During a walk along the east side of the Kennebec River, Augusta, Maine about a month ago (just north of the Memorial Bridge, looking south). While many miles inland, this part of the river still is affected by ocean tides and the evidence of our drought is not visible. This is probably mid-to-high tide.
If you look very closely at the center of the image, right on the shoreline is a great blue heron partially obstructed by grass.
During the day we are seeing hummingbirds at our feeder every few minutes. During the past week, the birds have been draining a cup of nectar (homemade sugar concoction) over four days. Prior to this week, the birds were not drinking as much over four days, which meant I was throwing out the remainder – to maintain fresh nectar, I throw out whatever is left after four days.
I am not sure if the birds can keep up the 1 cup per four days rate since we now have a bird, shown here, that keeps buzzing any other bird that attempts to feed. This female hangs around in the trees overlooking the feeder and dives down to interrupt most other birds attempting to feed. This only has started in the last few weeks and has become a regular feature of the daily feeding.
Some of the other birds:
