Yes, I adjusted the color on this photo. Couldn’t resist. Very gloomy today (in the afternoon, once the storms rolled in.) The double rainbow was a delight to see but we really didn’t need the additional 1.5 inches of rain. Pity we can’t send the rain and cooler temps where they are needed. Ah, but such is life. We never have just what we want. But most of the time I think many of us have nearly all that we need. Maybe it’s time to look around and see who needs help?

We are quite lucky to live on what amounts to wetlands, which means we have lots of wildlife right in our backyard. Yesterday we watched an eagle chase an osprey for several intense minutes. The chase happened in the vicinity of an osprey nest with two juveniles, and I was afraid perhaps an adult eagle was trying to make a snack of a newly fledged osprey. Turns out the osprey had a fish that the eagle wanted. One osprey (I imagine it was one member of the mating pair but I’m just guessing) was circling in the air and sounding the alarm while the other osprey was being chased. I’ll be darned if two other osprey didn’t eventually fly in to check things out. Maybe one juvenile was being chased and the other was calling for help and mom and dad eventually came back???

Was delighted to discover a pair of loon chicks on the far side of the lake last weekend. Choppy water and busy boating area – plus we kept our distance. Still fun to share the photos.

Photos below are of the same hummingbird moth on my David Phlox. Tried to grab picture of actual hummingbirds that were sitting on my fence but when I went outside the dogs started barking like the alarmist hooligans that they are and off flew the hummingbirds. I haven’t seen my bluebirds in weeks but I’m hoping they are still around. I checked the nest box and it was empty but not infested or otherwise worrisome. The phoebe nest under our deck had a bad result – mite infestation killed the two hatchlings. We realized it too late, and though I rushed them to rehab one died en route and the other likely died shortly thereafter. We’ve only had a mite infestation one other time since we’ve lived here (about ten years now).

Saw two fox kits while driving home from a late meeting a few nights ago. Super cute. Also saw a snapper trying to cross one of the busiest 2-95 off-ramps around – there wasn’t anywhere safe for me to pull over and move it so I carried on with my day and wished it the best.

The worst of the heat and humidity is gone so I can open the windows at night. I’m hearing a great deal of loon and goose activity. I’m already dreading the quiet of winter.

Let me leave you with a poem by my favorite poet, the late Mary Oliver.

Patience

What is the good life now? Why,
look here, consider
the moon’s white crescent

rounding, slowly, over
the half month to still another
perfect circle–

the shining eye
that lightens the hills,
that lays down the shadows

of the branches of the trees,
that summons the flowers
to open their sleepy faces and look up

into the heavens.
I used to hurry everywhere,
and leaped over the running creeks.

There wasn’t
time enough for all the wonderful things
I could think of to do

in a single day. Patience
comes to the bones
before it takes root in the heart

as another good idea.
I say this
as I stand in the woods

and study the patterns
of the moon shadows,
or stroll down into the waters

that now, late summer, have also
caught the fever, and hardly move
from one eternity to another.

A few more weeks of heat and we will be into autumn, my friends. While much of the United States has baked in a hell of its own making, in Maine we’ve mostly gone about our days under gray and rainy skies. I’m tired of the whir of fans and blasts of artificial air. So much that is false destroys us and keeps up from hearing ourselves think. Eager to open my windows to the night sounds of loons and the freshness of something new.

Here’s to taking the long shot on the off-chance it works out well…..

Three Great Blue Herons winging through a white sky. Sometimes at sunset a single GBH will fly low and leisurely over our house, and if it is lucky it passes unnoticed by our dogs, who patrol the sky as well as the land.

I always feel grateful when wild creatures allow me into their presence. (All photos taken with an amazing zoom – I never want to stress loons or other animals just to take a picture.) Same loon above and below.

This is the loon family that I’ve been watching this summer. My primary goal was not to stress them, so just a quick shot as we puttered by.

American Goldfinch

I’ve made it onto the lake about five times since last summer. I’ll gratefully take what I can get.

This summer is the first in years that my entire body has agreed to even modest, slow hikes, so I joyfully go out in the morning with one or two dogs (three is impossible for me) and see what the day holds. We are once again sharing the underside of our deck with nesting phoebes (unclear whether there are chicks.) We put up a bluebird house and a pair moved in. Bluebirds are so, well, blue – but in a delightfully happy way.

What else has the nature of Maine offered me? A doe and can-barely-walk-yet fawn. Deer flies in abundance. A choir of birds that I’m missing even while they are here. Owl calls but no longer any owl sightings due to excessive development and shrinking habitat. Hawks. Ravens (easiest for me to distinguish from crows by their calls.) Deer ticks. Dog ticks. Fleeting lupins (how have we hit mid-July?) and morning after morning after morning of crushing gray skies.

These days it seems that everyone has a fancy camera and time on hands so the temptation to keep these grainy photos to myself is strong. But the temptation to share them is even stronger, so here you go:

Many of these photos were taken in a sub-optimal conditions (low light). Adult loon defending chick from another adult (possible mate). Pro tip: do not get your kayak caught in the midst of a loon dispute.

Same mother and chick – query whether adult is the same one she was fighting with several days earlier.

Not the best series of photos but we can no longer wait for the sun to shine.

Osprey feeding chick.

I was about to jump in the water when I saw this flash from 50 odd feet away. Not a great shot but still interesting. I think this is a mink.

Loads of little fish nibbling my toes. Tried to get my husband to sacrifice his toes for better photos but he wasn’t having any part of it.

Who knew?

• Females are larger than males.
• The bald eagle is actually a sea eagle (Haliaeetus species).
• Eagles can live up to 30 years in the wild.
• A pair of eagles typically mates for life.

I recently photographed a pair that lives on one of the 93 lakes located in Kennebec County, Maine.

Our trio of bluebirds is still sharing space with us – and I couldn’t be more delighted.

A few photos from this summer.

I watched her for about five minutes before she flew to the opposite shore.