Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Steve’s Country Cabin Journal #8.
Hello everyone and welcome back to another entry in my journal. I decided to do something different for a change…
I had often walked down this one trail by a lake during the day, but I wanted to try it at night to see what I might find. It was a nice warm summer night, there was nearly a full moon, a perfect time for my midnight walk. I got my stuff together and off I went. This was a time when I wasn’t so good at telling people where I was going or what I was doing, how long I would be away, those sorts of things. Sometimes I preferred not telling people because they would worry too much. This wasn’t the first time being out at night by myself, but the first time on that particular trail. It was a beautiful night, the moon shining so brightly through the trees casting long scary shadows through the forest. The only sound was me walking along the trail.
I stopped regularly to listen…listen to the quietness of a forest night. On one stop I heard something along the shore of the lake. I looked carefully but couldn’t see anything. I moved in a little closer. Suddenly a loud “smack”! I think I must have jumped 2 feet in the air! It was only a beaver slapping his tail on the water. But it was so loud. They really know how to do that very well and I guess I was getting a little too close. It got me laughing afterward, especially since I had heard that tail smacking many times before, but always during the day. It’s a little different at night when you’re all alone. Well, that’s it for this spot so I kept on going, quietly scrunching my way through the forest. I stopped again.
Thought I heard something farther in among the trees. I looked all around but couldn’t see anything. Hmm, I wonder, I started doing some owl calls. After a few minutes I gave up, obviously nothing around. I kept on walking and started going up a rocky hill. I stopped again. Almost sounded like some kind of grunting sound. But when I stopped, there was nothing. Probably a deer hiding in those crazy long shadows. Certainly wouldn’t be hard to do I’m sure. I keep on going and stop again after about 10 minutes for some more owl calling. Hey, I got an answer that time, a great horned owl! I call again, he answers. Then I hear something in the pine tree next to me.
The owl had landed on a branch no more than 6 feet above me. The moonlight was shining on him so nicely too. Then a second one came in and landed on a branch next to him. Now that is fantastic, what a beautiful sight. I don’t think they were as impressed as I was however. I didn’t bother calling anymore when they were so close. Owls can be quite aggressive when defending their territories. After a few minutes they decided I wasn’t very exciting so they both flew off. I kept on going and shortly the trail turned and went back to the beginning where I had left my car. I didn’t see anything else. But on two more occasions I had stopped and listened. I was so sure I had heard some grunting noises, but was never able to see what it was. It always left me wondering.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this little walk with me. It’s too bad I couldn’t have gotten a picture of those owls though, but it was something I won’t forget. Have a wonderful day everyone, and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Daily Pics #298.
Good morning to all of you on this fine Thursday morning! Well, so far it’s staying mild just like they said it would, quite amazing, but very nice. It does cool off at night, down to 0C (32F), but yesterday it was 57F (14C), which for us in November is fantastic! At this rate all of our snow should be gone by the weekend, but then we might get some more next week, but that’s okay, it is winter after all. Well, I have been working on changing my bird feeder setup this week, the weather is perfect for it, but due to “technical difficulties” it’s going rather slow. Good thing I came up with some shortcuts or I wouldn’t get this done by the weekend. I started Tuesday, but didn’t get too far. Yesterday I finished off Tuesday’s part and did Wednesday’s part. In other words, I overdid it, but I got it done except for cleaning up, but I’ll do that at the end instead of daily. Today comes part 3 which will be much easier than yesterday. Well, it’s supposed to be anyway, but with me you never know.
I’m rather stiff and sore after yesterday, so I might be slow moving today. While taking down the old feeder yesterday the plastic box I was standing on decided it was tired of holding me up. So it gave way. And I nearly went over the edge. But we won’t talk about that one. It was rather close though, but no serious problems resulted. I’m going to have a lot of garbage to get rid of after this. But today’s part is relatively simple and part 4 tomorrow is, well, it’s under consideration at this time. I’m still not quite sure about part 4. Can it be done? Do I need it? We’ll see after I finish part 3. Because of an extra addition to part 2 and 3, then part 4 may not be necessary at all. I’m hoping anyway. The blue jays are very busy this morning, all 14 of them. So are the chickadees. There is only a few juncos left, I’m surprised they haven’t all gone by now. Theodore had missed the last couple days, but he was here for breakfast checking out the new ‘restaurant’ renovations. He was quite satisfied, the feeder is more solid now, and the food was just as good.
And continuing with some of my favorite summer pics, today we have some insects, so if you don’t like insects maybe you won’t want to look. The featured image is a white admiral butterfly. It doesn’t look white? You’re right, but it does have a white stripe on each wing, otherwise on top it’s mainly black. Then in the pic above we have an unidentified dragonfly sitting on a twig just above my head. I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2020 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 