Tim's bird blog

So Mary and I liked it so much here that we decidede to stay. After 8 months of construction the kitchen is up to Mary's standards (my standards which solely concern the ability to make coffee are somewhat lower) and the house way more livable.

Biologists often describe species that live in flocks, often flocks of mixed species, as "gregarious". I always rather liked this as I too have often been described as "gregarious". And that's true, of the many about this pandemic that are unpleasant, I think the thing I miss most the daily interaction between myself and my network of friends and acquaintances. A flock of various species gethered together. Note particularly the individual in the upper left. Some discussion on FB "what's this bird" page. Is it another semipalmated plover or something different. As I have noted elsewhere, this is the longest sustained time I have in Kittery Point, and I am seeing patterns in migration I haven't noticed before. Early in the summer there was a concerning lack of sandpipers on the beach. A check of eBird showed that this was completely normal. The Killdeer have been here since early June, then in the past month, the sandpipers and waders h...

Back in Cambridge for a couple of days so Cecelia and her pals can spend a weekend in Kittery Point and so I can have a socially distanced  Amp Club meeting down here. As anyone who has blogged will tell you, one of the problems is to keep the momentum going, hence the large numbers of abandoned blogs floating around the 'net (including a few of my own). I finding Im really enjoying the long format writing that blogging allows, so to keep things going I'm going to post some of the better photos so far this summer that you may have seen on that "social media platform". In TV this would be called a "clip show". More Soon TH Glossy Ibis, Moody, Maine 070520 Short billed Dowitcher, Sea Point Beach, Kittery Point, Maine 071420 Deer and nursing fawn, Sea Point Beach, Kittery Point, Maine, 070320 Eastern Blue Bird, Rachel Carson, Kittery Point, Maine 071520

The guy on the left would have turned 97 today. He was never very enthusiastic about being in Kittery, he was much too caught up with his academic circle in Cambridge, but fill the house with children and grandchildren who loved each other and he positively glowed. He was also willing to put up with a great deal if it it made mom happy which this place always did and he did enjoy the opportunity for long walks this place affords. Here we are in the kitchen with a very little Cecelia and a much less grey version of myself. Here he is on a walk in the neighborhood with a colleague in the mid 50's

While I have spent a fair amount of time up here over the years, this is the longest continuous stretch ever, certainly as an adult, certainly as a birder. Generally the best time to vacation up here is August-September, green heads are gone, water warms up, and after labor day there's still a few weeks of tourist free summer to enjoy.  What I have noticed is how much variation there is in the Bird population. At first I was a little concerned, with climate change and disappearing bird population happening I admit I feared the worse, but what I was seeing was simply the ebb and flow of migrations over different times than I was used to. First thing I noticed was the lack of Snowy Egrets. I've seen only one or two individuals so far this summer. Here's one on upper Chauncey Creek. What about Sandpipers ? There are always sandpipers ! Except they're not. Checking eBird shows that they turn up just about now. Just like clockwork, I saw the first small flock last last we...

Our Story so far... In late April my wife Mary and I packed up the dog (Dora) and the cats (Sinbad and the Duke) and our place in Cambridge MA to take up residence in the family summer place (or dacha) on the south coast of Maine. This is where our story has been taking place and will for a while longer. How much longer ? Hard to say. How did we get here in the first place ? Read on... My Grandmother, Isabelle Strong, was best friends at Miss Hall's school (class of 1908) with a young woman named Rosamond Thaxter, Aunt Rozzie to us kids, who lived on Cutts Island in Kittery Point Maine. Granny Strong would take the Boston and Maine Railroad from Chelmsford MA to Portsmouth NH and then the Atlantic Shore Trolley out to Kittery Point to visit Rozzie. In her book "Aunt Rozzie Remembers", Aunt Rozzie tells a story about her and a friend taking a trolly into Portsmouth to go to a resturaunt where there were curtains that could be drawn and a forbidden cigarette smoked. I h...