Day 18.249: Aboarder crossings?

At the otherwise fairly normal looking public boat-launch in Lubec is this sign:

I suppose the rules are always to do this, but maybe more sign-worthy when Canada is just a few hundred feet away. 

Day 18.248: Downeast nature (miscellany)

Birds dominated my nature photography (with honorable mention to mammals) but here are a few other natural things.

Northern pearly-eye

Quite beautiful in all their brownness

The most spectacular display of pitcher plants on the bog trail at West Quoddy Head

Many of them were in flower - the flowers tower over the rest of the plant...

...and have a remarkable structure

Fly agaric

Bluemink

Hickory tussock moth - it was suspended by an invisible thread at about head-height on the trail. I assume descending from its infant feeding grounds to find a place to transform. For a bit of fun, you can check out this video of a similar encounter from 15 years ago with a disco soundtrack)

American toad

There were so many of these wolf spiders in among the stones (there are two in this picture and maybe more hidden beneath the stones). We've seen them on other beaches too and just discovered they are called - appropriately enough - stone spiders.

Beard lichen

Wild sarsaparilla

Tawny grisette (what a lovely name - tawny little gray)

Blue-bead lily (very appropriate, the beads ranged from this dark blueberry color to bright blue)

Mourning cloak (I just discovered it's the same butterfly known as Camberwell beauty in the UK)

Viceroy (funny how easy it is to tell this isn't a monarch by the way it flies, but you could easily be fooled by a photo like this)

Dyer's polyphore

Day 18.247: Other birds Downeast (woodland etc.)

The last collection of bird sightings from our trip to Lubec - woodland and marsh sightings mostly.

American crow

Cedar waxwing

Song sparrow

Yellow-rumped warbler

We were accompanied almost everywhere we went in the woods by the sounds of these red-breasted nuthatches making their "toy-horn" honking sounds

Sometimes they get faster and faster (we assumed due to being more alarmed) on at least one occasion we heard it get higher pitched as it got faster - like a record being sped up.

Another very common accompaniment was the much more understated whispering of golden-crowned kinglets. They were quite hard to get a decent view of however.

Golden-crowned kinglet

Black-throated green warbler

Common raven

Eastern kingbird

Eastern kingbird

Eastern kingbird

Blue-gray gnatcatcher

Song sparrow

Northern harrier

Northern harrier

Cooper's hawk (immature)

It's a new-world sparrow, but not sure which kind!

Northern harrier in the mist

Downy woodpecker

Hairy woodpecker (very close to us but nearly obscured)

Black-capped chickadee (I had to check it wasn't a boreal chickadee!)

Swamp sparrow or white-throated sparrow (tan-striped)

Northern flicker

Song sparrow. I kept this to remind me to mention that we were both shocked when another visitor walked up to one of these rose bushes, plucked a large red hip and proceeded to eat it like a tomato. I had no idea they were edible like that never mind palatable

Rock pigeon

These last few were on our way back from Calais in the Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge

Osprey perched (in the rain)

Osprey on nest (in the rain)

Canada geese

Belted kingfisher