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• Made of grasses, delicate woody stems of last year's wildflowers, and an unidentified white fluff that could be cat fur, plant down, or the synthetic innards of an abandoned pillow
• About two and a half inches across (not counting errant twigs)
• Underside bears the impression of a finger-sized branch the nest was presumably built upon
• Found on the ground under the trees, at the bottom of the Fort Allen bluff - Eastern Promenade, Portland, Maine

I'm thinking yellow warbler. (I'd like to say that's based just on my knowledge of nest materials and dimensions. But it's really because yellow warblers are EVERYWHERE around there.)

Define “commensalism”

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Recompence Shore Campground, Freeport, Maine

Barnacles like mussels.

First day of summer

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Eastern Promenade, Portland, Maine

Imagine a soundtrack of yellow warblers, mourning doves, and house sparrows (and a cardinal in the distance). But mostly, let's appreciate that those were some crazy clouds.

Mock bird

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When I first noticed him, this mockingbird fledgling was facing straight at me, sitting so still that he looked like an inanimate bird-shaped object. I did a double take and stepped in for a closer look. At that point he retreated into the shrubbery, so he was mostly hidden behind a bunch of leaves while I drew an indistinct sketch on my phone (the only available sketching medium).

The fledgling appeared to be an only child. He whiled away the time by giving harsh calls, possibly to ward me away, interspersed with screechy ones, possibly to keep in touch with the adult mockingbird nearby. Every once in a while he flapped his half-feathered wings to hop awkwardly to a new twig.

Then his parent fluttered into the bushes carrying something bright red and oblong - some kind of food morsel, possibly best left unidentified - and two more screechy voices started up, because apparently the siblings had been perched in there the whole time. Sneaky little things. A feeding frenzy ensued.

Also featured: sewage plant, loudmouthed song sparrow, and a glimpse of Casco Bay.

Sketch blog metamorphosis

This sketch blog (which was known for a while as The Mimid Magazine, as some of you may recall) hatched out of an older sketch blog I kept from 2012-2014, still viewable here.

Here’s the old “about” section for The Mimid, just as a point of interest…

What’s a mimid? a songbird with a knack for mimicry
What’s in this magazine? my sketch renditions of nature and science
Who are you? sketch biologist, a profession I made up