Thursday, May 21, 2026

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

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

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. 

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

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