Day 17.343: Birding birds

Some of the birds we sa yesterday:

Red-bellied woodpecker

Pileated woodpecker 

Another red-bellied woodpecker after the sun had climbed a little

Northern pintail (L) and mallard

The pintail again

Red- breasted merganser out on the river

View out over the marsh around dawn

Day 17.342: Morning birding surprise

We did indeed see some birds on our birding walk this morning, but the biggest surprise was a sighting of a different kind - a coyote on the marsh by the river.

There is some concern that it seems to have some fur loss on its back - possibly indicating some sickness. Nevertheless, it was a majestic sight in the early morning light.

Day 17.341: Choral

It was the second and final night of the winter choral concerts tonight. The centerpiece of the concert is a processional by the full concert choir to a version of “O Holy Night” we first experienced it when Exile #3 had just started high school 8 years ago and have had one or more children in it every year since (except for one year when it didn’t happen due to COVID).

E5N1 also sang in the auditioned choir including a solo tonight and played some percussion for a few songs. Here he is after the night was done.

Day 17.340: Delay: instrumental

This time of year is normally rather busy, this year it seems excessively so. Last week was the instrumental concerts and this week the choral concerts except that the storm caused a power outage that caused the second night of the instrumental concert to be canceled (at first) and then later rescheduled to yesterday.

E5N1 playing trumpet in the jazz band

E5N1 after playing French horn in the concert band

And, in addition to that, this week I have senior management visiting at work, our holiday party and a video to edit while Exile #2 also had a drive to bring Exile #4 home from college - all in addition to the normal two nights of the choral concerts. We didn’t go tonight, but we plan to be there tomorrow. 

Day 17.339: Three minutes of birds at the feeders

As part of my preparation for the dance show video, I set up the DSLR on a tripod on Saturday with a mains power supply and shot some video with it. Here's a three minute edit.

Day 17.338: Exile #2's Sunday Column #504

Exile #2 writes...

Here’s another photo of E5N1, courtesy of his school Facebook page. Underneath this gloriously hideous holiday sweater he had two thermal layers, and a fleecy jacket. It still wouldn’t have been enough for me! I had many, many layers on, thermal and otherwise, but still needed to curl up with a hot water bottle when we got home!

Exile #1 has spent the afternoon today in his side hustle as dance videographer. He is currently at the slightly nerve wracking data transfer phase but is hoping his now years of experience will make for a quick editing process!

Day 17.337: Parade of Lights

It was chilly and dry for the parade of lights this evening. We were especially looking out for the dance school (I'll be spending some more time with them tomorrow), E5N1 marching with the school performing arts department and some of our birding friends representing Saco Bay Trails. This is how some of it looked:

Including; Slugger (member of the Mascots Hall of Fame), festive Mandalorians and Santa in the fire boat.

Here is the school group:

And E5N1 - adding puppeteering to his performing arts roster:

He had a great time having his puppet alter-ego high-five the little kids along the far side of the road,

The funniest moment was this snowman starting to limbo as the inflation pump stopped just as the float passed us. He was almost horizontal before he stood back up again after a technical intervention.

But the most surprising moment was the float that brought the snow storm to this chilly evening.

Day 17.336: Bonus birding

The leaders of our Thursday morning birding walk proposed a bonus outing this morning and I was able to take them up on it.  We visited the other side of the river - not too far from our regular spot - but with access to the water’s edge. It was at our regular time so we arrived a little before sunrise. 

Here are some of the birds we saw:

Mallards

Hooded merganser

Common goldeneye

Bald eagle

Bald eagles

White-winged scoters

Dark-eyed junco

Golden-crowned kinglet

House finch - perched as high as possible to catch the first rays of sunlight

We watched the ring-billed gulls catching small fish from near the water surface. This one had a successful hunt but also got a bit of vegetation it probably wasn’t bargaining on. 

And finally, we saw a seal quite a way away but then it came closer - seemingly to get a good look at us. 

Which meant we got a good look at him too. Then he slipped below the surface and we didn’t see him again. 

Day 17.335: Woodpeckers, mergansers and a little storm clean-up

We saw nearly a full set of woodpeckers this morning at the cemetery. Downy, hairy, red-bellied and these ones:

Yellow-bellied sapsucker. This appears to be a young male with a hint of red under his chin, but nothing like the bright flash on the one we saw a week or two ago.

And our pileated friend greeted us and the first rays of sun with some intense peering out of his hole

...before flying off to start its day.

Only northern flicker was missing from the list of likely woodpecker species.

Out on the river, we saw Canada geese, American black ducks, mallards, great black-backed gulls, ring-billed gulls, a lesser scaup and some distant (but unmistakable) mergansers:

Hooded merganser

Common mergansers

As expected, the snow was almost all gone. As hoped, there was not too much obvious storm damage, although our group did spend some time moving fallen branches from the roads, including this one that had left a perfect image of itself when it fell.

Day 17.334: Winter; weather

Here are some pictures of birds and squirrels in during the snowy weather we've had over the last few days:

Eastern bluebird on the snow-covered rim of the bird bath

I was definitely spotted by this bluebird

Squirrel looking a little chilly despite finding a sheltered spot by a large tree trunk

Another squirrel perched on a snowy branch

European starling taking over the hopper feeder.

Dark-eyed junco on the shepherd's crook with snow flakes falling around it,

As of this evening, we are listening to the wind outside accompanying some heavy and relatively warm rain. I suspect there will be little evidence of the snow by the morning. Hopefully also, not too much evidence of the strong winds.