ME II: 14 days left

· Maine Event

What to say, I love this place and am so excited to go home. Today was a gleaming, gorgeous sunny blue sky kinda day. Cool and crisp with the smell of autumn leaves. The low was 42° and the high 59°. It feels colder than it is which must be because there is wind. Today's air quality has been splendid with numbers as low as 0 and up to 28. I do love clean air. Work is busy and there is little time for anything else but eating and sleeping. It doesn't seem like it is the way it is supposed to be.

Maine things. There is quite an uproar about the Monterey Aquarium's Seafood Watch giving Maine Lobster a RED listing because it is claimed their lines endanger the Right Whale. This is very threatening and there are politicians from local to federal involved and there are lawsuits and all of the think tanks are involved. On a basic level, a lot of different kinds of fishing use lines that are left in the water, and the whales are getting entangled. The lobster people have said that nary one has been caught in their lines since 2004. The FAQs on Monterey Bay Aquarium's website are the best way to understand what is going on as it is not in the offense or defense that making this political has caused. It actually affects a lot of fisheries in this area, but all we are hearing about is the lobsters. Instead of picking sides, I wondered can you do the work without lines? Here is an article from November 2021 talking about "ropeless fishing". It mentions that this is not ready for prime time and that right now it would take a significant amount of resources (millions not billions) to equip and update the whole fleet. It seems to me that some innovation to bring the costs down need to happen right away given that there are about 340 Right Whales remaining.

A glam shot from yesterday of the yellow brick road provided by a lovely Norway Maple.
Crystal clear day with the beautiful islands right over the water.
Stubborn flowers holding on into winter. I just noticed that where I'm from will get its first killing frost this week with temps in the 20s and some snow as well.
Chartreuse Ginko provides a reason for celebration in honor of another gorgeous day.
How quickly it changes, just a day ago it was in full glory and already it is starting to lose leaves.
Jupiter at the Western Prom
Spruce Street with a house on the corner of a curvy street.
How sweet home. The lights above the door adorn the life-sized skeleton of a mermaid. These folks are water people.

Have some fun this evening.

Sending love, Tawnia

And a modest but good-quality bird list:

  1. Herring Gull 
  2. Blue Jay 
  3. Carolina Wren - Tawnia identified this one by ear
  4. European Starling 
  5. Canada Goose - a very large flock flying far away over South Portland, seen from Harbor View Park
  6. House Sparrow 
  7. American Goldfinch 
  8. Black-capped chickadee 
  9. Rock Pigeon 
  10. Northern Cardinal