Day 18.141: Pride; proud

Around lunchtime four of us - including these two:

Visited the local “Pride in the Park” event under slightly drizzly skies. It was a fun event and only marginally subdued by the weather. 

This evening it was E5N1’s turn - his last school drama event - the directing class showcase. He introduced the short play that he had directed as part of the class - written by his friend and fellow student as part of an earlier script-writing class. He also was in the cast for three other plays. 

The plays were very varied - a mix of serious and comic and it made for a great show. 

Combined curtain-call for all the plays

E5N1 and the script-writer for his play

Day 18.140: Bloc Party

Exile #2 and I spent the evening in Boston for the beginning of Bloc Party’s US tour celebrating 20 years since their debut album. It was a great evening and the first time we’d seen them live despite having been fans for <consults notes> about 20 years. 

Day 18.139: Anniversary birding

Our little nature group turns one year old tomorrow. Today we celebrated with cake (thanks to Exile #2) and a “little sit” a one hour stationary bird count. We managed 35 species. Here are a few of them:

Gray catbird

Red-tailed hawk mobbed by (likely) red-winged blackbird

Northern flicker

Great crested flycatcher 

That same bird is right in the middle of this photo. Can you see it?

Bald eagle

Osprey

Baltimore oriole playing hard to get

Red-tailed hawk carrying a pine branch

I thought it might be holding it in its talons, but it turns out it was just very long

Eastern kingbird. It showed up just after we stopped counting

Baltimore oriole - still playing hard to get

Day 18.138: Running?

It’s been something like seven years since I abruptly stopped running. It was quite a life-change after my somewhat obsessive marathon training. Over the last year or so, I’ve got back into a regular exercise habit, but running was not a part of it until a couple of weeks ago. Wow - running is a lot harder than I remember, but I do like getting out of the house. 

Day 18.137: Evergreen Cemetery

On Sunday afternoon, Exile #2 and I headed to Evergreen Cemetery in Portland. It was a middling birding outing with some highlights and a few other items of interest. 

The first bird we saw was in the high branches of a tree near a trail we walked in the city forest behind the cemetery proper. Likely a female or young Baltimore oriole. 

We had a wonderful view of this great crested flycatcher after tracking it down by sound

Common grackle

Hairy woodpecker. 

Excitingly, we also saw a flock of cedar waxwings (Exile #2’s first of the year) and a yellow-bellied flycatcher (new life bird) which we tracked down by sound and then saw but was too skittish for photography. 

We also saw some of the usual suspects: bluebirds, robins, house finches, crows and a couple of mallards on one of the ponds. 

We looked this plant up and was surprised to find it's common name is Robin's plantain. As we suspected, it's not related to the plantains, but is in the fleabane/daisy family.

The pond where we saw otters in the depths of winter a few years ago - looking rather different

Always happy to see a painted turtle enjoying the sun

Day 18.136: Memorial Day not-parade

Due to a major roadworks project affecting the river crossings between our two cities, the normal joint parade was replaced by a static event at one of the sports fields. E5N1 and his band-mates played the national anthem and also played while the other bands were filing in.

It was nice to hear each of the bands play their whole tunes - instead of whatever snippet they happen to be playing as they pass by sometimes fighting with the next band or float with music from a sound-system. It also skewed the event toward the 'memorial' part of the day rather than just feeling like a celebration of the beginning of summer.

Day 18.135: Exile #2's Sunday Column #526

Exile #2 writes...

It’s always fun to come across something with a link to another place with which you have a connection. A few years back, we found a painting in the Bath Maritime Museum, in Bath, Maine, of the Steelworks at Cyfarthfa in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, where my parents are from and very close to where my Dad went to school.

Today’s discovery was not quite so remarkable but it was still nice to find this bell in a cemetery in Portland, ME, from Troy, NY, near our old neck of the woods and close to where Exile #1 used to work. We assume it was an old firehouse bell, as it seemed to be next to the grave of a firefighter.

Lettering on bell reads, "Clinton H. Meneely Bell Company, Troy, N.Y."

Day 18.134: Birds at Timber Point (updated)

Exile #2 and I took a late afternoon walk at Timber Point. Sometimes, the walk along the road is all about reaching the point and investigating what's going on in the inlet by the island. Today, the highlight was the walk through the woods as it is definitely warbler season. Here is some of what we saw.

Male and female common yellowthroats alongside the beach:

Talking of the beach, it was loaded with seaweed making it very difficult to spot the birds:

TL: killdeer, TR: semipalmated plover, BL: red-winged blackbird (the males were easier to see and identify), BR: least sandpiper

As we often do there, we saw a number of yellow warblers:

We were briefly fooled into thinking these were more, but their dark caps caught our eyes, in fact - Wilson's warbler

We saw several magnolia warblers - looking very fine.

We got some of our best-ever views of American redstarts (both male and female):

And our first view of blackpoll warblers in breeding plumage (previously only identified in fall):

And, rounding-out the warbler pictures:

Black-and-white warbler

Black-and-white warbler

Black-throated green warbler (female)

Back at the beach by the parking we were briefly distracted by some low swooping barn swallows and a red-tailed hawk* fly-by:

[* I have been informed that this - as we thought - slightly odd-looking red-tailed hawk is probably a red-shouldered  x red-tailed hawk hybrid seen in various locations  over the last couple of years - glad I stopped to grab a couple of photos]

Out on the water, we saw double-crested cormorants and common eiders.

Some eiders in juvenile or transitional plumage

Others in full breeding form

Fly-by from some red-breasted mergansers

Least flycatcher

I watched this northern cardinal picking flowers off this shrub - he didn't seem to eat the flower itself, letting the petal-part drop each time, presumably a part of it was to his taste however

Song sparrow

Another female red-winged blackbird - in more traditional habitat

A very ruffled-looking northern mockingbird

Common grackle

Both Wilson's warbler and least flycatcher were new for my life list.

We also saw a number of ruby-throated hummingbirds, but they were too fast for photography today.