If you were a seagull looking to pick off a tourist's burger at Robinson’s Wharf, this could be your circling-for-attack view. An observant gull would be waiting for Keith's famed blackened haddock Reuben with extra kraut. Once located, target in sight, chow time. Look out below! And without warning a couple from Oklahoma would be left with an empty plate and a few errant feathers. Hugh might curse a blue streak and Andrea would offer a new napkin and a stronger drink from Alva's bar. A reorder would be under way and inside seating arranged.

In case you were wondering, this bird was not a drone. Our view was accomplished the old-fashioned way, out the window of a Cessna 172 from Wiscasset airport. Photography from this platform suits me better than flying from a cell phone. Heaven knows a cell phone flight would most certainly result in much extraneous information. From the plane, for me, the reality of the actual flying experience suits me better. Forty years of doing it this way is familiar, and quite frankly, less complicated than learning a whole new system. I'm most happy to use a cell phone for sending and receiving calls, period. And I realize my reluctance to try new things is a limiting part of my personality, but after all these years, it’s nice to fly by the seat of my pants and not the buttons on an electronic device. I drive a 16-year-old car,  too — it goes just fine.

Anyway, back to bird world. After visiting the Robinson’s area we putted along the eastern shore of Southport then over to Ocean Point, Linekin Bay and the Harbor. All along the way the light changed, the breezes buffeted and my pilot adjusted. The trees were changing still with pops of color. Folks could be seen scurrying about in their yards, on their docks and boating. As it turned out, our views before the storm were quite lovely. Without much fanfare, on the way back to Wiscasset, I snatched a few images of friends' places up on Parson's Creek in Edgecomb and glimpsed onto the storage bubbles at out of service Maine Yankee.

Birds have a pretty good deal, I'd say. We had a good flight.