I am no longer a girl in a flannel button-down. I am a beast, hunting for my prey, she growls as she crawls over the threshold to the kitchen.  She prowls towards the plate of bacon, saliva dripping, and snatches a piece from the unwary cook, dragging it back to the table to consume in her mighty jaws, without the use of utensil or paw.  She hisses when I approach, looking for a crumb.

This isn't the first time this kind of transformation has occurred. Maybe it's March Madness of the animal variety. We were simply walking down the bike path, eager to see the masses of starlings and black birds roosting in the tops of the sycamores by the river.  Their bursts of flight are breath-taking, and the silence that comes before take-off is as deafening as the chatter moments before.

Then suddenly my child was herself flying: a large, crane-like creature leading the way through the evening.

I'm looking at you from the side, 'cause that's where my eyes are.

She's a little skittish, but beckons me with each stop.

As the story unfolds, I realize that she is my long-lost daughter, become bird one full-moon night, now able to unzip her cloak of feathers to return to our home. 

So very ten. I thought I'd mourn the passing of seven forever, but seven is still in there somewhere.  She reminds me that her parallel number is just around the corner. How I love these days.

more maine

Every other day we were in Maine was beautifully sunny. The other days were foggy and misty, rainy, which I also love, but you won't see photos of those days.  Well, right there, we're cutting the posting party in half, for those of you who just can't wait to get back to What's Happening in Ohio...(here's a hint: it's raining.)  Monday we went out to the Great Salt Bay Farm, near Damariscotta, in search of birds and horseshoe crabs! Ah, Maine!

common yellow throat

I had the pleasure of observing and identifying a bird. I know, that sounds straightforward and simple but I can't tell you how often I make a guess and just have to give up knowing for absolute sure, but this time we studied the guide and had many opportunities to verify our guesses.  I will tell you that a common yellow throat is anything but common, with its brilliant yellow, and black mask.

we found several shells, but no one living

bobolink male

The bobolinks nest on the ground in this prairie, and we saw many bobbing through the air, and perching on the tall grasses, wild with singing.  They are striking birds with their black and white.

With a quick pass through Damariscotta, we headed to Thomaston, to the shipyard where Freeman is working on a crew renovating an old vessel. The craftsmanship is astounding.  This doesn't surprise me, having seen Freeman's work before, but that was on a small craft, not something of this scale. 

Every time I walked out of their house, this goofy weathervane was there to greet me.  Just where does he think he's going? Maybe it thinks it's a phoenix, rising from the chimney?

This cormorant was content to sit tight and gaze at the boats as I joined him at the end of the pier. We did see glimpses of harbor seals in these waters, and later in the week a loon and a guillemot, and on our last night the common - again with the "common" - eider, but none close enough to sit for a picture.

birds

Mallards

My friend Freeman has challenged himself to identifying 100 birds this year.  Wanting a little company, he threw this challenge my way, knowing I'd find it hard to resist...I have to say that the first 30 were easy, and I can only imagine it will get increasingly more difficult. Now that I've counted the chickadees, juncos, jays and starlings, how lovely to travel to a new state and see a few species we are unlikely to find here! My friends Jim and Nancy recently spent a weekend with a birding group (as newbies they said it was quite the cultural experience, being with Birders), so they were extremely accomodating and helpful with this quest.  Ringbill Gull? Check. Ringneck? Check. Grackle? Got it.

Most of our bird sightings were at a park we frequented when we lived in Richmond.  These birds had a regular visitor who feeds them by the bucket-full.  We timed our stop just right to watch the frenzy!

Geese and Coots

As far as I can tell, these geese below look like Graylag Geese, but many of our domestic geese are descendants of the european Graylag, so maybe these are just some escapees from a local farm? Apparently they do migrate here occasionally but I can't find anything specifically about them living in Virginia.  However, while looking I did see a disturbing list of species that have a hunting season in the state: tundra swan, coots, teals, merganzers, scoters, pintails, and fulvous whistling ducks, to name but a few.  Why does anyone need to shoot a swan?? We did just finish reading about Louis and his trumpet, so maybe I've lost perspective on the non-talking species of swans, but really. Why???

Ringneck

I haven't checked this out officially, but I'm guessing that our birds have to be found in the wild, so I won't count these beauties that we saw in the Maymont aviary.

