Day 19.265: Black squirrel surprise

In addition to the birds I reported on yesterday, I saw a few gray squirrels, a chipmunk:

Eastern chipmunk

And this beautiful fellow:

Melanistic gray squirrel

Altogether not bad for a tiny pocket of nature in the suburbs of Toronto.

Day 19.264: Canada birding

It may not have been the life-bird bonanza that my trip to California turned out to be, but I did manage a small amount of birding during my first day in Canada. Here is some of what I saw:

Ruby-crowned kinglet that refused to pose for me

Actual Canadian Canada geese in Canada

American robin

The woods were full of common grackles. I caught this one taking a bath

Such pretty iridescence in this light

I think that tiny-looking duck is a wood duck

Mallard

Possibly a mallard or hybrid?

There were no gulls, then one, then two, then three,... Within minutes there were probably a hundred - likely ring-billed gulls I think.

 

Day 19.263: Exile near New York

My layover on the way back from Toronto today was in Newark Airport which, despite being in New Jersey is the airport with the best views of New York City. 

Manhattan skyline as we came into land 

House sparrows in the terminal

Upper Manhattan as we left

The Hudson was visible until just south of Albany when a combination of clouds and distance hid it from view

This is the Green Mountains of Vermont breaking through the clouds as we passed over the state line leaving New York behind

Day 19.262: Oh, Canada…

I forgot to mention that after the late night concert fun on Sunday night, I started Monday very early to fly to Toronto for another short work trip. 

I’m a bit out of practice at international travel apart from visiting the UK. Funny to think that almost all work trips were international travel before the Exile. Anyway, I made it and then waited at international arrivals for my colleagues,

…before driving a little way out of the city to the location of our meeting. The area is full of strip malls, but I managed to find a pocket of nature to walk to with my camera:

The walk took me past this house-sized house advert.

A closer look revealed it was hiding a - perhaps less attractive looking - house:

…and then we found a little town center with a little more character for dinner:

Today was meetings all day and tomorrow I get another early start to head home.  

Day 19.261: Saturday sightings

A few sightings from our pre-storm walk at Biddeford Pool on Saturday.

Downy woodpecker

American herring gull

Chick? Not sure on the species 😂

Common eider

Mallards

Canada geese

Black-crowned night heron

American oystercatchers - first sighting in Maine for 2026

Quite a few on the rocks here

Day 19.260: The end of the tour

Tonight, Exile #2 and I went to see Madison Cunnningham’s Ace Tour for the second time and Exile #3 and E5N1 joined us at Live at Madrid’s - a new venue in Portland.

In prime position

The venue filled up a lot after this was taken!

This was the last date on this surprise second leg of the tour - a tour de force put together by these two amazing musicians - Madison herself and Jesse Chandler along with their sound engineer. It was a sublime evening and Portland did them proud despite it being a very rainy night. 

Day 19.259: Nor'easter

There has been much talk about the storm coming in today. Most of it has been to our south, but - as we discovered at Biddeford Pool this afternoon, it is getting the ocean a little riled-up.