I'm off to Maine

Megan and I will be heading to visit her parents and brother tomorrow for Thanksgiving. They live in the Oxford Hills region of Maine, in a town called Otisfield. I'm looking forward to seeing the north woods again. Their property is covered with balsam fir, and although I don't think there will be any snow when we get there, I'm hoping the "odoriferousness" of the north woods gets me into the holiday spirit. Hopefully I can post a few short things while I'm there.

Back home in Columbus, I have started feeding birds. I put out a "No-No" black oil sunflower feeder (purchased at The Andersons), and the chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, downy woodpeckers and house sparrows needed only two days to find the bounty of black oiled sunflower seeds which it holds. So far, it is somewhat squirrel proof. I watched a gray squirrel easily remove one or two seeds at a time, and they've also learned to shake seeds out so they can eat them on the ground. Oh well. Nothing is perfect, but the feeder is about four feet outside of my window, giving me some nice photo opportunities.



Megan and I decided to beat the crowd last Friday night to the Columbus Zoo wildlights extravaganza. Especially cool was this pair of Indian star tortoises that were anything but bashful, the manatees, and the hammerhead sharks in the world of the seas building.