Good morning everyone! So glad to see you all again! It is such a beautiful morning that I was outside on the deck until now enjoying things with my cup of coffee. Things have sure changed at the feeders now. All the juncos have gone and I only saw 3 white-throated sparrows and a chipping sparrow. Even the pine siskins were not here and I only saw 2 purple finches and 9 evening grosbeaks, 2 days ago there was more than 60 grosbeaks. But they are all spreading out now to fill the forests with their cheerful songs and little nests. I finally went back down to the river yesterday afternoon. It was beautiful, the temp was 68F (20C) and a light south wind. It was nice to hear all the birds along the path again and at the river too. It had been so quiet before. But now it is more alive once again.

There were 4 different species of butterflies as well, one small blue one that wouldn’t sit still for me, a large white butterfly which also would not sit still, then there was the mourning cloak which I have shown before and is always our first butterfly of the season. That one has been out since early April. Then there was a nice orange type butterfly that doesn’t seem to really fit anything in the book I have. The closest is the “eastern comma” which is an angelwing butterfly. It still doesn’t quite fit, but I’m staying with that name until I find something else. While I was sitting on the bench some ducks flew past, 2 others landed on the other side of the river and 2 more were already on the other side of the river. What’s wrong with this side? They never come swimming along on this side so I can get pictures of them. Amazing really.

This path I walk on is 6 feet wide (not quite 2 meters), so it’s plenty wide enough when passing someone to keep with physical distancing. In some places it’s even wider, like the place I met this guy, his little girl and his big dog. He did say “good afternoon”, though he didn’t exactly look happy. I said the same and mentioned our nice weather, but he said nothing else. His little girl hid behind him when she saw me. She looked terrified, like “there’s another human being on this path, we need to hide”. That’s what it looked like. Or do I really look that terrifying? I know I don’t like to look in the mirror any more than I have to, but still.

Then the other day when I was walking along the path I met this young woman who wouldn’t say hi and actually went off the path, easily 20 feet off (about 6 meters). She had to go through bushes and slide down a rock. So maybe I do look that terrifying. Such things could give a person a complex of some kind. I will admit, I do have a bit of a terrifying look to me, which is why you don’t see a lot of pictures of myself on this blog. I don’t want to scare people away. So now I have proof that I’m scary looking. Now, let’s see, how can I use that to my benefit? Oh well. It’s still a beautiful morning. Lots of squirrels out here this morning, more on that tomorrow. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.