Happy feet

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Before I started recording, the herring gull was actually getting a meal out of this little tap dancing routine. I was kind of far away, but every now and then I could see a silvery flash of something he grabbed out of the wet sand. Maybe performance anxiety doomed his success after that. My favorite part is 0:27 when the ring-billed gull on the left starts half-heartedly imitating him, and then they both look embarrassed.

Before I started recording, the herring gull was legitimately scaring up a meal via this little tap dancing routine (I was kind of far away, but I could see an occasional silvery flash of something he grabbed out of the wet sand). Maybe performance anxiety doomed his success after that.

My favorite part is 0:27 when the ring-billed gull on the left starts halfheartedly imitating him, and then they both look embarrassed.

It's a hard job

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Eastern Promenade, Portland, Maine

When I sat down on the grass to paint this bit of jewelweed, a breeze sprang up on cue, merrily transforming the plant into a wiggly whirl of green and orange stuff. There was a lot of squinting and swearing while I tried, pretty much unsuccessfully, to manually hold various leaves and flowers and seedpods in place long enough to get some idea of what they looked like. Meanwhile a fire ant or something bit me viciously in the rear end, which stung like crazy for a few minutes and then turned numb. At that point I decided the sketch was done.