Day 19.206: Garden update

Exile #2 has been busy. Here are some updates:

Also, salad leaves, berries, flowers, zucchini, …

Day 19.196: Stumped

The stump of the red oak tree we had taken down earlier this year was demonstrating its thirst for life but today we tidied it up again. 

While we were doing that, I had a go at counting the rings. If my reckoning is correct (and it may well not be), it seems to have been about 80 years old but between the ages of 10 and 50 or so, it seems to have grown very slowly.

The house was built around 30 years ago, so I suspect its access to light got much better around then when the surrounding trees were removed and it was able to grow much faster for the years since then. 

Day 19.195: Weekend; chicory

It’s the weekend. Here’s a chicory flower:

And - as a bonus - the silvery leaves of autumn olive:

Day 19.192: Mystery heron (solved)

Well, it was a mystery when I first saw it on my way back to work after lunch.

Best I could do with my phone

I worked out it must be an immature great blue heron.

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 19.186: 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 19.184: 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 19.178: 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!

Day 19.167: Hawk watch

The broad-winged hawks have hung around again this spring. They didn’t nest in the same spot they used the last two years but they have been staying nearby - presumably nesting in a different tree in the same patch of trees behind our house. 

Mostly we’ve been hearing them calling but we’ve had a few sightings. Today I took the opportunity to get a few photo looking almost straight up from the deck. 

Day 19.151: Turkey surprise

When I arrived at work the other day, I saw a wild turkey sitting close to where I parked. I tried not to disturb it, but failed. As it stood up to walk slowly away, I saw there was a tiny chick as well. 

Cell phone pictures only sadly. 

Day 19.146: Muskrat

Today was a recovery day (although I did go to work and cut the grass). Exile #4 picked up a rental car provided by the insurance and did some shopping and furniture reassembly. 

Here’s a picture of a muskrat towing some vegetation across a pond from last weekend’s nature group outing. Now I need to get to bed before it’s time for this week’s. 

Day 19.139: It’s artificial anyway

This is your reminder that AI doesn’t always get it right:

No papercraft - intricate or otherwise - was used in that video. Or maybe it was and I didn’t have “intelligence” enough to detect it. 

Day 19.132: Peeper

Spring peepers are small tree frogs that are rarely seen but make their presence felt with their loud calls at this time of year. We had.a close encounter with one this week when Exile #2 found one while gardening. At first she thought it might be dead, but it turned out to be very much alive and capable of some impressive bounds. 

Only cellphone photos, but we were quite close:

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 19.116: New arrivals

Yesterday we saw what we assumed to be cedar waxwings in the trees at our neighbors across the street and today we saw some small warblerish birds from our back window. This is what they turned out to be:

Bohemian waxwing

Color under tail and white bar on wing are distinctive I believe

Chestnut-sided warbler

(Looking a little damp)

Northern parula

All are first sightings of the year. 

Day 19.108: Backyard birding (early spring)

After we got home from Saturday birding with our nature group, there were more bird sightings at home. 

 Brown creeper

Mourning dove

Yellow-rumped warbler

Red-tailed hawk

Red-bellied woodpecker

Palm warbler

Yellow-rumped warbler

Broad-winged hawks

It's great to have a pair of broad-winged hawks in the neighborhood for a third year. No sign of nesting in the location they've used the last couple of years so we'll see what happens.