Day 18.078: Newman Hill Preserve

While E5N1 was at his audition at the University of Maine in Orono, Exile #2 and I went for two short walks. The first was at a site we first saw called Taylor Bait Farm but actually is now Newman Hill Preserve.

Our walk was a mile loop - out along a closed road to some ponds (devoid of birds as far as we saw, then back through the woods to another pond that we had driven by where we saw some interesting birds and captured an exciting event. Here are my pictures:

The closed part of Taylor Road

The former bait farm ponds - no birds today

The start of the trail back through the woods was snowy, but most of it was clear and easy

Arriving at the roadside pools, our first sighting was this perched bald eagle

Two hooded mergansers

Adult male

He seemed to practicing his display - lifting his body high and displaying his "hood". However, he only seemed to do it when the female was diving under the water - perhaps he's a bit shy at the moment

Two American black ducks

A group of gulls - some (maybe all) seem to be great black-backed gulls

A lone bufflehead was repeatedly surfacing briefly in this spot before diving again 

Then, I noticed the bald eagle make a move - he did a couple of low swoops

Made his final approach

Eyes on the prize

Success

Going to find somewhere to land it

Day 18.077: …Check…and run away

Our bathroom remodel is complete. 

… but only Exile #3 is home to enjoy it tonight. The rest of us have come north to beat another late winter storm that is coming in so that E5N1 can do a second college music-program audition tomorrow. 

Day 18.076: Thursday birding

Our nature group met this morning. These are some of the birds we saw:

(American black) duck, duck, (Canada) goose

Northern pintail

Eastern bluebird

Savannah sparrow

Song sparrow

Northern cardinal

Ring-necked ducks

Eastern bluebird

Common grackles

A flock of over a hundred flew over us and landed in these trees

A small group of brown-headed cowbirds in the same trees

Killdeer

Yellow-bellied sapsucker

We also heard (and some of the group saw) the first eastern phoebe of the year - they will soon be commonplace on these walks I suspect.

Day 18.075: Check, check, …?

A small water leak in the basement has been fixed. 

Yesterday, I installed a new dishwasher:

And…maybe tomorrow…our bathroom will be done and useable again. 

Day 18.074: Morning after

The snow and ice has mostly cleared at this end of the day, but this was how things looked this morning:

As we expected, the not-recently-treated roads were rather slick, but we managed our morning travel without any significant issues. 

Day 18.073: Spring in Maine

As we walked in light jackets under blue skies on Saturday morning we joked that it certainly looked like snow was on the way. We knew it was, but it certainly did not look like it.  We expected a coating of snow followed by rain, but it’s been mostly snow at times falling as enormous flakes. The roads are slushy at the end of the day with a freeze to come overnight, so the morning may be a bit messy. We shall see. 

Day 18.072: Exile #2’s Sinday518

Exile #2 writes...

Some of E5N1’s friends have been on vacation from college and that has meant some fun get togethers, perhaps appreciated all the more as those still in high school are getting ready for the craziness of the school musical next week.

One of the get togethers was at an axe throwing venue. I’m not sure if this particular leisure pursuit has made it across the Atlantic yet but it is much as it sounds from what I can gather - throwing axes (and other things) at a target. “It’s OK. They’re not very sharp.” E5N1 informed us before, in the next breath, admitting to having accidentally sliced through his shirt with one. Well, at least he came home in one piece…

Day 18.071: East Point birding

Exile #2 and I drove over to Biddeford Pool to visit East Point Sanctuary. On first arrival, we thought there weren't many birds around, but they were all on the pool channel side, away from the worst of the wind. We were also grateful to spend most of our time on the sheltered side.

Here is some of what we saw.

Common eider

Common loon

Surf scoters - a small group in full breeding clown-face

Red-breasted merganser

Great cormorant - first seen on the rocks in the channel, then it flew out off the point to the post where we've seen it before

Black scoter - we saw more than thirty in total

Day 18.070: Commuter ducks

These ducks don’t travel the roads to an office job, but I do and yesterday, my route took me (with camera in the car) right past the pond where they were hanging out, so I doubled back and took a few photos. 

Common merganser (female)

Common mergansers and ring-necked ducks

Common mergansers (male)