Day 18.021: Snow on snow on snow

It started snowing again as the work week came to an end. We’ve got an inch or so now, with likely another inch or two to come overnight. This is the third batch without a significant thaw in between and it looks like we may get some more on Sunday night. For me, I can do without the bitter cold, but snow is the good part of winter, so I say, bring it on. 

Day 18.020: Lively at the cemetery

There were quite a lot of birds in evidence at the cemetery this morning. We saw nuthatches, chickadees, robins. crows and ducks in numbers. It was also quite cold and so we found ourselves being quite lively in terms of the speed of our walking just to keep from freezing. It was also - again - a little cold for much photography, but here are a handful of times I made the attempt.

Our commonly-seen pileated woodpecker eyed us suspiciously from his hole before sneaking out and making his way noisily up his tree to start the day

One of several passing ducks - flying up-river

A robin apparently keeping an eye on us from very high in a tree

Day 18.019: More convergence

…not evolution like yesterday’s post. This time it was a crazy day at work that converged with a smallish snow storm. A few fresh inches on top of the remnants of the last storm made everything very pretty again, but I didn’t have much time to appreciate it. 

Day 18.018: Chipping, hairy, downy

Here's a chipping sparrow recently visiting our feeder:

I'd been meaning to look up the origin of the names "hairy woodpecker" and "downy woodpecker" for some time. I assumed that one was named for its similarity with but different size from the other. The story I found was quite surprising. Indeed, it seems that hairy was named for its similarity to the previously named downy, but later it was discovered that they are not closely related - their very close resemblance being attributed to convergent evolution.

Day 18.017: Shaking and moving

We experienced an earthquake earlier. I was the only one that didn’t notice it. I probably assumed it was a passing truck or something. 

In other news, I have a new tripod for the telescope. This was my first time pointing it at something with my phone attached - a mourning dove that promptly walked away. 

Day 18.016: Exile #2's Sunday Column #510

Exile #2 writes...

As Exile #3 and I were heading out in the car earlier in the week, she spotted a dog crossing our road. It’s not unknown for dogs to get loose from their yards but with a second look we realized it wasn’t a pet dog, it was the coyote. It was surprising to see it in the neighborhood during the day and as we got it bit closer, we could see it was limping. We let it cross and watched it head off into the woods, hoping it would be OK. The following night, I was glad to be awakened by a familiar howl so, despite its injury, it seems our resident coyote is doing OK.

Exile #3's cell phone photos from the car

On the way home from our trip, we had another unexpected event - a phone call from Exile #4, who seems to be enjoying studying abroad, experiencing everything from a banana boat ride to a trip to the local laundromat! I’m sure the time will fly by, so they are packing as much in as possible.

Day 18.015: Districts

Today was the day of the concert for the Maine District One High School Honors Festival or “choir/choral districts” as it is known to the kids who take part. E5N1 was part of the mixed voice choir and they put on a wonderful performance after  two half days of preparation with their visiting conductor. 

Day 18.014: Florida birds (other)

Here are some of the other birds I photographed in Florida last week during a few short walks with my camera:

Double-crested cormorant splashing around

Female boat-tailed grackle

Male boat-tailed grackle

Nanday parakeets

Ruddy turnstone

Boat-tailed grackle

Lesser(?) black-backed gull (maybe greater)

Laughing gull

Royal tern

Royal tern

Sanderling

Willets (when they had to move out of the way of a human they hopped on one leg rather than have to unfold the other one - it was quite comical

Willet

Laughing gull

Anhinga (the only new one for my life list)

Day 18.013: Cold at the cemetery

For the first time in three weeks, I was back at the cemetery with the nature group this morning. It was less bitterly cold than the last couple of mornings, but I hadn't attempted a sunrise wander in search of birds and mammal tracks in the snow on either of those days.

Here are two photos I took this morning (at some risk to my fingers):

Red-bellied woodpecker - for once living up to its name

I learned today that the black spots on the white outer tail feathers are distinctive of the downy woodpecker relative to its larger cousin the hairy woodpecker

And for a bonus here are two from home:

A rather elegant-looking mourning dove at our bird bath today

And a photo taken with my iPhone with a bit of help from my new spotting scope of a red-tailed hawk that landed quite a way back in the woods during our counting days at the weekend. It was too far away to count, but I was pleased with the photos I got.

Day 18.012: Floridian Ardeidae

Not all the birds I saw a lot in Florida were "exotic" to me. For example, the herons and egrets I saw there were the same ones I've seen more or less regularly in the northeast.

Green heron

Great egret - this one surprised me by flying out from under my feet as I walked on a boardwalk

Great blue heron - this one looked pretty rough - but was standing hopefully near a fisherman

Another great egret perched - slightly surprisingly - in a tree

Great and snowy egrets

At some point I realized that I was basically tripping over these egrets as they hoped for an easy dinner from the fishing boats - the same birds I'm delighted to see with a long lens in the distance at Scarborough Marsh or elsewhere nearer to home.

The great egrets were getting quite feisty with each other at times - and making beautiful shapes in the process:

Day 18.011: Brown pelicans

I saw many of the same species of birds in Florida as I did at the same time last year. Some of the most regularly seen were brown pelicans. These birds are huge and look rather awkward a lot of the time:

They also hang around the fishing boats begging for handouts (or being opportunistic in case of mistakes):

But they are also skilled and elegant in flight whether powering, gliding or diving for fish.