Day 18.262: Whale-watching life-list birds

I added two birds to my life list on our whale watching trip, although the first one was a technicality.

I had certainly seen and identified northern gannets before - most memorably on a boat trip from a holiday in Brittany in northern France. The boat trip was probably to Sept Iles almost straight out into the English Channel from where we were staying.

Here are a few that we saw on Saturday's boat trip:

Adult

Immature

The second was a solitary brief sighting of a northern fulmar - a tube-nosed seabird that can excrete smelly oil as a defense mechanism (fulmar is a word derived from its foul smell). I only got one half-decent photo, but it was enough to confirm the identification.

This one, as far as I know I have never identified before.

Day 18.261: Shark

Probably the single most surprising moment of our whale watch was getting a photograph of a shark. The first I knew was a loud cheer or explanation from several people further back along the port side of the boat. I turned to see what they were reacting to and just saw a large fish jump clean out of the water again. I had no idea it was a shark. The third time, I was somewhat ready and took three photos. The third was just of the re-entry splash, but the others were these:

Common thresher shark breaching

What goes up, must come down

It did not appear again after that. I discussed the event with one of the crew members on the boat who informed me this was far from a common sight for them. There was some discussion about the likely species of shark on the boat, but thanks to my friend J and his connections, I was able to get a definitive identification today from Matt Davis at the Maine Department of Marine Resources who was kind enough to say some nice words about the photo too. 

Day 18.260: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #539

Exile #2 writes...

While Exile #1 was in hot pursuit of whales, I spent the day at church helping to tidy up the gardens. When we planned the event earlier in the month, it was with the expectation that we would get some frosts, and that it would be time to do a fall tidy up and some end of the season winding down.

But it has generally been feeling more like summer. So, there were still flowers and butterflies and a happily growing bed of herbs. We left them to look lovely for a little while longer and still found plenty to do. It looked pretty good when we were done. Now I just need to do the same at home!

Day 18.259: Whale watching

Today, I joined several members of our nature group on a whale-watching trip from Kennebunk. We were scheduled to go last week but the sailing was canceled due to waves. Today it was delightfully calm. There are other sightings to mention, but I thought the whales might be a good place to start.

Nick's Chance was our vessel today

We saw two fin whales (also known as finback whales). They are baleen whales (filter feeders) and second in size to only the blue whale. It is an adult and a young whale clearly hunting together. They would come up for four or five breaths then dive to hunt for several minutes before returning to the surface. We stayed close to them for an hour or so and had plenty of opportunities to see them.

Day 18.258: Summer; autumn

I often park under this tree while I’m at work. Two weeks ago I took a photo on a lovely sunny late summer Friday of the leaves starting to turn. Today was another T-shirt weather day but no-one would be fooled into thinking summer is still here. 

right: two weeks ago; left: today

Day 18.257: Philip be doing what?

We saw this commemorative plaque on a bench in the West Quoddy Head park. We hoped that in life Mr Hoppin leaned into both his last name and his middle initial. 

Always be hoppin’

Day 18.256: Slow news day

Nothing much to report today, but here are a couple more pictures from last Saturday’s walk in Kennebunkport. 

Day 18.255: Return of the Chonk

Exile #2 spotted and photographed the Chonk today (of course it could be a new woodchuck, but we like to think it is indeed our old acquaintance).

Of course the sighting in yesterday's post could be relevant to this creature's long-term peaceful existence as well as that of the turkeys.

Day 18.254: Turkey trouble?

A commenter suggested yesterday that our flock/herd of wild turkeys might have something to fear from us as Thanksgiving approaches. In fact, we are - as they appear to know - not a threat to them, but this chap who jogged through our backyard on Saturday morning might be a different matter:

Coyote, by this time in our neighbor’s yard

Day 18.253: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #538

Exile #2 writes:

Although the last few days have been warm and summery, much of the state has had the first frost warnings of the season. We get a little extra grace period, being close to the coast but we did a little bit of clearing up in the yard in anticipation of the end of the growing season.

While moving some used cardboard, we disturbed this little guy. He didn’t stick around for long and has hopefully now found a new spot to hide but it was long enough for Exile #1 to run him through an app to discover his identity.

Young red-backed salamander

The turkeys kept their distance knowing we were around but it won’t be for long as we’ve discovered our neighbor is feeding them!

Day 18.252: Saturday morning birding

Our nature group had planned a boating excursion today but rough seas resulted in that being canceled. I was already on my way to Kennebunkport when the cancellation came through, so a small group of us had a walk around a few downtown birding sites instead. This is some of what we saw. 

At the grist mill:

Double-crested cormorant and mallard

Canada geese

From Silas Perkins Park:

Great blue heron

Cooper’s hawk

Circled to a while trying to get some lift

Heard from the park, but we had to take a small detour to see it:

Only a moderate success, but great for our viewing.

Bald eagle - calling

Kind to stand at the top of this tree for us

Behind the Village Baptist Church:

Belted kingfisher

Least flycatcher 

House sparrow 

More house sparrows 

Great blue heron

Even more house sparrows 

We’ll attempt the boat trip again next week. 

Day 18.251: Turkeys lurking

We have several herds (they must be herds since they roam on foot rather than flocks - right?!) of wild turkeys. We see them most days at home and we’ve watched the young ones go from their first lessons in pecking at the ground and preening to now - in many cases being almost indistinguishable from adults. 

This picture is from my office window, take. With my phone, so no significant magnification. Yes, that turkey is most definitely looking at me and determining (correctly) that I am no threat at all. 

Day 18.250: Bay view; sky show

On our first night in Lubec, we had a room with a deck facing the bay and we had a beautiful sunset... 

...followed by a nice showing from the northern lights:

On our last night, we had a less unbroken view but as the rain gave way to a beautiful sunset, we had a lovely light show to round out our visit.