Great Horned Owl

Kestrel

Black Vulture

The weather has been bonkers, here and there - many inches of snow and ice, and then today a nearly total melt at 53 degrees, and the birds are so happy.  The morning that we packed up the car to drive home we stepped outside to hear a chorus of fluting.  It took us a minute to locate the source: up in the very top branches of a tree were eight or so blue jays, lit with a pink morning light, taking turns each singing one note.  It was absolutely magical.

this is not a fluting blue jay, but a robin

We also watched The Big Year with Steve Martin and Jack Black and got a glimpse of just how competitive the birding world can be.  The birding champions of the story had year lists of 740 or so birds, just to give you an idea of what we're talking about here.  One hundred seems daunting enough to me.

new year's birds

I can't tell if Dan felt I was cheating this year or not, but after a week's worth of starling gaggles (sorry - officially, and quite fittingly, it's a chattering of starlings - isn't that great?) at the feeder, I took my New Year's Day coffee upstairs to stare out the back window, wondering if I'd see anything else for my "bird of the year".  I did: a downy woodpecker.  All right, it might have been a hairy, but from a distance and with nothing to compare it to, I'm going to say it was a male downy, hopping around our neighbor's tree.

Ani also saw a downy male.  Dan and Eliza? Starlings. Which actually none of us have had any of the years we've done this, and it's always nice to learn a little something new about our birds...According to this site, starling teaches us how to behave within a group setting – how to be effective and assertive without becoming a bully. Communication is important to Starling people; however, you must be careful what you say, for people may take it incorrectly or blow it out of proportion. Watch your own sensitivity to other’s words. You might be reading more into it that is truly there. By learning Starling’s behaviors, you can live peacefully within your community of friends and family.

Who couldn't stand a little work on living peacefully within your community?  This was a very welcome and positive take on starlings, who tend to bicker and feud over the suet outside our window.  They sure are pretty, though, and incredibly smart (go on - spend a few minutes watching starling videos on youtube...it's pretty amazing!) .

Woodpecker wisdom is full of interesting ideas.  Opportunity knocking...drumming, being in rhythm with nature...being hard-headed (pecking away at those trees, you know), not giving up easily...One author summed the woodpecker totem up with the power of rhythm and determination.  I'm still figuring this one out for myself.

Ani's amazing drawing of a Downy

We spent part of New Year's day on a short easy hike with the whole darn family - even the ones who had been so sick! - on our last day of their visit.

Yes, odd birds are we.  LOVE!!

Bird Love!

Yes, I know it's Valentine's Day, but Eliza called last night at 11 to be picked up from a sleepover that just wasn't meant to be, Ani started vomiting around 3 a.m., and Dan is fighting off the same stomach bug that started with me a week ago.  To say we are a bit tired would be a beginning.  The best news is that we are handling it all well, and even got in some delicious naps this afternoon when Dan came home for a break between classes and rehearsal (oh this guy is so busy).  The naps and the Papa company were the exact Valentines we needed today.

So, this is about birds!  We decided to join in the Great Backyard Bird Count this year, and it started today.

I often feel as though I should have lived in the 1800's, when so much of natural science was in the hands of the obsessed amateur observer (have you read The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert yet? Can you handle a lot of descriptions of moss? Then you might love it), so it is no surprise that I am a fan of Citizen Science.  This particular project looks at the numbers and distribution of different species during a four-day period in February every year.  I always have good intentions, but this year I also have a little help and interest from everyone else.  Maybe it's because it's been such a cold winter here, but the feeders have had a steady flow of regulars.

The process is very simple, and you can join in for one or all four days.  Today I took a break from holding Ani on the couch (she is so cuddly and attached when she is feeling sick), to sit and eat something while looking at our feeders and writing down who I saw there during my twenty minutes.

It was an awesome twenty minutes!  From 10:40 to 11:00 a.m. I saw:

male and female Cardinals
2 Song Sparrows
1 male European House Sparrow
1 Starling (how I managed to only see one when it is usually a flock, I don't know!)
Carolina Wren
Carolina Chickadee
male and female Downy Woodpeckers
White-breasted Nuthatch

I am still working on my identificaton for the LBBs (Little Brown Birds), but I use the field guides we have and the incredible resource that is the Cornell Ornithology Lab website  - they have "tricky bird ID" pages through their Project Feeder Watch - for more details.  I think I've figured out the black-capped versus the carolina chickadee, and the downy versus the hairy woodpeckers.

My favorite bird by far this year is the Carolina Wren.  I stop what I'm doing every time I catch this guy at the feeder, and he and his mate live in the backyard, so I see them a lot.  I was lucky to be walking from the car to the front door with my camera when he decided to come down for some food.  He is so sweet! His mate hung back for a while, but I have seen them both at the feeders, together, a couple of times.

I know that my need to name can get a little obsessive, but I don't think it has stood in the way of me feeling connected to the extended family that lives just on the other side of the kitchen window.  Our cat Charlie and I talk about the unbelievably friendly chickadee who stares right into our window and chats at us (well, I call it a "carolina chickadee" - he calls it "one bite", but we're tolerant of each others' limited views) and we both drool a little bit when the wrens come to call.

Great Backyard Bird Count (now! Feb 14 - Feb 17)

Project Feeder Watch (November - April)

Hummingbirds at Home (all year)