Day 17.323: Retro gaming for five

After an all-too-short visit, we will be taking Exile #4 back to college tomorrow. The house is certainly more dynamic when they are here.

Here's a photo that Exile #2 took of the rest of us (E5N1 is hiding behind me) playing some retro video games on the Sega Genesis mini - one of our post-turkey activities on Thursday. Exile #2 joined in too.

Day 17.322: East Point birding

Exile #2 and I seized the day with a morning visit to East Point Sanctuary at Biddeford Pool. 

As we hoped, there was a wide variety of water birds. Here is some of what we saw.

A cormorant on a pole above the crashing waves

Hard to be sure, but most likely a great cormorant rather than a double-crested cormorant

Long-tailed ducks were unmistakable, albeit rather distant

Closest encounter - long tail not visible

Very visible shape/tail but very distant

We saw a full set of scoters.

White-winged and surf scoters in flight

White-winged scoter in flight

Black scoters near base of cormorant pole

Common eider:

The distinctive shape of mergansers:

Common merganser

Red-breasted merganser

Red-breasted merganser

And finally, a common loon

Not pictured, a few American Herring Gulls and whatever else was in the rafts far out on the waves,

Day 17.321: Thanksgiving #18

Turkey, pie and family time.

Exile #4 decorated this plate many years ago

At the table…

…about to eat some pie

Day 17.320: Thursday birding on a Wednesday

Our group moved our birding walk to today to avoid tomorrow's Thanksgiving festivities. It was a chilly morning at the cemetery. Here is some of what we saw.

In the river: Some of the usual suspects - Canada geese, American black ducks and mallards:

But also, a pair of hooded mergansers - small and distant but very distinctive by the shape of head and bill:

And a pair of green-winged teal. At this point they were (despite being dabbling ducks) managing to dive for a few seconds - presumably straining for food just out of reach from the surface.

Elsewhere:

A song sparrow that we heard long before we spotted him.

Turkey vulture. This one flew by and then was joined by seven more

Red-bellied woodpecker

Red-tailed hawk - perched high above the river until the first morning sun reached it and then...

it took to the wing (and showed-off its red tail)

Day 17.319: Siblings three

Exile #4 is home for a few days over Thanksgiving. 

Day 17.318: Feeder birds

This weekend was a good compare-and-contrast opportunity. 

Some of our first visitors were a pair of purple finches:

Male purple finch on a branch nearby

Female purple finch on the feeder

but later we also got a good view of a group of house finches:

Two male and two female house finches crowd onto our hopper feeder

Our largest woodpecker visited briefly:

Pileated woodpecker seen on a tree some way into the woods

and our smallest one came several times:

Downy woodpecker on a small branch above the feeders

This bird, unmistakably a goldfinch, caught my eye because I expect them to be olive colored, but it turns out that although breeding females in the summer are olive while the males are in their canary-yellow finery, in the winter the adults are much more brown. Duly noted.

Day 17.317: Exile #2's Sunday Column #501

Exile #2 writes...

Today was the last in the run of E5N1’s school play, which seems to have been a big hit. By now the cast party should be in full swing and at some point tonight we look forward to seeing our very absent and probably exhausted son!

He may not be able to enjoy as much of the party food as usual, as he’s still being cautious after having his wisdom teeth removed. But we’re hoping he’ll be able to resume playing trumpet this week, as the holiday concerts are just around the corner. It’s a tricky business working around E5N1’s busy schedule!!

Post-performance flowers from various of his friends

Day 17.316: On the fourteenth day…?

It was a bird counting day again today and we did well enough that we’re unlikely to add much to our tally tomorrow. At one point, we were just spotting our first mourning dove of the day when suddenly more and more of them descended. Our highest count was fourteen, although I suspect there were more. Many of them stayed around for quite a while including the nine you can see in this photo:

Or maybe you can’t - they are quite well camouflaged and it’s not a great photo. Maybe this helps a little:

Counting birds of the same kind (optionally in trees) reminded me that the days of Christmas and their associated song are rapidly approaching. First Thanksgiving next week, then it will be December and Advent and the counting (down) will begin.

Day 17.315: Opening night

We’re well into “hell week” the term used for the week leading up to the school drama performances. It seems both the kids and parents embrace this term as long rehearsals, performances and late-night social events combine. Tonight was - however - what it’s all about, opening night of the play: Little Women. E5N1 is in the ensemble cast and many of his friends have various on- and off-stage roles. The performance was excellent. Here are a few pictures, some borrowed from the publicity for the play.

E5N1’s headshot in period portrait style from the lobby display

As usual, the set was spectacular and the crew did a great job with lots of rapid scene changes. 

Artwork by a student in E5N1’s senior class

E5N1 in character cropped from a publicity photo for the play