Day 17.109: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #477

Exile #2 writes...

As Exile #1 mentioned, E5N1 and I went to visit the state university campus in Orono yesterday. We had been there before for a concert but neither Exile #1 nor I could remember exactly where it was before I consulted a map. It was at this point that I realized signing up for an event with a 9am start, at a location 2.5 hours away from home, the morning after a late night event at school maybe wasn’t the smartest idea. We did, however, make it, it not in time for the optional refreshments, then at least so we could tour the campus and test out the canteen!

As a side note, the 2.5 hour journey did not even take us half way across Maine. I shouldn’t be shocked anymore but America really is big.

Day 17.108: Divide and conquer

I spent most of the day at a church spring work day. Here I am hard at work:

Lots of people came and did lots of jobs inside and out, so that was good.  Meanwhile, Exile #2 took E5N1 up to an open house at the University of Maine, Orono. All of which has left us rather tired at the end of the day - except for E5N1 who just left the house to go with some friends to an after-party for the prom (he didn’t go to prom). I would say that I don’t know where he gets his energy but since Exile #2 reported that he slept in the car on both journeys today, I do have some idea. 

Day 17.107: Jazz a la Mode

The first week back after break has been another busy one for E5N1 with a little tour of middle schools that feed the high school with the jazz band yesterday and then, this evening Jazz a la Mode. It was a great evening - the bands were on top form and it was a lovely atmosphere. 

Day 17.106: Wren; will I see you again?

We've had a new user of our brush pile over the last few days - a Carolina wren.

In other news, we haven't seen the hawks in a couple of days. Are they lying low (or maybe even laying low or high for that matter)? Were they seen off by the crows? Did they decide to go in search of some more expansive woodland? Did the battle with the third hawk take a bad turn? We may never know, but we'll keep an eye out for them in case they've just been out of sight when we've been paying attention.

Day 17.105: Frisky hawks

The other night I was trying to work out if the two hawks we could see moving around from tree to tree were both broad-winged hawks:

when, while I was watching this one:

She called out to the other one and then this happened:

So I guess that answers that question. 

The following evening there were at least three - with two of them (presumably two males) doing an extravagant aerial battle through the trees. It’s all go around here. 

Day 17.104: Inside the Music Hall

The concert on Saturday was quite unlike any we'd been to before. The opener was a member of the non-profit committee that runs the two Music Hall venues and was delightfully enthusiastic about in - in a public-radio kind of way.

The venue was extraordinary too. Here are some photos of the inside before the music started. 

Day 17.103: The new neighbors

As Exile #2 mentioned yesterday, there has been some excitement about the new hawk arrival - both among Exiles and the local wildlife (crows and small mammals both taking a particular interest).

The broad-winged hawk has been relatively generous with perching in photograph friendly locations.

Its apparent nest-building activity (despite being rather early in the season according to Vickery) made us wonder if we were actually seeing two hawks and this evening we saw two at the same time, so indeed it seems likely we have new neighbors moving in and probably can expect more drama to come.

Day 17.102: Exile #2's Sunday Column #476

Exile #2 writes...

Springwatch: Maine edition has been getting exciting this week. We have heard the peepers beginning to sing, more summer birds have been arriving and perhaps most excitingly we have seen a hawk building a nest just a little way into the woods. As the leaves are not on the trees yet, we’ve been able to watch it gathering materials and spending time at the nest site. We also, unexpectedly, got to witness it attempting to catch its dinner this evening, when it swooped down on our resident red squirrel. Fortunately, (as we’ve grown quite fond of it) the squirrel managed to get away this time but you’d have to imagine the many local squirrels and chipmunks are feeling a little nervous about their new neighbor.

A few hours before the near-miss

Day 17.101: Madison Cunningham and Juana Molina

This evening, Exile #2 and I traveled (just) into New Hampshire to Portsmouth. We visited the wonderful Music Hall Historic Theater and saw the enchanting combination that of these two artists. Juana was unknown to us until this concert was announced and definitely brought out the weird and experimental in Madison as they did a mixture of solo songs and playing together.  It was a wonderful and unique night. 

Day 17.100: Most lamentable comedy

This was one of Exile #2’s birthday gifts. Only 500 pieces, but it turned out to be quite fiendish and had been on the go for several weeks until a recent final push resulted in a mixture of satisfaction and relief:

It’s the complete text of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (partly inspired by E5N1’s performance in it earlier in the school year. 

Day 17.099: Camp Ellis

As Exile #2 mentioned, we continued from the cemetery down to Camp Ellis and having discovered the roads that were still passable parked by the mouth of the river to see what was happening.

Things that were happening: people shoring up low-lying beach houses, major outdoor repair work at Huot's Restaurant, gulls fighting over spots to perch on top of the large bollards used to moor floating pontoons (there's probably a technical term I don't know).

Common loon

A gull having successfully acquired a desirable perch. Each time one was displaced it would try to land on another one - often causing a chain reaction

Double-crested cormorant

 

Day 17.098: Flight and fight

The other bird sighting at the cemetery was an eastern bluebird that was perched on a parked car's wing mirror.

As we watched, we saw it was behaving very strangely. In the end I was able to move so I could see it was - apparently - fighting its own reflection.

Day 17.097: At the cemetery

Unlike the people we saw drive to within feet of the daffodils, take a couple of selfies and then immediately depart again; we parked at the top of the cemetery, enjoyed a walk and spent some time with the other nature of the area. This is some of what we saw and heard:

This chipmunk glared at me while I was trying to see the birds we were hearing

One of those birds - an eastern phoebe

Another eastern phoebe posed (briefly) later

Just before this photo, the female bufflehead seemed to nearly collide with the goose as it landed.

We also identified both a song sparrow and a white-throated sparrow. We saw and heard (but only got the blurriest of photos of) a pine warbler and we heard a large crowd of crows seemingly very upset about something - probably a bird of prey - but failed to see what it was.

We had one other interesting bird encounter, but I'll save that for a post of its own.

Day 17.096: Daffodil; daffodils

On Saturday, Exile #2 pointed out that we had a daffodil in our otherwise still winter-dormant yard.

It inspired us to see how the more plentiful daffodils at the local cemetery were doing. Answer: they were more plentiful:

 

Day 17.095: Exile #2's Sunday Column #475

Exile #2 writes....

After After the wonders of witnessing the solar eclipse, the rest of the week was a bit more of a trudge for me, due to a cold, which took the wind out of my sails for a few days and still has me coughing and lacking the spring in my step that the lovely sunshine we’ve had this weekend would usually give me.

We did make it out for a walk though, including a trip down to the small coastal community of Camp Ellis, which is still in the process of rebuilding after multiple batterings this winter. We found the roads still covered in sand, some buildings resting on temporary pilings, and a couple of the coastal streets gone entirely. In a nearby town they have decided to abandon one road that has become prone to flooding. We wonder what Camp Ellis will do.