On Wednesday morning, I took Sasha for my 6-mile Pownal “neighborhood” loop, which produced 4 Pine Grosbeaks (along Tuttle Road), as well as the usual resident species.

Overnight, a trough of low pressure developed along the coast, producing yet another snowstorm. Light snow began to fall late in the afternoon on Wednesday, and continued all the way through Thursday evening, producing up to 8 inches. Bands of snow pushed onshore on easterly winds, which meant it was the coast this time that received the deepest accumulations. So once again, my morning was spent snowblowing the driveway before heading to the store (since we open at 9 in the week before Christmas). Honestly, it’s starting to get a bit old. Jeannette and I are starting to get flashbacks to living in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where the town we lived in – Paradise – received an AVERAGE of 220 inches of snow a winter (and that winter usually began in October and lasted into April!). So we can’t really complain! (Although, I have to admit, it was nice to be renting an apartment there, and have someone else clear our driveway!)

I stayed local again this (Friday) morning, electing to visit a handful of locations in Freeport and Portland. With the sun shining, little wind, and temperatures rising into the 20’s, it was quite pleasant out. There were no frugivores at the LL Bean Headquarters, but I did run into the 100 or so Bohemian Waxwings feeding on crabapples at the Freeport Plaza and adjacent Econolodge, and roosting in the woods across the street. A great spectacle continues!

While I failed to locate the Barrow’s Goldeneye today at either the South Freeport Town Landing or Winslow Park today, I did have a lone Purple Sandpiper at the tip of Winslow. A few stops along the Royal River produced little – as the only open water was at the base of the Lower Falls and was devoid of ducks. As would be expected in our wintery conditions of late, open water on slow-moving rivers like the Royal is hard to find; most non-sea ducks have cleared out early this year. Then, a yard in which I was delivering seed to produced two Pine Siskins within a flock of American Goldfinches, the first of this species that I have seen in close to a month. Clearly, the irruption of these guys has (mostly) passed us by.

Switching gears a bit, I would like to mention this recent article on ethanol. In addition to all of the other reasons that corn-based ethanol is a complete economic and environmental farce (and political boondoggle), here’s a recent article showing the damage that the nitrogen-fertilizer-heavy corn boom is doing to the Gulf of Mexico.

So our book release party for Jeff Wells was a success, despite another snowfall, Wednesday evening. Lots of good food, and good conversation. Here’s a few pics from the evening. And, we have plenty of copies of Jeff’s groundbreaking new book for those of you who couldn’t make the event!

Some of our favorite local businesses pitched in to make the event a success.

Lysle samples the treats.

Proud wife Allison congratulates Jeff on his accomplishment.

Mmmm, cake . . .