Day 18.323: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #533

Exile #2 writes...

As quickly as they appeared, Exile #4 and E5N1 have departed back to their colleges for a few more weeks of study before the Christmas vacation. Exile #4’s departure was slightly delayed by a minor car issue, but that gave them the chance to hang out with their siblings for another hour or two. It also meant we all unexpectedly got to have one more meal together when Exile #1 and I returned from church!

It’s been a lovely relaxed Thanksgiving - good food, games, company, and a concert thrown in for good measure. We even had time to unearth the snow blower and shovels, which is just as well as we may need them this coming week...

One of several hilarious games

Day 18.322: They are The Walrus

I made it out for our nature group outing this morning - brisk walk around the mill area on both sides of the river (more on that on another day). Around lunchtime we said farewell to Exile #4’s friend K, and this evening four of us went to the State Theatre to see night two of the annual three night Beatles extravaganza put on by The Walrus (formerly Spencer and the Walrus). It was a great night full of great versions of a pile of Beatles hits. 

Day 18.321: Thanksgiving birds

Here are few birds that we saw at East Point yesterday.

Great cormorant and likely a great black-backed gull

Red-breasted merganser

Red-breasted merganser

Surf scoter

Black scoters

White-winged scoter

Great cormorant

White-winged scoter

Common eider

Day 18.320: Thanksgiving #19

We celebrated a somewhat traditional Thanksgiving today. It is great to have the kids back from college and to be joined by Exile #4’s friend K who couldn’t make the journey home to Idaho so is settling for another potato producing state. Maine was the top state for potato growing until Idaho overtook it in 1957 but has since slipped to 8th place.

Here’s how the day went.

A game of Suspend

Thanksgiving dinner

A quick walk at East Point Sanctuary while the daylight lasted

Pies

We also played several other games and watched a few old videos and a couple of Thanksgiving episodes of Bob's Burgers. As ever, we have much to be thankful for.

Day 18.319: Saturday birding part 2

Here is some of what we saw at Fortune's Rocks beach and in the two nearby pools.

White-winged scoters

Many gulls on the rocks

Part of a huge raft of mostly black scoters

These female buffleheads were diving to the bottom of the pond and then bobbing up like corks

Bufflehead

Buffleheads

Bathing gulls

Another view of some of the scoters

The rest of our small group for this part of the morning

We were excited to see some northern pintails dabbling with the mallards at Lords Pond

Northern pintails

Northern pintail

Northern pintail

This boat seemed dressed in a ghillie suit - we assumed for duck hunting

Northern pintails - some tails are more pin-like than others

Northern pintail

Muskrat

Mallard with something at least potentially edible

Northern pintails

American black ducks

A view of the beach as we prepared to leave

Day 18.318: Saturday birding part 1

Our nature group gathered in Biddeford Pool on Saturday afternoon. Here is some of what caught my eye and was caught by my camera on The Pool side:

Bufflehead

Common eiders

Rock pigeons

American herring gull

Common loon

Groundsel tree. Even from a few feet away, it looked like this plant was in flower - rather than these feathery seeds

And on the coastal side:

Red-breasted merganser

Red-breasted merganser

Buffleheads

Red-breasted mergansers

Surf scoters

Ring-billed gull

Remote-controlled sailing dinghy - I was impressed to see it tacking in a fairly stiff breeze - somehow it seemed like it would much harder than sailing a boat while on board 

Horned grebe

The weather closing in

A smaller group went on to Fortune's Rocks Beach and nearby pools, but I'll save that for tomorrow.