It is a beautiful morning here today, just like when this story took place, you can read the one from last week HERE. There were 2 thunderstorms that first night, but both went a little north of where we were camping, so we got no rain and no damage to our campsite. Cathy was very happy about that. We were up early and Cathy was quickly frying some bacon and eggs for us.

She had asked me how my cooking skills were doing. “Just as good as last year,” I said cheerfully. She stared at me and then said she would do the cooking and I could do other things. I got the feeling she was trying to tell me something, but I was not sure what it was. We spent most of the day looking around for birds on her list. We walked to another small lake, about 2 hours away.

There were some blueberry plants still in bloom.

Once there we sat on the rock along the shore of the lake, and that lake was amazingly calm. There was no wind that day which made it feel hotter than it was, but still, it was beautiful. As we sat there talking a bit a Common Loon came along, about 30 feet (about 9 meters) from shore. The biggest thrill this time was the baby loon on the parents back!

Plantain-Leaved Pussytoes.

Cathy had never seen a baby loon before so she was quite ecstatic about this! We had brought sandwiches and water with us for lunch, which we ate at this lake. Then we took a slightly different route back to our campsite and as we were walking through an area of young pine trees I suddenly stopped and pointed to one of them.

About 20 feet high in the tree was a nest, with a Long-Eared Owl sitting beside it and two fluffy white baby owls in the nest. They actually looked larger than the parent, which is not unusual. Cathy was so excited by this. It was not a bird on her list, but she had never seen one before and seeing the nest with babies too was just a super bonus for her.

Purple Vetch.

We watched for a while and those owls never moved at all, they just all three sat there looking our way. They were probably trying to figure out if we were friends or enemies. After a while we left them alone and continued our walk, arriving back at our campsite by late afternoon.

We were hot and tired so we went for a swim first, then we sat in the shade relaxing. Along our journey today we also noticed more wildflowers. Cathy was really enjoying learning more about wildflowers and wants to pay more attention to finding them when she gets back home as well.

Harebells were abundant in that area and were just beginning their blooming season.

There were thunderstorms in the forecast for us again that night, but that was not the only excitement, since we had visitors come around as well. I will finish this off next week, have a great weekend everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2024 Steve McLeod.