Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Steve’s Journal #21-04.
Hello everyone! Here I sit today looking out my window at a rather blustery scene before me. It looks so very cold, a little light snow is falling, a strong wind is blowing, and it is a cold out there that eats right through a person. It’s hard to dress warm enough to spend much time outside on a day like this. However, I remember a different day which I have written down in my journal. Let’s have a look at that day…
As I look out my cabin window this morning, a very early morning, it’s 5am right now and it’s a beautiful, sunny morning. The lake is like a mirror, reflecting the scenery all around. This picture out my window is captivating, the edge of the lake is hidden from view as the real, and the reflection, blend so perfectly together providing such a memorable scene, one not to be forgotten over time. Not even the tiniest ripple to break up this reflection. As I venture outside on this early summer morning everything is so remarkable, so still, so quiet, but it’s not the audible quiet I mean, but the quiet of the scene before me. And then there is the chorus, such a rousing chorus as each species of bird adds his echoing song to the whole. It all blends together, providing a symphony that builds throughout my whole body, my whole being.
This is my summer morning and what a morning. I decide to get my canoe out and head around the lake before breakfast. It’s not a big lake, about half a mile across in any direction. But not exactly round either, there are bays and a point of land sticking out into the lake in one spot. There, the canoe is in the water and I’m off, just slowly moving along the shore, dipping my paddle in the water so quietly, then keeping it there so I can glide along without making any noise. I leave the shadows and enter the sun drenched areas of water and land. I can tell it’s going to be a hot day, just like yesterday, it’s already 79F and it will likely hit 95F today as well.
As I move through the water silently I see a great blue heron along the short walking ever so carefully, it’s feet rising out of, and then into, the water without barely a ripple being produced. No doubt in search of some minnows, which are abundant in this lake, or perhaps a frog, for his breakfast. And likely also he will take some back to the young ones waiting in the nest for their breakfast as well. I pass by the section of the lake that is alongside the highway. Not even one vehicle passes by while I’m there, which is odd, even for an early morning. Across the lake I hear different birds than the ones around home, so many warblers and vireos, plus familiar birds like flickers and thrush.
Suddenly a loon pops out of the water close to me, very excited since I am a little too close to it’s nest. That nest, right by the water’s edge has two large eggs and hopefully both will hatch this year with healthy young. I continue along the rock lined shore and pass a large beaver lodge. I spot one beaver still swimming around after a night of work. I see a newly cut down aspen tree right along the shore which had toppled right into the lake. Suddenly a familiar and very loud “smack!” My friendly beaver must have spotted me and smacked it’s tail on the water’s surface to warn everyone that I’m coming. Oh well. I continue past the point of land which this year is actually an island due to the higher water level. I turn and I’m back in the shadows again as I head toward home. There, I pull up to the dock and pull the canoe up onto shore. A perfect summer morning. Now it’s time for my breakfast….
I hope you have all enjoyed today’s journal entry and our quick trip around the lake. Have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Coffee At Steve’s Country #21.
Good morning on this very cold Thursday here at Steve’s Country! However, we have a nice warm atmosphere and plenty of hot coffee and tea to share with you today! It is around 2F (-17C) with a very strong wind that makes the temp feel like -19F (-28C). That’s getting too cold for me, even though I know it can get colder, much colder. But it doesn’t look like we will get into that severe cold this winter, and that’s nice when we get winters like that. And it happens now and then, nothing unusual about a milder winter, or a bitterly cold winter. We can get both kinds here.
The poor birds this morning, they certainly look cold. It’s that kind of temp where the birds “lose” their legs and feet. By that I mean, they are hiding their legs and feet under their feathers all the time, so it looks like they are bouncing around on their tummies. Well, today we begin our new coffee posts by looking at some of our wild friends. I won’t be doing this every day, but perhaps 2 or 3 days a week. Today we look at Theodore, or the eastern wild turkey specifically.
The male is called a ‘Tom’ or ‘gobbler’, the female a hen. A young male is a ‘Jake’, a young female is a ‘Jennie’, the babies are ‘poults’. Wild turkeys can run up to 25mph (40kph) and can fly at speeds of 55mph (about 82kph). They have around 5500 feathers! Males can weigh 16 to 25 lbs (7.25 kg to 11.34 kg), females about half of those weights. Only males gobble and both sexes make other sounds as well, which I have discovered. They were completely gone from the Canadian landscape by the early 1900s, but have been introduced again in many areas. They were introduced into our neighboring province of Manitoba back in 1958 and have done well and expanded their range a great deal and that is likely where our wild turkeys have come from.
Now, is Theodore a Tom or a Hen? Is Theodore one or two? I am including pics of heads today, they don’t have very thrilling heads to look at, but it does show something, those heads don’t look the same. Also Theodore’s tail which I thought was looking better and now it’s not, yet it is, just depends on the day. Do I have more than one Theodore coming to my feeder? Yep, I do, check the pics closely. Then there is the tail. And yesterday I heard Theodore gobbling loudly walking down the side street out here, then I heard another one. Sure enough, a second was coming down the street. The first Theodore turned and came chasing the second one. They really can run fast! So there is two, at least. I need to pay more attention now to these amazing birds. Oh, these birds will eat almost anything, grain, buds, berries, insects, even small reptiles. Well, that’s it for today, I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 