Day 18.155: Birds at Wells Reserve at Laudholm

Once again, the rain arrived along with Saturday morning. This time it was a bit too early to ruin the whole day. After a couple of outings in the morning, Exile #2 and I went to Wells in the afternoon. Here are some of the birds we saw there. 

Northern flicker

Gray catbird

Chestnut-sided warbler

Red-winged blackbird

Song sparrow

Song sparrow

Great crested flycatcher

Bald eagle

Bobolink - this one gave us a lovely display

Our final bird encounter was a close flyby from this red-tailed hawk 

What are you looking at?

This was us on Laudholm Beach at Drakes Island.

Day 18.154: Could I see your ID?

A couple of days later than tradition might demand, but Exile #4 and I went out with the express plan to get someone to ask to see their ID. 

Day 18.153: Edwyn B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge

I did not visit the Edwyn B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge today. Instead I spent the whole day from early in the morning until nearly midnight doing a work trip to Philadelphia. My morning flight however took me over the Jersey shore. I was able to identify it later from this photo I took of Horseshoe Island, just along the coast from Atlantic City. 

Soon after I took that, I noticed what appeared to be a road making a rectangle around a bit of wetland:

Which turns out to be - you guessed it - Edwyn B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. Maybe I’ll get to visit it at ground level one day. 

Day 18.152: 21 Yay!

Today was Exile #4’s 21st birthday. We  celebrated with some balloons which looked pretty good as Exile #4 came in from work.

Despite that it turned out that the “2” balloon that Exile #2 picked up to go with the “1” from E5N1’s 18 was about three times the size and we needed a bit of forced perspective to make it work:

Opening some gifts:

Blowing out the birthday cake candles - “Yay! 21”:

Day 18.151: And off they go

This group of drama and music kids and teachers gathered briefly at the high school this afternoon. 

Then a few of us drove them to Boston and they will shortly be flying to London for a busy week of sightseeing and shows. 

Day 18.150: Tassel

Why, you may soon be wondering, do I have a picture of E5N1’s tassel?

Well, let me tell you. 

We were running a little late leaving for graduation when halfway there I realized I’d failed to pick up either my camera or my phone as we rushed to leave the house. We decided to drop E5N1 off for his call time and leave Exile #2 and Exile #4 to find some seats in the bleachers while Exile #3 and I returned home for the missing devices. 

On arriving home, Exile #3 went to refill a water bottle and as a result, I decided to run upstairs to the bathroom. The tassel was lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. I wouldn’t have seen it even after coming home if I hadn’t decided - unnecessarily - to go upstairs. 

It turns out that when he got my text to say that I had it, he had just noticed that it was missing. By then, even if we’d guessed where it was, it would have been too late to go and fetch it. I grabbed the phone and camera and we headed back to school to reunite cap and tassel and then find our seats in the packed bleachers. 

Day 18.149: Commencement

The bleachers in the stadium were packed for the class of 2025 today. We'd never seen them anywhere near as full. Apparently this class at 330 is larger than the ones either side of it and it was a perfect day - sunny and around 70 degrees with a nice cooling breeze.

E5N1 played his parts well - joining in the final singing of the "senior song" including a solo at this event, marching in time for the procession and collecting his diploma with aplomb.

"Marching"

Diploma time

Handshake from the headmaster

Proof that we were all there

Congrats Grad!