Good morning and Happy Saturday to all of you! Grab a cup of coffee and relax for a few minutes. It was cloudy earlier and felt quite cool, especially with that wind. But, it seems to have cleared nicely now with lovely deep blue sky above the green of the trees. There are still a few clouds here and there, but nothing serious. Yesterday I went down to the river.

It was sunny and very little wind, a perfect combination for a walk. The wettest areas had mostly dried up, just a little water to walk through in two spots. Mostly those wet areas were now just soft, wet mud. Even though it was sunny, it was still a cool day with a high of only 70F (21C), so I wore a light jacket. So glad I did. The mosquitoes were out in large numbers along most of the path. I regularly had 20 on my hands at a time, plus more on my face and neck.

I guess they were quite happy to have a new “restaurant” walk into their neighborhood. Oh well. They need to eat too I suppose. I do not use mosquito repellant of any kind, that stuff is worse than the mosquitoes. Just my opinion. The worst part was when I stopped to take pics of something. Then those critters would really attack, and there would be dozens of them flying all around me.

But it was a beautiful walk and I managed to get some nice pics at the river, some I am showing today. Plus I was able to get some nice insect pics too. Also missed quite a few insects because they would not cooperate and land where I could get a picture of them. Oh well. Perhaps next time. I got to see a female blackburnian warbler and a male Canada warbler, both in the same area where they were nesting last summer. And both were out gathering insects to take back to the nest and hungry babies.

Unfortunately I was unable to get pictures of them, but there is still time. It would be nice to get the male blackburnian warbler as well. I did get the female last year. It is hard to get pics of warblers with all the leaves out now. They are small birds and like to stay hidden among the leaves. There were other warblers along the way too, but those species stay high in the trees, too high for pics. Chickadees and nuthatches, woodpeckers and pelicans, lots of different birds were around.

And the hermit thrush also. I love their song. They are especially active in singing early in the morning and late evening after the sun has set. But they sing anytime. They are a bird that is heard a lot but seldom seen. I certainly miss having that bench at the river, especially since all the rocks that I would normally sit on are now underwater. Part of the path which last time was under about 2 inches of water, is now flooded with about 2 feet of water for about 40 feet of the path.

Another part of the path is getting dangerously close to the edge of a collapsed embankment, and more will be collapsing soon, large cracks are developing on that embankment. Fortunately it is easy to walk further back from the edge. Well, I will have more to say and more pics to share from that walk, but that is all for today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2022 Steve McLeod.