When Spring is hotter than Summer? What?
How does that work, we go from temperatures in the 30’s (Celsius my American friends, we are not in the North Pole, near 90°…)…Hello Summer and cooler temperatures? You never know here! I was thinking of the poor little Blue Herons roasting in their nests that we visited this month earlier.
It’s a rookery easily seen by the road and I talked Mike into stopping by on our way to Sharbot Lake one morning. Sadly quite a few of the old cedars must have come down over the Winter. Where there once was six or seven nests I could only find two occupied! Two very prepared gentleman were there already with long camouflaged lenses, bug hats and hip waders! I felt like I should have thought about this more maybe before leaving home, sneakers, short sleeved shirt and no hat…ah, have to love those deer flies. The two photographers were set up with their long lenses and massive tripods on the edge of the swamp that last year had been under water. One of the men told me it was quite dry and I could walk out to look a bit closer. We exchanged Facebook info after our chat as we’d moved into the shade! Birders are always so nice!
The babies were all panting, and bickering, what else would you do on hot day? ha! The bugs and heat drove me back to the truck after 20 minutes but it was nice to see babies, last year was earlier and there had only been adults.
I returned to sitting under the shade of the trees and watching the local closer to home action!
Groot is great company hidden in his honeysuckle bush, fooling absolutely no one, including the squirrels, well, maybe the chipmunks! He’s not actually a good photographers helper;) Time to go in! He had a good sniff around as we had been “beared” the night before. Got home a bit later than usual to find my feeders scattered across the lawn in various stages of disrepair…sigh…looks like he SAT on one of them, squashing it flat! Nothing that a bit of duct tape and rearrangement with the pliers couldn’t temporarily fix. I sent the pictures of the “too broken to repair” parts to Brome Bird Care, a fabulous bird feeder out of Quebec and she promised to have the new parts off to me soon, no charge! Even after a bear mauling! It was somewhat ironic as I won the last feeder…with an “Univited Guest” photo in their monthly contest!
Must have been the bear I saw swimming across the lake! YES! The Mark Spitz of the bear swimming world! I was too busy trying to look through the binoculars at the weird hairy looking mofo swimming across the lake to grab my camera. By the time I realized it wasn’t human he’d climbed up on the bank, sniffed the Airbnb’s bright red Adirondack chairs and sauntered off into the woods. That would have been a surprise for guests! Must have been who hit us the night the bird feeders died;)
I did a “MacGyver” with some duct tape on the broken bits enough to get this feeder back on it’s pole! It is a favourite of the Grosbeaks, something about the perch that they really like…and squirrel proof, not bear proof;)
It’s not all birds after all! “Rocket, look at the beautiful Io mother I found!”…”What moth müther?”…yeah, he’s an orange cat;) ha! And the screen damage…all him!
Did you know the stinging spines of caterpillar Io moths have a very painful venom that is released with the slightest touch. There are two hypotheses regarding where this venom originates: (1) the glandular cells on the base of the branched seta or (2) from the secretory epithelial cells. Contacting the seta is not life-threatening for humans, but still causes irritation to the dermal tissue, resulting in an acute dermatitis called erucic. Both male and female adult io moths utilize their hindwing eyespots in predatory defense when the moth is sitting in the head-down position or is touched, via shaking and exposing these eyespots…I guess I should not have gently moved it from the screen to the hanging basket with my fingers…0_0…lesson learned! Ha! My fingers will heal…eventually!
With the heat has come some spectacular lines of storms coming through, haven’t managed to catch any lightning with the camera yet, that close strike last year on the water right out in front of us was an eye opener…a hair raising event! Saw this line driving back from the barn, missed us completely!
I have kept an eye out for any babies but so far only a few juvenile Orioles, nothing yet from the Red Bellied Woodpeckers but they are here all day as long as there is suet and oranges, who knew they loved oranges?
Because I put the feeders all away every night now they are eagerly awaiting me in the morning, chastising me if I am late! Ha! The orioles as well! Boy can they natter and squawk!
I spied an Loon swimming out in the bay and quickly grabbed the camera and hot footed it, literally, it was hot, down to the dock to get on the eye level with it, maybe there would be babies! A bit early but off I went. I sat and watched it as it dove and surfaced. Bathed and preened, just a lone Loon.
Had a lovely conversation with the Loon, mostly one sided. I always talk to them, don’t get many answers but I feel if they hear my voice next time they will know I am not a threat in any way:)
The Loon let out a little warning trill as a Great Blue Heron flew right over us! Interrupted the bath and preening! Later I heard another Loon across the bay, this one dove, and reappeared on the far side, must have been it’s mate as it was an amicable meet and greet! No babies yet. It was June 23 last year! Fingers crossed we see some this year!
There are the regulars at the feeder as well. It hasn’t been the best weather for walking out to check the mail. The bugs…sigh, the squadrons of deer flies are out accompanied by small very annoying biting gnats that fly up your nose! ARGHHH!!!! Oh Canada…Those deer flies…sigh, bug hat, two layers of shirts and make it brisk! Brisk! Brisk! Definitely exercise at this pace. I still have to stop and take pictures though! Ha! Quickly, I take them quickly!
Sometimes it flowers, so many wildflowers, other days it’s butterflies and dragonflies! They certainly hatch out at different times! Then there can be an occasional beaver at the mailboxes! He is not a fan of me sadly…”Was it something I said Mr. Beaver? Come back!”
I have rambled on here for long enough, stay tuned for the dragonflies and butterflies, fat squirrels and oh yes, Mrs. Raccoon and her strawberry jam habit…coming soon to a screen near you;)!
