Sitting Behind the Dumpster

 My sit spot is indeed behind the dumpster. The spot is just beyond the part that is mowed. So I sit in the little woods that are there. My guess is they are about 150 feet deep. Houses on the other side of an intermittent creek bed. (the crick) The crick is about 20 feet lower than the dumpster. It is high to my left than to my right. The largest trees are red and white oak. The little woods go about a quarter mile to the left. However on the right it meets up with Fall Brook in about two hundred yards. Fall brook goes through Canco Woods and a good ways up (3 miles?) the Presumspcot River Valley. It also travels about a half mile to Back Cove. Back Cove is part of Casco Bay. A surprising amount of stuff goes on back there. I need to make a bird list. One morning Merlin heard 22 different species. Probably close to 40 altogether in about a month. 

Today 81 degrees, cloudy, wind 4mph out of the southeast.  2:30 to 3:15 

Afternoon is not the time birds sing the most. Merlin heard ten different species in my forty five minutes. It does not always hear birds that travel through. I saw a ruby throated humming bird one time. (No Merlin) A hawk came cruising through this afternoon and it was moving at a good clip. From left to right. Maybe five to ten feet below me and fifty or so feet in front. I saw it for a second or two. My guess is that it was a coopers hawk. (Merlin says not likely in Portland today) It is really cool to be that close to a raptor and above! (No Merlin)

Rainy Day

 12:30 to 1:00, 72 degrees overcast, Wind at 10 mph from the south.

Not a lot going on in the sit spot today. I heard maybe six different bird species on Merlin. The usual suspects. Cardinal, Jay, Crow, Gold Finch, Catbird, Downey Woodpecker, House Finch. This guy was less than five feet from me at one point. He did not seem disturbed by me at all. Slowly building little thread of relationships with the creatures in my little woods. 

It rained enough that there was visible moving water in the little crick. First time I saw that. We definitely need the rain after a dry July. 

I also went out about 6:00 am in a slight drizzle. Was there for 10 minutes and not one bird sound. Do birds sleep in when it rains? 

Quiet!

2:30 to 3:00 pm, 81 degrees, Wind out of the south at 12mph gusts to 17mph.

Not much happening in the sit spot this afternoon.  It did not help that I was blundering about putting up a bird feeder. I only heard two birds. A  crow off behind me a ways and a mourning dove off to my left, where they usually are. Even the squirrels were quiet. Only saw one. 

 I suspect I would have heard more birds if it had been less windy. 12mph sustained winds make quite a bit of noise moving through my little woods. I wonder how long it will take for the birds to find the feeder. 

It is supposed to start raining before sunrise tomorrow. Perhaps I will sit in the rain in the morning. I have not spent much time in this spot before. I wonder what the normal flow rate for the crick is. July was the third driest on record for Portland. Would be interesting to see what happens if we got some consistent rain. 

Squirrels!

 This morning there was a lot of squirrel activity. One agitated for a while across Fall Crick. Another came down a tree to my right and a little behind. It let me know personally it was not happy with me. When I raised the camera it took off. The animals and birds know when you are pointing something at them. There is one that comes down the red/white oak and watches me and is okay with me it seems. 

 The red/white oak is actually two trees, a red oak and a white oak. There bases are almost touching and for animals/birds it essentially functions as one tree. thus the red/white oak. Perhaps I should call it the pink oak. Each trunk is amongst the largest in my little riparian forest. 

 Way more squirrel activity this morning. Some of that is due to getting better at spotting them off at a distance. I suspect some are getting used to me in my sit spot. Two were playing follow the leader. they came running up and down the Pink Oak a few times. The Pink Oak is maybe fifteen feet off to my left and a bit forward. One squirrel was eating and dropping acorns behind and to my right. I suspect it was the one that came down the tree to let me know it was unhappy. 

 I heard something off to my left and low towards the ground. Animal like, perhaps breathing. I turned to look and see what this was. It was a catbird making a sound at me. It knew where I was far before i figured it out. 23 has a feeder.  Getting better at picking up sounds. Merlin did not register the sound. 

Also cool, Three crows cruised through my little woods from over my left shoulder and out through the woods on the right. Through the understory so I got to see them. The crows are usually up high, not easily seen as they pass through.

Mystery Solved

 Two days ago I was in my sit spot and Merlin was hearing a mallard. The sound was coming from up in the trees. I have never seen a mallard in a tree. The sound was going on and on. Mallard(on Merlin) was flashing yellow with the sounds. This morning I heard a squirrel off to my right up in the trees giving a warning sound. Looked over to see what was going on. As usual I could not see the squirrel through the canopy. Nor could i see what had agitated it. Still worth looking you never know what you will see. When I looked back at Merlin, mallard had been listed. It would only occasionally light up today when the squirrel was giving its call. That Merlin was giving a false reading of mallard is more consistent with my knowledge of mallard behavior, than what I witnessed.

 I am glad that I recognized the squirrel's agitated call for what it was. I think the other day I saw mallard pop up and just thought Merlin must be right. So, I had an experience of listening to a duck in a tree, that did not exist. I wondered what the behavior was. Now I know it was not a duck but a squirrel. It reminds me of the expression "What are you not seeing because of what you are seeing?" Had I asked myself that in real time things may have become more clear or maybe not. Not staring at the screen allowed me to see/hear clearly. Screen time steals from my soul, nature time feeds it. 

Morning!

 

Great Blue Heron

Good to have the large wading birds back.