Day 19.090: Phoebe visits

We’ve seen this eastern phoebe almost every day since last weekend. It seems to be finding bugs - at times by hovering at the side of tree trunks, and at times going to the ground before returning to a perch to pump its tail.

Why does it pump its tail when it lands?

To make it easier for us to identify it!

Day 19.089: I didn’t really think this through

I captured this yesterday. 

It was remarkable because I’ve been trying to get my streak back to 128 for significantly more than 128 days and I finally succeeded in stringing that many hard-mode puzzles together again. Of course the screenshot doesn’t prove that I got to 128 twice but I did. As of today it’s 129. I still have a way to go to catch Exile #2 whose maximum streak is over 180. 

Day 19.088: Happy Birthday E5N1!

Today is E5N1's 19th birthday. I chose a photo from each year - within a few weeks of his birthday.

Here is zero:

Here is one through nine:

and ten through eighteen:

This is nineteen:

We'll see him for a birthday celebration at the weekend.

Day 19.087: Snow?!

This happened this morning:

Both the remote Exiles reported snow at their locations too. 

Day 19.086: Saturday morning birding

Our first stop on Saturday was to meet with our nature group. We visited four places at Biddeford Pool and observed birds and trees. Here are some of the birds we saw:

House sparrow

Piping plover (first of the year)

Eastern phoebe

Eastern phoebe

Great blue heron

Northern flicker

Northern cardinal

Great blue heron on the mudflats of the Pool

Song sparrow

Surf scoter (front)

Long-tailed ducks

Brant (second lifetime record and first of the year)

Common loon 

Brant

American black duck

Mallard

Red-winged blackbird

Gadwalls

Hooded merganser

Red-breasted merganser

Song sparrow

American wigeon

Belted kingfisher

Eastern bluebird

Double-crested cormorants (arriving in the area in numbers after their winter absence)

Common grackle

Common grackle (same bird - amazing color change when it turned around)

Great black-backed gull

Black scoters

Common eiders

Common eiders

Great blue heron

Brown-headed cowbirds

Northern flicker

House finch

Also notably seen but not photographed: golden-crowned kinglet and tree swallow (both the first records of the year for me).

Day 19.085: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #548

Exile #2 writes...

After a fun and busy Easter service this morning, we had an unexpected visitor! E5N1 came home to hang out with us for the afternoon. There was much sharing of music, including a choral piece he’s been working on, and we also called Exile #4, who is getting very close to the end of their time at college!