In the Wild

Lots of action at the cottage ..and it is only the first day. A plethora of blip-ops, whereas perhaps tomorrow, none? It seemed wise to take as many photos today as I was offered! 

In the bird category? There were the usual finches at the feeders, but the dominant presence, auditorily at least, was the Eastern Phoebe. Her call from the trees never seemed to stop! And in with it, was birdsong identified by Merlin as Song Sparrow, Yellow Warbler and Red-eyed Vireo!  Of course I spent a lot of the day trying to track them down for a photo. It is a game for me. It is a small island but there are lots of very tall trees, now in leaf; so the challenge was on and I Iost. I found the phoebe and the sparrow, who had managed to camouflage himself quite well..(extras) but not enough. Merlin was not fooled and knew who he was!  I missed the Blue Heron on his first fly by but at the end of the day, I had more luck. He came back, landed and fished for dinner long enough for me to get oodles of pix! Wow. So much fun.

And then there was the beaver who lives in our back bay; he works the night shift, leaves the bay in evening and like clockwork, returns home around 8am. He was really pushing it this morning, plowing through the water, foam washing over his head and creating quite a wake behind him. In one photo, the wind behind him had caught the fur on his neck turning him into some sort of ominous sea creature! (extra)

On the human front, while I stalked the wildlife with camera, my sister set up a giant jigsaw puzzle. Before the afternoon came to an end, we retired to the dock to soak up the peace and quiet...and then my brother arrived for a visit...(extra) 

One overall theme that will be with us for this visit to the cottage is pollen. The white pine is the main tree here and its pollen is wind-borne and that wind always blows it in our direction, creating huge patches of gold along the shoreline. (extra) It coats all the furniture on the decks and in the porch..a daily chores is wiping it off!