Day 19.078: Flying again

This afternoon, I was back to the airport (just in Portland this time) to make my way to Wisconsin for a few work meetings. I had a window seat for the first leg - as far as Chicago.

View down the coast to Portland Head Light

Frozen lakes just inland

The islands of Casco Bay

The east coast of Lake Michigan - it always amazes me how big these lakes are

Day 19.077: Grackles' return

On Friday, when I got home from work, I spotted some common grackles at our neighbor's feeders. As the first sighting of the year, I made sure to document it.

Later in the day, we had a few at our feeders but they were too skittish for photographs. This morning, however, we had another few:

And then, as Exile #2 and I were walking down the street to join the anti-monarchists. we saw many of these birds in the tops of the trees. I first estimated 50, then 100, then saw another large group in the trees across the road and guessed 200.

However, on closer inspection, this photo alone probably has at least 200 birds, so the real total must have been 400 or more.

Either way, it's safe to say the grackles are back in numbers. It's also interesting that my first life record of this bird was from almost exactly this time of year (March 31st 2007).

Day 19.076: Group photo

There were various comings and goings over the course of a week to celebrate Dad's 90th birthday. We still managed a group photo thanks to some semi-careful planning and photo editing:

Not perfect, but pretty good in my opinion.

Day 19.075: Project Hail Mary

Exile #2 and I fought off the jet lag to go and see this movie yesterday. I read the book last month as part of Elle’s Sci-Fi Book Club. Exile #2 knew basically nothing about the story. We both really enjoyed it from our different starting points.

Day 19.074: UK birds (outing)

On Sunday, we had an outing at least partly to see some birds. We visited Blithfield Reservoir in a couple of places. This is some of what we saw:

Eurasian blue tit

Long-tailed tit

Redpoll

Eurasian siskin

Dunnock

European robin

Common chaffinch

Coal tit

Common chiffchaff

Common buzzard

Eurasian wigeon

Eurasian wigeon

European robin

Greater scaup & great crested grebe

Great cormorant

Black-headed gull

Common chaffinch

Dunnock

Great black-backed gull, European herring gull & lesser black-backed gull

Great cormorant

Eurasian kestrel

White (pied) wagtail

Great black-backed gull

Eurasian siskin

Again, most are additions to the 2026 list and the siskin, redpoll and wigeon are new for the life list.

Day 19.073: UK birds - incidental

Today is my dad's actual birthday - and although we're missing that, we celebrated well for the three days we spent there.

Here are some of the birds we saw when we weren't really trying (at my sister's house and near the property where we stayed):

Eurasian jackdaw

Coal tit

European greenfinch

Eurasian blackbird

European robin

House sparrow

European goldfinch

Reed bunting

Carrion crow

African peafowl (maybe feral or effectively a farm pet)

Collared dove

Red-legged partridge

Crows in the mist

Ring-necked pheasant

Domestic chicken in the back courtyard of the house - she quickly found her way back into the next-door farm.

Also seen in this way: magpies, wood pigeons and feral pigeons, common chaffinch, 

All of the wild birds here apart from the house sparrow and feral pigeons are new for my year list and the partridge and coal tit represent their first record for my life list.