Day 19.305: Apples

Our nature group has been studying a tree each week in 2026. As I mentioned previously, a couple of weeks ago, instead of a specific tree, we studied the whole malus genus - also known as apples. There are many crabapple trees around, many with bright red fruit, some with yellow fruit but on Saturday, we spotted one with both - and not on separate parts of the tree but like this:

I wonder what makes them develop in this way. 

Day 19.304: Counting started

Last weekend was the first full weekend in November and therefore our first counting weekend for Project FeederWatch. We had a pretty good showing. Here are some of our visitors:

Downy woodpecker 

House finch

Carolina wren

White-breasted nuthatch

House finch

Brown creeper

Day 19.303: More Saturday birds

A few more from our rainy visit to the Saco River in Biddeford on Saturday afternoon.

Double-crested cormorant 

Great blue heron

Black-bellied plover

Greater yellowlegs

Greater yellowlegs

Day 19.302: Victorious visitor

Exile #4 and their two friends who had spent a rather wet weekend on Mount Desert Island, dropped in for lunch to break-up their homeward journeys. Exile #4 stayed a little longer and we played Wingspan with the Americas expansion.

It was a second game tor the rest of us, but the first for Exile #4. Did that get in the way of a victory? It did not. 

Day 19.301: A harrier and two eagles in the rain

Our nature group gathered at Marblehead Boat Launch this afternoon. It was (for the third successive visit of this group to this location) a little damp and not the best conditions for bird spotting or photography, but here are three nice observations:

Bald eagle #1 landed in this distant tree, not sure we would have spotted it there if someone hadn't watched it land

Eagle #2 perched at the tip of a slightly nearer tree

We had a couple of nice fly-bys from this northern harrier

Day 19.300: Big blue wave

Day 19.299: New tech for fall

We added this to our arsenal of fall tools this year:

It’s a pleasure to use - quiet and easy for moving the bulk of leaves off the grass.