Day 19.133: Black vultures

Our nature group gathered this morning at Rotary Park in Biddeford and we had a remarkable encounter that turned even stranger in retrospect. 

At one point we saw a group of turkey vultures circling an d then spotted another bird above them. At first we assumed it was another turkey vulture then someone suggested it looked like a much rarer (in Maine) black vulture. It was already flying away. I tried to snap a couple of photos and then it disappeared behind some trees and our attempts to get a different angle failed. 

We decided to backtrack a little way to get a better view of the sky, hoping the bird might circle around for us to get a second look. 

A few moments later, two black vultures flew towards us and right over our heads, heading in the same direction as the first bird. 

The strange thing is, when I looked at my photos from the original birds, they were all of turkey vultures. So either, I I photographed the wrong bird (very possible in the scramble) or we didn’t see a black vulture at all at that point but reacted as if we did and then were rewarded with an excellent view of two of them. Either way, it turned out extremely fortuitously for us. 

Here are a couple of pictures from the undoubted flyby:

Day 19.132: Peeper

Spring peepers are small tree frogs that are rarely seen but make their presence felt with their loud calls at this time of year. We had.a close encounter with one this week when Exile #2 found one while gardening. At first she thought it might be dead, but it turned out to be very much alive and capable of some impressive bounds. 

Only cellphone photos, but we were quite close:

Day 19.131: Sunday birding

Our nature group met on Sunday morning. We had to slip away a bit early to meet our church commitments but it was an eventful gathering nonetheless. Here are some of the birds we saw in Biddeford Pool:

Red-tailed hawk (one wing extended)

Crow and red-tailed hawk

Cormorant fly-by

Common tern with some fish

Least flycatcher

Wilson's warbler

Wilson's warbler

Nashville warbler

Common yellowthroat

Eastern kingbird

Tree swallow

Eastern warbling vireo

Red-eyed vireo

Bay-breasted warbler

 Black-and-white warbler

House finch

House finch

Blue-headed vireo

Blue-headed vireo

Blue-headed vireo

American redstart

Carolina wren

House sparrow

Swainson's thrush

Yellow-rumped warbler

Ovenbird

Northern yellow warbler

Chipping sparrow

Cooper's hawk

Cooper's hawk

Day 19.130: Exile #4

Exile #4 is home for a couple of weeks before they start work back in Massachusetts. I went down this afternoon to help clear out their student room and drive a large vehicle with most of the contents in it. It meant a lot of carrying stuff down the stairs on a very hot day. When a rain shower interrupted, we were both pleased to have an enforced break. 

Here is a classic image of Exile #4 from the first year of the Exile along with a recreation using their graduation cap that was designed especially to echo this childhood moment. 

We did try it with extended arms, but tiny though they are, their arms are a lot longer than they were in 2007. 

Day 19.129: Last walk

It’s over a week since the last of the spring bird walks. Here is some of what we saw:

Cooper’s hawk

Gray catbird

A big surprise - two little blue herons (albeit rather distant!)

Canada goose for scale

This young red-tailed hawk landed near us

Spotted something on the ground 

Caught it

Then seemed a little unsure what to do with it (you can see in this photo that it is a mole)

Chimney swift 

Chimney swift 

Double-crested cormorant 

Osprey

Osprey

Furtive American robin

After  a few moments it hopped up to this nest

Scarlet tanager

Scarlet tanager

American redstart

Yellow-rumped warbler 

American redstart

Northern parula (and the insect it was chasing)

Blurry prairie warbler

Northern parula