It�s the middle of the month already, but we�ve lost all concept of time here, probably since days are now defined as chick ages and weekends no longer exist. I�ve had my first two days off to recover from bug bites, re-stock on groceries and waste time online. So here�s some stuff I�ve done since arriving:

Fewer than 24 hours after graduation, Mom and I were on the road. We crashed at YF�s house near Boston for the night before continuing to Maine. This was basically the scenery for the entire second half of the trip. It was strange to observe the trees just putting out their leaves and the flowers coming into bloom�sort of like seeing spring happen again. Note the vulture blob at 10:00.

We reached Maine!

This is a section of the forest that we�re in all the time. The whole field site is a managed forest that contains tons of trails previously used by loggers, but they�ve grown over and can be incredibly confusing to navigate. Last week I was poking around vegetation by myself, got totally lost, and somehow popped out on the main road without the faintest idea that I�d end up there.

We have to scramble over the logging slash lying all over the place. The disturbance is actually good for the sparrows, since they nest in clearings where the sunlight can hit the ground.

This is the cabin where we would have lived if the U.S. Forest Service hadn�t given Brent, the grad student, some bureaucratic nonsense about how it was no longer fit for residence. So now the three of us live in an apartment in town, which turned out to work really well.

On the top right corner of the roof is an Eastern phoebe nest. Mama Phoebe gets skittish and flushes whenever we approach, but I managed to get this picture of her. She was already sitting on eggs when we first started visiting that part of the forest, so her chicks must have fledged by now.

My first bat sighting! We think these are Eastern pipistrelles, a pretty common species in this part of North America. During the day, they hang out in the vent on the second floor of the cabin.

A perfect little white-throated sparrow egg.

Chick photos, round two. Also note the mosquito rearing for an attack on Jan�s fingers.

Four chicks originally hatched in this nest, but one day when I came back to check on them, there were only two. Darn those red squirrels and broad-winged hawks. It can be frustrating to realize that of all the nests we find, more than 50% of them will be predated. When I�m a grad student, will I have to put up with the stress of making sure my data don�t get eaten?

Memorial Day weekend: We went with Brent, his wife and some grad students to Davis Pond, a stunning lake near the forest. That�s Sweet Georgia Brown (a.k.a. Georgia), a Chesapeake retriever that dragged a huge birch stump out of the woods and really wanted us to play fetch with her.

Jan the birder after the fruit-and-cheese picnic.

Katie and I went paddling down the pond and nearly fell asleep floating to the sound of water and red-winged blackbirds.

Gorgeous? Gorgeous.

These Eastern swallowtails were very much alive before a truck ran over and squashed them. :-( They were too beautiful not to take a picture of.

Juvenile red-spotted newt, frozen on the path, that we nearly stepped on.

Snapping turtle in the road, with algae all over its back. The next day we found a baby snapper in one of the forest trails. It�s been raining recently, so some parts of the trails have turned into soup.

American woodcock egg? They are such goofy-looking birds. I flushed one the other day and it whistled away. We�ve also seen and flushed ruffed grouse, including a female and a fuzzball chick. In other news, I've held this bird and this bird!

Pink lady�s-slipper, a rare orchid growing in deciduous forests. Apparently they�re very picky about habitat and not very sustainable, so it�s really cool that there are a bunch here.

Okay, time to go run some errands.