New Posts are Coming!

Sorry I’ve been so lazy. The busier it gets at work the less time I want to spend on the computer during my “off hours”. Not only that but I’m finding that instead of rush , rush, rush to do things and find things to write about, there is something to be said for enjoying the slow lane.

It’s amazing how tired I get this time of year. The mental work is as exhausting as running a mile! Last Saturday I had all these big plans and instead slept all day! Oops!

o-TIRED-KITTEN-facebook

Well enough said. I’m feeling  more energized today so I’m going to work on catching up on some posts for you. You still need to see the Puffins!

 

3:30 am is sooo early!

Thursday morning it was time to rock and roll. Get out of bed, get moving. It was time to head to Marshfield MA where I would meet up with the Audubon Society for a tour of Maine’s Peatlands culminating in the PUFFINS of Machias Seal Island!

By  5 AM we were loaded into the Audubon van and headed to Ipswich River Sanctuary where we hooked up with another van. Altogether there were two leaders, Scott and Sue and 12 participants.

For the most part these are hard core Birders so I was about to be introduced to a whole new way of looking at birds. We were still on the road at lunchtime so when a Subway came up we pulled in and made the clerk’s day. The poor girl was faced with 14 hungry travelers and she was working all alone.

After lunch we all piled back into the vans and soon we were entering blueberry country. Our Birding stop was the Blueberry Barrens.

Blueberry bush

The birders were looking for Upland Sandpiper, Vesper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow to name just a few species.

UplandSandpiperOntarioCropped

We traveled on another long dirt road. It made me think of the time Sandy and I got twisted around on an Indian Reservation. We called it the “Longest dirt road  in the world”. This one was a close 2nd.

Maine Dirt Road

The scenery was beautiful. The day had turned cool  and damp and eventually it started to rain.

Maine

We stopped to check out a marsh with a beaver dam. The birders used powerful spotting scopes and saw all kinds of birds.

Beaver lodge

We finally arrived at our home away from home at about 5 pm. For the next 4 days we’d be staying at the Machias River Inn.Machias River Inn

Dinner was at 6:30 at Helen’s Restaurant and then we wrapped up our day. We’d be up bright and early the next day. Breakfast was at 6 am!

Orca!

My neighbors and I were discussing my whale watch adventure and one of them kept asking if I saw any pretty black and white whales. I said not, Orca’s don’t come down to our coast.

That night on the news the headline was ORCA SIGHTING OFF CHATHAM, CAPE COD!

Orca

Guess that will each me to say we don’t get killer whales around here!

Read more here:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/07/05/fisherman-spots-orcas-off-chatham-rare-sight-for-new-england/X8F0w9iBOXgASgycnWcMBM/story.html

 

A Whale of A Time

Its the 4th of July weekend and I haven’t done anything that I wanted to do.  I thought I had my former housekeeper coming over on Saturday to finish the paint job her son agreed to before he skipped town but she never showed. She finally Texted me late Saturday that she had to work but would come on Monday. I guess since she is from Brazil our 4th of July isn’t that important to her.

fireworks

I wanted to be here to keep an eye on the painting but I wasn’t going to give up my whole weekend either. Sunday I spent running around with my list of must-haves for the for the Puffin trip. so That just left today.

Capt. John’s posts to Facebook have been filled with successful Whale watching trips…calves, breaching and pods of over 100 whales. Amazing stuff. I decided to try the early trip. Maybe I’d be able to get back before they were all done with the painting.

Whales1

We were still quite away out from Stellwagon bank when I spotted a blow off out port side. I tapped on the glass for the crew and pointed. I got a nod and few minutes later the naturalist came on the speaker to acknowledge that whale but said he “wasn’t easy to watch” so we’d keep going.

The Captain played Sweet Caroline over the PA and encouraged everyone to sing along. That’s a great way to keep our minds off the whale!

Whale Fluke1

It was probably another 10 minutes when I spotted another blow, then another and wait. there’s another one! Pretty soon We had whales all around us and I stopped counting.

Close to the Boat

They were surface feeding and bubble net feeding. I had not seen that in years! I took over 100 pictures that I need to go through to share but here are a couple to give you some idea how close they came to the boat.

Baleen1

I’ll share more in another post. Right now I hear the fireworks starting so I need to keep an eye on Rocky. The noise scares him.