dad last week and his phone app was able to identify it as red columbine:

A few days later, Exile #4's eye was caught by this plant at the local garden center and it is now filling a gap in the bed by the patio:

Day 16.134: Where there's a will...

After one or more crows became regular visitors to our main feeder - landing on the roof like this:

and then attacking the suet block in the cage, we removed the suet to the other feeder where only the smaller birds were likely to succeed.

What we hadn't banked on, was the crow finding a way to eat the seeds despite some significant ergonomic challenges:

At least this process slows it down significantly and ensures there will still be some for the small birds when he flies away again.

Day 16.133: My first cubicle

Exile #4 has a desk job for the summer. By all accounts it’s going well so far. 

Day 16.132: Another mystery hawk

This one visited the trees behind our house. Once again, I got some very nice photos - and, once again, I still can't positively identify the hawk. Possibly it is a juvenile again.

Day 16.131: Still in one piece

You’ll be happy to know that my improvised bird feeder stand survived the wild stormy night. We had a couple of inches of rain and some strong winds. 

This evening, Exile #4 and I went to Portland to pick up takeout for dinner. We were ten minutes away from delivering hot food home when the low tire pressure warning light came on and I realized there was an odd sound from the front drivers side wheel and it probably wasn’t yet another false alarm. Unfortunately, we were on I-95 and changing a driver’s side tire on the shoulder of a 70 mph speed limit highway was pretty unappealing. Fortunately, I was pretty confident in my skills having done the exercise recently. I pulled over as far as I could / leaving just the drivers side wheels on the far edge of the shoulder and got to work. Ten minutes later we were back on the move and the food was still hot. 

The tire was also very hot - there was a slight burned smell when I opened the trunk just now to take this picture. 

Glad we (like the bird feeder) are still in one piece after an unexpected ordeal. 

Day 16.130: A few jobs before the rain

This morning, Exile #2 and I set ourselves to getting some jobs done. Exile #2's included some planting and other garden work:

One of mine was improvising a better way to hang the oriole feeder:

During the afternoon, the rain started and it's sounding a little wild out there now. I suppose, come tomorrow we'll see how my arrangement has weathered the storm.

Day 16.129: Puzzled

As well as lots of birding and other out-in-nature activities, we also did this Maine-themed puzzle while Dad was here and played some card games.

Dad would probably like me to point out that he didn’t do the whole thing himself. 

Day 16.128: No mow no more

No Mow May came (mostly) to an end for us a little more than half way through the month. The deciding factor was the third tick found inside the house (presumably brought in on a gardening shoe). 

I did leave the best of the bluets for the bees.

Day 16.127: Choral concert

Last night was E5N1’s school choral concert. It was his first year singing in a choir since 3rd Grade or so but he clearly loves it. 

It also was Dad’s last evening with us. I dropped him back at the airport today for his late flight back home. 

Day 16.126: You can't win them all

Yesterday we had another great birding outing (for the last day of my vacation). When it comes to photography and identification, it had some challenges however.

Our first stop was at Wells Reserve at Laudholm:

One of the trails

One of many amazing old trees

A bit of boardwalk lifted by the demise of another tree

Some successful sightings: bobolink, likely swamp sparrow, turkey vulture and great egret

We also saw double-crested cormorants flying in formation like geese:

My biggest failure was to capture a decent photo of an eastern towhee. We saw several, but I only got one fairly well framed shot and one in focus - alas not the same one. Here they are:

eastern towhee

perfect focus at last - not his best angle

Still, we had a very good visit overall.

Our second stop was for lunch in Kennebunk Lower Village, but after that we called in at Timber Point.

Snowy egret and glossy ibis

Clockwise: very obliging hawk (we think probably young red-tailed), turkey vulture (shades of Jungle Book), black-and-white warbler, yellow warbler, distant willet, tree swallow

When I got these - again disappointingly out of focus photos home, we couldn't work it out at all, but thanks to the whatbird forums, we realize it is a young orchard oriole.

So that one just about sneaks into the win column - despite my failings.