Just had this message from Evelyn Richer:

Hi Jane ...

Just got a chance to visit your blog... and I noticed that you had the
same concern as I, about our little hummer... he's always here by the
10th... no later then the 12th... but we haven't seen him yet... our
females usually arrive a week later.  I have been concerned that
something might have happened to our 'early bird'... We do tend to have
several males show up after the females arrive... but that first guy is
not around yet... anyhow, on the 13th I found this site:

www.learner.org

I feel a little better... maybe he's one that got caught up in the wind
pattern and will be along soon... My feeders are ready... but I would be
interested to see if the female shows first...

Interesting stuff... Enjoy... Evelyn

Thanks, Evelyn, and I thought that web site probably explains why we hadn't seen the birds as early as usual. We actually spotted our first humming bird this noon time. He (I think it was a male) was sitting on the branch of a tree looking in one of our big windows where we normally have the feeder. Fred scrambled to get the feeder out, and now our little visitor is happily stocking up on sugar water. Glad we could oblige, little guy!

We took a ride this afternoon on some back roads in town we normally don't go on. I got mixed up on my dates and thought this was the afternoon for Blanche's birthday open house. It was correct, the 22nd, on the blog, but I didn't bother to check there, I just wrapped things up here in the office and we took off at around 3 o'clock. But since we were a week early, turned out we had a great little break from everything and enjoyed our short "trip" making a circle from Cabot to Lower Cabot and up W. Hill Pond Road, then at the Bothfeld farm took Churchill Rd. to Coit's Pond Rd. We followed Coit's Pond Rd. as far as the pond. If we had gone further on Coit's Pond Road we would have come to Nichol's Ledge. We used to be able to continue on to Nichol's Pond Road and come out in Hardwick, but I'm not sure that road is still used.

We really didn't want to end up in Hardwick today, so we back tracked on Coit's Pond Rd. to Houston Hill Road which took us to the hard-surfaced Walden Road and back to the village. From there we went up Rt. 215 towards Walden and at the top of the hill turned onto the Bayley Hazen Road that connects to Cabot Plains Road. While on the Plain, we noticed something in the field in back of the school house (now a private residence). Fred got some pictures with the zoom and it turned out to be a bear. From where we were and looking at the pictures, I think it was a pretty big one. We couldn't get any closer without going through wet grass and brambles, and it might not be such a good idea to chase a bear through the woods anyway. I nearly forgot, here's a slide show of our meanderings: Back Roads Trip, May 15, 2020

We just had a call from Tom and Ellie on their way back home from being with their new grandson and family. Tom promised to send photos of Ben and Hannah.

We had a call from Homer earlier this afternoon wondering what's up with all the loons on the pond. He said there were five in front of his place this afternoon. Perhaps Evelyn and Ray will have an explanation. I would guess there are some that stop off here on their way someplace else, but I don't know. I hope if they decide to hang out here for the summer it won't be a problem for our nesting pair.

Duty calls - it's time to get some food on the table. It will be traditional beans and hotdogs tonight. Isn't that what every true Vermonter has (or would like to have) on Saturday night?