More Spring randomness

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail
(Papilio canadensis)

Canada Goose with young
(Branta canadensis)

Bunch Berry
(Cornus canadensis)

Cherry Gall Azure
(Celastrina serotina)

Blueberry flowers
(Vaccinium spp.)

Bunch Berry
(Cornus canadensis)

Red Maple
(Acer  rubrum)

Tamarack
(Larix larchina)

Serviceberry
(Amelanchier spp.)

Rhodora
(Rhododendron canadense)

Nashville in the Trees

Everyday for the past week, a Nashville Warbler has been calling . It started first in the evening, now he's singing in the morning. I go out, trying to figure out who is singing. Scanning the treetops, moving from here to there. Looking skyward, always hearing, never seeing.  He's there, I know it. but when he started I didn't know who was the singer. He kept it up, always moving just ahead of me, always just out of sight.

The mosquitoes and blackflies would dance around me, moving in for a blood drink, around the eyes, the nose, in my ears. Any exposed place, drilling down for blood. And still me and this bird would do our dance around the birches. He just out of sight up in the treetops, me around the tree bases, my head craned upwards, slowly spiraling around.

Later, with the song still fresh in my mind, I try tracking down who was making this song that was driving me in this slow dance around the trees, always looking up. It sounded warbler-like, that I was sure. Slowly , the parts came together. The Nashville Warbler.

Then later that evening, he called again. I raced out, started the dance again. Still I don't see him. I don't even know if he exists. I hear, but do not see. But still I dance around looking , head tilted back, binoculars to my eyes, feeding the mosquitoes. It would be better if the song was more musical, but it's not, it just feeds this obsession to see him.

Randomness

Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)

White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

Snowshoe Hare (Lepus americanus)

Chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina)

Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Flagstaff Lake from Little Bigelow

Bigelow Mt from Little Bigelow

White-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

Black-throated Green Warbler

male

female

Broad-winged Hawk

Spruce Grouse

Shyly tame.

Hummingbirds

A lazy Sunday. Spring really sounds like, and feels like spring. The days are warming slowly, or at least the bounce between way too cool and it's a little warmer than we are used to, has moderated. Nights give way to spring peepers, the woodcock are still peenting. It's an odd way to describe the call, but it fits exactly the way they sound. A rising trill late in the night means the toads are starting up.

The rest of the state is greening up, and Rangeley is slowly,painfully slowly, almost unbearable in the speed it comes creeping up the mountain. It will come, and it will bowl us over with a speed we can't quite comprehend, then summer is here and it seems before we can settle down into the good life of a warm summer evening, autumn is here and then...  Our spring and summer are to be savored, it doesn't matter how you do it, as long as being outside is where you spend your time. Let the insects feast.

So I was sitting on the deck, it's warmish,muggy even, just sitting with a friend, watching the hummingbirds. It's too tempting to pass up, I run inside, grab the camera and they pose.