An official directive from Maine Governor Janet Mills regarding Certain Magical Creatures as Performers of Essential Services:
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On April fourth a friend gave us a bunch of pussy willows and Forsythia. The willow blossoms were in full bloom, but the Forsythia hadn’t even quite leafed out yet.
Pussy willows on the left, with unleafed Forsythia April 4.
I put them in water, and the Forsythia proceeded to leaf out and then bud, and then blossom.
Forsythia on April 7
Then this happened today:
It’s still snowing even now. It started at 4pm.
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Male House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus
This is not a great picture, but it serves to make identification easier. The tricky thing about House Finches is that they look a lot like Purple Finches. Here’s a guide to help distinguish House Finches from Purple Finches and Cassin’s Finch.
As a kid in New Hampshire in the 1970s and early 1980s I regularly saw Purple Finches. House Finches had not yet become commonplace. Now, in Maine, I rarely see Purple Finches and see House Finches pretty much all winter long (though having said that, I’m not always sure that I’m looking at a House Finch and not a Purple Finch, particularly with the females). House Finches are in fact a fairly recent arrival to this part of the U.S.
The House Finch was originally a bird of the western United States and Mexico. In 1940 a small number of finches were turned loose on Long Island, New York, after failed attempts to sell them as cage birds (“Hollywood finches”). They quickly started breeding and spread across almost all of the eastern United States and southern Canada within the next 50 years.
The House Finches arrived in force a couple of weeks ago, along with a fresh infusion of American Gold Finches. I’ve seen more than ten at a time fairly often; once, I counted fifteen individual House Finches; oddly they seem to prefer the black oil sunflower, and the Gold Finches love the two finch socks.
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I first saw the fox in early July; its appearance heralded by a cacophony of crows and jay complaining. I saw only the fox’s back at first, and the color, more blonde than red, made me think I was seeing a straying dog. But then I saw the fox’s head, and his brushy tail. It was trotting, and I glimpsed it only for a moment before it disappeared from view. Later, I again heard the crows and jays proclaiming their displeasure, and saw the fox making his return trip. His fur was dense and healthy, the white of his tail and chest gleaming and clean, and his black socks strikingly dark.
Since then, I‘ve seen that first fox, and a smaller, slightly darker and thinner fox together. I’ve also realized the odd, almost feline sounding cry I’ve heard several times late at night is not the Bob cat or Lynx I suspected, but a fox bark. I’ve made two very bad recordings with my phone; I’ve linked to them below, and to a much better YouTube clip for comparison.
Fox Bark 1
Fox Bark 2
This is a better example of the way a fox sounds; more scream than bark.
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I‘ve taken the suet cage with nest-building fibers down since I took this picture, but it’s not too late for one last hatching of American Goldfinches. They breed very late. I‘m seeing young ones now, old enough to have left the nest, but not quite sure where to land on the feeder in order to successfully obtain seeds. This adult male Goldfinches has it completely figured out.
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis), male
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