Day 19.174: Quick visit to Exile #4

I was off work yesterday and today in honor of tomorrow’s holiday. Exile #2 and I decided to pay a quick visit to Exile #4 to see how they are getting on in their new place. All went well and we were able to take them out for lunch.

It was all delightfully uneventful compared with the previous time we traveled from here to there. 

Day 19.173: Belgrade birds

Our first sighting after we left Norway was somewhere en route to Belgrade. We saw a Baltimore oriole and then saw that it was feeding a fledgling. 

Baltimore oriole

Young Baltimore oriole

Here are some birds we saw in Belgrade (apart from the previously mentioned Sandhill cranes and the mystery bird that turned out to be a wood duck. 

Loon with chick

Red-winged blackbird

Gray catbird 

Purple Martin

Purple martins

Brown-headed cowbirds 

Day 19.172: Ordway Grove

After lunch in Norway, we walked up the street to Ordway Grove - a small area of old growth forest with some huge pine and hemlock trees. Exile #2 was hoping we would see a Blackburnian warbler there but although we heard at least two, they were likely out of sight in the very high treetops. 

I’m glad we were forewarned that the entrance isn’t especially obvious. 

Red squirrel

Red squirrel

Downy woodpecker

Downy woodpecker 

American robin

Yellow-bellied sapsucker

Yellow-bellied sapsucker

Common self heal

Day 19.171: Birds at Shepard’s Farm and Witt’s Swamp

As I mentioned yesterday, we heard many more birds that we saw and photographed even fewer, but this is what I managed to capture:

Song sparrow

Eastern bluebird

Broad-winged hawk

Broad-winged hawk

Chipping sparrow

Red-shouldered hawk. This one was calling in a way that sounded like a herring gull

Likely a pine warbler. We heard them in any case

Eastern phoebe

Eastern phoebe

Juvenile hairy woodpecker (note reddish crown rather than patch on back of head as the adult males show)

Black-and-white warbler

Red-breasted nuthatch 

Red-breasted nuthatch

Black-capped chickadee

Day 19.170: Shepard's Farm Preserve

Our first stop in Norway was at Shepard's Farm Preserve. It's a park with sculptures adjoining trails to Witt's Swamp. Here are some photos.

The trail names and signs have fun with the name of the swamp:

We saw some birds and some interesting plants which I'll save for another day, but the birds we only heard may have been the highlight of the trails. We heard an Eastern wood pewee, black-throated green warblers and oven birds and were serenaded as we looped around the swamp by winter wrens, but the most magical moment was standing on a trail in the woods with at least two hermit thrushes calling around us here is a tiny flavor (sound only):

Day 19.169: Exile #2's Sunday Column #557

Exile #2 writes...

Norway turned out to be a fun little town, with a surprising number of artists’ studios on its Main Street, plus a number of nice cafes and restaurants. One was called Pizza XChange and something about the vibe of the town, or maybe because it was on the same block as the town’s cooperative market, it had us wondering what might be considered an acceptable exchange for pizza.

This building, however, intrigued us the most. The US is home to many societies: Freemasons, Shriners, Elks, Odd-fellows and more, I’m sure, but we’d never come across a Weary Club before. I couldn’t help wondering if their membership had increased lately...

Weary Club of Norway, Maine