Day 19.104: Savannah at work

Not a colleague. A sparrow as I was leaving yesterday. Only my cellphone camera to hand alas

Day 19.103: Pine siskin

Last year, we bought a BirdWeather PUC and installed it on our deck to listen to and identify the birds it hears. It uses the same technology as the Merlin App. One of the birds it heard was the pine siskin, but although we looked among the winter-plumage goldfinches for a siskin imposter, we never saw one through the year.

I did manage to see (and photograph) a Eurasian siskin during our UK trip in March.

For a variety of reasons, the PUC was decommissioned for a while but we recently got it going again. And, once again, it was regularly identifying pine siskin calls. Today, our persistence paid off and - as we suspected - there among the American goldfinches was one of their streaky cousins.

On the life-list it goes.

The Latin name of the Eurasian siskin is Spinus spinus and the pine siskin's is Spinus pinus. I see what they did there. It's probably for the best if you pronounce it with a long-i like "pine" though.

Day 19.102: Wet plants in the woods

Here are some of the things other than birds we saw on our wet walk in the woods on Sunday afternoon at Tyler Brook Reserve.

American beech leaves with sign of insect damage

Healthier marcescent leaves

Princess pine (clubmoss)

Trout lily

Trout lily (with flower bud)

Goldthread

Bridge over Tyler Brook

Canada mayflower

Beaked hazelnut (female flower)

Beaked hazelnut (male flowers)

Princess pine (clubmoss) with strobili

Wood anemome (or windflower)

Trailing arbutus

Wet sign in the wet woods

Day 19.101: Daffodil time

Another sighting at the cemetery yesterday morning. It's not quite the peak of daffodil season on the hillside overlooking the river, but it's definitely underway.

As always here, rather late for celebrations of St. David's Day (March 1st).

Day 19.100: Spring bird walk #1

Here are some birds I managed to photograph during the first of the Saco Bay Trails Spring Bird Walks at Laurel Hill Cemetery:

American robin

Downy woodpecker

Eastern bluebird (male)

Eastern bluebird (female)

Brown-headed cowbird (male and nearly hidden female)

Double-crested cormorants

Eastern phoebe

White-throated sparrow

Chipping sparrow

Osprey (far)

Song sparrow

Osprey (closer)

Carolina wren

Carolina wren

Savannah sparrow

Brown-headed cowbird (female)

Blue jay

Northern flicker

Day 19.099: Sunday birding

Our nature group gathered at the lovely but - today at least - rather soggy Tyler Brook Reserve in Kennebunkport. The highlight of the birding was hearing a conversation between two barred owls, but here are some of the ones we saw:

Palm warbler

Northern flicker

Northern flicker

Hermit thrush

Day 19.098: Concert

Exile #2 and I went to a concert this evening including E5N1 (and the rest of the university choir) singing with the symphony orchestra. It was excellent. I especially enjoyed their rendition of Zadok the Priest which I have also sung (many years ago). It has one of the best choral entrances I’ve ever heard. If the school posts a video I’ll add a link.