Day 19.123: Second concert of the week

This evening we drove, not into Portland or Boston but north and inland to the small town of Bridgton Maine to see David Wimbish of The Collection and Jesse James DeConto of The Pinkerton Raid play at a small venue (really just someone’s lovely home) called The Dala House. 

Jesse played first:

Then the both did a couple of songs:

And then we had a mix of old familiar songs and new songs from David:

It was a lovely evening. 

Day 19.122: Plants in the woods and birds at brunch

Here are a few more pictures from our Saturday morning nature group gathering at Evergreen Cemetery.

Norway maple in flower

Coltsfoot - not so named because of its dandelion-like seed heads

...nor for its flowers...

...but for the shape of its leaves.

The duck pond 

Jack-in-the-pulpit

Afterwards, we went to one of the home of one of the members where we had brunch together. While we were there we were visited by cedar waxwings and - surprisingly - another Lincoln's sparrow which was even more obliging than the one earlier in the morning.

Cedar waxwing

A bit of waxwing drama

And here is the Lincoln's sparrow (looking very spiffy):

Day 19.121: Silversun Pickups

Exile #2 and I had a lovely evening at the State Theatre to see Silversun Pickups. Our main connection point with them (apart from Lazy Eye - perhaps their biggest hit and the last song tonight) was the album Neck of the Woods which we listened to a lot around the time of its release. We have spent some time reacquainting ourselves of these and other parts of their back catalogue as well as their new album in preparation for tonight and I’m very glad we did. The songs are great and they were wonderful to see and hear live.

Day 19.120: More birds at Evergreen

Today, we celebrated Exile #2 for Mother's Day. We went to church, did a little birding and had some nice meals. None of that (apart from the birding) resulted in any photos so here are some more of our Saturday morning sightings. 

Solitary sandpipers - there were three of them - together

Veery

Least sandpiper

Great egret

Perched

Still perched

American robin

Mourning dove

Gray catbird showing that amazing undertail patch of color

We were delighted to get a long look at this lovely Lincoln's sparrow

White throated sparrow

Ruby-crowned kinglet

Ruby-crowned kinglet

Red-winged blackbird (a black bird with a red wing)

Red-winged blackbird (not black or red)

Belted kingfisher

Successful fisher

Common grackle

Chipping sparrow

Blue-headed vireo

We also saw our first ruby-throated hummingbirds of the year, but I wasn't able to get the camera onto them.

Day 19.119: Warblers at Evergreen Cemetery

Our nature group gathered at Evergreen Cemetery in Portland this morning. Too many sightings for one blog post, so here are the warblers (parulidae) we saw.

Black-and-white warbler

Northern parula

Chestnut-sided warbler

Yellow-rumped warbler

Common yellowthroat

Northern yellow warbler

Ovenbird

Chestnut-sided warbler

Northern parula

Common yellowthroat

Northern yellow warbler

Common yellowthroat

American redstart

Magnolia warbler

Magnolia warbler

Several of these were the first sighting of the year.