Day 17.233: Back (bag)

Exile #2 is home after a long day of travel. I decided not to publish her travel weariness but here is her bag to prove she made it.

Day 17.232: Willows; warblers

On our birding walk today, we saw some of the usual suspects - an eastern bluebird at the top of a tree, a great blue heron over the marsh.

And then we tuned in on a lot of activity in a stand of small willow trees. We identified catbirds, yellow warblers, song sparrows and goldfinches and then, when reviewing my photos some different warblers - which I suspect to be a Nashville warbler and - a little more confidently - a northern waterthrush.

Day 17.231: Keeping it together

I think it’s fair to say that we are managing to get by in Exile #2’s absence. We are eating and not letting the house descend into complete chaos. I am also managing to keep up posting here, but in keeping with the “gettting by” theme, sometimes all I have is a random photo of some rose hips. 

Day 17.230: A surprise visit

When we returned from our hike on Saturday, as we stood in the kitchen, E5N1 suddenly exclaimed in surprise having spotted something in the backyard. 

It's not wildly unusual for us to see turkeys out the back of the house, but this was a nice visit from an adult (presumably a parent) and a youngster.

It was fun to watch that every time the parent pecked at the ground, the young one came over to peck at the exact same spot, causing the adult to have to stop and take a few steps before finding another place of interest at which point the process repeated.

We had another visit by - apparently - the same two birds the next day. They didn't stay long, but as they left, we got another little data point from a behavioral interaction. The turkeys wandered into our neighbors' yard where four crows were standing on the lawn. The young turkey - only about the same size as the crows - walked towards the group seemingly without any concerns, and - sure enough - the crows moved out of the way to let it pass. Not necessarily what I would have guessed.

Day 17.229: Fun guy photos

…or something like that. 

From our hike at Agamenticus:

And as a bonus, this is what I found under one or  Exile #2’a bean plants. It’s a bit hard to see, but there is a ring of foil around the plant to discourage various nibbling creatures.m and there are several large mushroom caps poking out of it.

Day 17.228: A snake and some insects

The birds were not particularly obliging on Saturday at Agamenticus, but we saw some other animals. A couple of chipmunks near the summit, a monarch that flew by as we ate our lunch and these:

We saw several American lady butterflies

A garter snake that moved as E5N1 walked nearby. If it hadn’t moved there’s a good chance we wouldn’t have spotted it. 

Likely an American dagger moth caterpillar. We were looking for monarch caterpillars on some milkweed when E5N1 spotted this. 

Day 17.227: Birds at Agamenticus

In stark contrast with our last two visits, our hike yesterday was not great in terms of bird sightings. I was able to point out the sounds of eastern wood pewee and red-eyed vireo to E5N1 as we walked in the woods. The only actual sightings were of a few chipping sparrows and a group of turkey vultures. The latter showed a behavior I didn’t recall having seen before - holding their wings out horizontally to their sides like a cormorant.

apparently it was likely some kind of heat-regulation activity. 

Day 17.226: Guys' hike

At around the same time that I was taking off from Madison on Thursday, Exile #2 was taking off from Boston for a trip rather further to the east. She's currently in the Oxford area helping out after her mum had to spend some time in hospital. That, of course, significantly changes the dynamics at home. Today, the result was that E5N1 and I went out for a hike after I suggested I might go on my own to get some nature time.

We went to Mount Agamenticus. Since our recent visits had been with Exile #4, we wondered if the last time E5N1 had been was when we visited Second Hill and it seems like that is the case - almost exactly four years ago. Here's some views from the trails and the summit today.

The view west towards the White Mountains

The view north to Kennebunk

The hikers at the summit

This section of the trail was bounded by hundred of young-growth trees

Day 17.225: Back to birding

Despite my late night, I made it out early this morning for a birding walk. Here is some of what we saw:

We saw several hummingbirds. This one perched quite obligingly.

As did this cedar waxwing

Hairy woodpecker - less often seen on these walks than its slightly smaller cousin the downy woodpecker

Not a great angle on this mystery bird, but a great view of its pointed beak.

We saw quite a few flickers - some on the ground as usual, but several in the trees.

We saw this young red-bellied woodpecker behaving strangely...

...before we spotted that it was following this adult (presumably a parent) and begging for food.

 

Day 17.224: Unwind

Taking off from Madison:

Landing in Detroit:

Taking off from Detroit:

Landing in Portland:

…and now I’m home. 

Day 17.223: Feather possession

I took photos of these two feathers as I was cutting the grass on Sunday in preparation for my trip. My instinct was to photograph them but leave them where they were. 

I wondered if the bold stripes is a tail feather of one of our broad-winged hawks but in the process of trying - and failing - to confirm or deny that, I discovered that technically it would have been illegal for me to pick it up and bring the feather into the house thanks to a 1918 law meant to curtail hat-making. 

Day 17.222: Travel (west bound)

My day started with leaving home at 4 am to go to the airport. 

Leaving Portland ME:

Arriving Detroit MI:

Arriving Madison WI:

I was in the office at around 9:15 am and did pretty much a full day there. At this point, 17.5 hours after my day started, I’m getting quite tired.