Day 19.188: Turkey update

The family of turkeys wandered through our backyard on Wednesday before I left for work. The young ones are getting bigger. 

Day 19.187: Jumping in the Saco River

Exile #2 and I went for a short walk at the cemetery this evening. Neither of us jumped in the river. One of the most surprising sights from our visit, however, were large fish leaping out of the river. I even managed to catch one with my camera:

Based on my quick bit of investigating, it seems likely it is a shortnose sturgeon but I am certainly no expert on fish identification. 

Day 19.186: Apocalyptic

The skies for the last two days have been looking rather foreboding thanks to wildfire smoke all the way from Minnesota and Alberta. 

This almost certainly had nothing to do with England’s loss in the World Cup semifinal today - but that was also not the end of the world. 

Day 19.185: Saturday morning birds

Our nature group was back at our original haunt - Laurel Hill Cemetery on Saturday morning. Here are some of the birds we saw:

Young chipping sparrow

Red-eyed video

Eastern phoebe

Song sparrow

Common tern

Great egret

Bald eagle

Another young chipping sparrow

Day 19.184: Vigil

There was a tragic killing in our neighboring town today. More will be revealed about what happened and how it might have been avoided later, but today we joined with our neighbors to let them know they are not alone and to join our voices with others that support rather than seek to frighten or threaten them. 

Day 19.183: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #559

Exile #2 writes …

We enjoyed having Exile #4 here for the weekend. It gave us opportunity to celebrate our three most recent birthdays with a meal out and a game, and it also gave Exile #4 the chance to catch up with a friend (and some laundry). E5N1 was busy catching up, too, with school friends and college friends, whilst Exile #1 and I went out early on Saturday morning to join our nature group.

This year we’ve been studying a different species of tree each week, to try to improve our identification (and appreciation) of them and this week we discovered our tree-of-the-week was the extraordinary Tulip Tree. These trees are native to the Eastern US and can grow extremely large. In fact, Walt Whitman mentions one large enough to accommodate 9 people inside a cavity in its trunk. But they also have an elegant shape, unusual leaves, and pretty tulip-like flowers. And to think we barely noticed them for many years.

Day 19.182: Five for lunch

Exile #4 came for a visit last night and we took the opportunity of us all being together to go out for lunch. 

The rest of the day has been dominated by the World Cup and we are still waiting to see who England will meet in the last four.

Day 19.181: Smalls Falls

One episode I didn't get around to reporting from our adventure that included Saddleback and Bicknell's thrushes was our visit to Smalls Falls. We happened to be passing and thought we might as well see what it had to offer. At first impressions, it was a parking lot with a bridge and a view of a medium-sized waterfall.

We followed the trail which hugged the side of the falls and discovered that there are several cascades.

The noise from the tumbling water was quite overwhelming after our peaceful walk on the mountain. There were probably birds in the woods, but we didn't detect them.

Day 19.180: Barn swallows

We watched some young barn swallows waiting to be fed but the actual visits from the parent(s) were so short that it was hard to catch on camera. Eventually I succeeded after a fashion.

False alarm - just a fly-by

Incoming!

At last!

Day 19.179: More birds at The Pool

Here are some more birds from last Wednesday's nature group visit at the edge of The Pool in Biddeford Pool. Progressively more and more of a test for the low-light performance of my new lens arrangement.

Double-crested cormorant

Common grackle

Willet

Willet calling on the wing

Double-crested cormorants

Willet

Snowy egret

Snowy egret

Great blue heron

Common tern

Great black-backed gull

Black-crowned night heron

Black-crowned night heron

Great blue heron

Day 19.178: Birthday surprise

We woke up abruptly a little before 6:30 am to the sound of an electrical fault that caused a power outage for an hour or so - once again a squirrel shorted out a distribution transformer in our neighborhood. 

Fortunately, this didn’t interfere with the plans to celebrate Exile #2’s birthday which included watching the football followed by delivered pizza and a birthday cake along with some gifts of course. Happy Birthday Exile #2!