I Missed One!

I was tidying up the folder where I prepare pictures for the blog and discovered that when I posted the other bald eagle pictures, I missed one of my favorites.  

This shot was (obviously) taken just as the leaves were starting to sprout in earnest. It's the last clear picture I got of the pair before the foliage totally obscured my view. They were perched in a tree right behind and looking over my sister's house. People would stop their cars out front to try and photograph them. 

I don't know if this is the pair that had the nest disaster or not, but one of the eagle nests out on the peninsula crashed out of its tree in a wind storm and landed on a baby, breaking its wings. It's at a really good rehab center, but the prognosis for returning it to the wild is pretty iffy at this point.  Those huge nests can weigh hundreds of pounds. Let's keep our fingers crossed for that (not so) little eaglet. 

 

Flowers and Foolishness

 Piper has great patience with me when I stop and photograph things in which she has no interest. 

Things like sweet starflowers  showing bright green and white against the brown of last autumn's leaf duff interest her not at all, but I love their cheerful blossom faces with the long, bright yellow eyelashes. 

She also doesn't have any use for the pink lady slipper orchids which are a rare and special treat for me. 

Piper also didn't particularly care about this unusual specimen, which took me forever to look up and identify. Of course, I don't have any of my books at present, so I had to rely on online resources and these don't seem to be pretty enough to rank on the who's who of wildflowers lists. In case you, too, are unfamiliar with this strange and almost otherworldly plant, may I introduce you to Conopholis Americana, otherwise known as Bear Corn. If you look closely, those little spiny bits are actually tiny flowers. It's a parasitic, non-photosynthesizing plant that depends entirely on oak roots for its existence, though happily, it doesn't seem to harm the oak at all. I found it fascinating, but Piper remained unmoved. 

She does like to see what I'm doing, though, and frequently photobombs my pictures. That small black bear behind the trillium is Miss Piper coming in to check on my progress. :)

 

Duck and Run

Piper and I have been getting up before dawn most mornings to try and get our walk in before it gets too loud and boisterous out along the bay. Boats, jet skis, cars and bicycles all get on her little sound-sensitive nerves and she wants to go back sooner than I do, so we try to work around the problem. 

As a result, we've gotten to see some fun duck antics along our way. This merganser couple was sailing along in tandem. I have yet to see any babies, but the parents are almost always out foraging in the early morning light. 

They also get a little territorial from time to time and the boys get into spats. One minute they'll be happily diving as a group and the next there's a dispute needing to be resolved. 

Sometimes it just gets too intense and a get-away is in order. After all, it's a pretty big bay and there are plenty of places to forage. :)

Just a Little Gem

Piper and I were walking at a nearby historical site and spotted a few of these little gems hidden among the new grass and dry leaves. 

Even thought this picture was taken a couple weeks ago, I figured I needed to post it so BetsyLee could get her mushroom fix. :)

I made a nice pan of crispy fried morels to enjoy with my sister for an appetizer before dinner. Only fresh morels are good for that particular purpose. When we have an abundance, we dry and freeze them for other culinary adventures, but I look forward to a pan or two of crispy ones when we're fortunate enough to find some. 

Looney Tunes

While the days are starting to get warm, nights are still fairly chilly, so I keep the window open to cool things off. There's something so nice about the fresh air wafting through the room when I'm sleeping (except, of course, when the skunks walk by with their distinctive perfume). 

As a bonus to the (usually) fresh air, Piper and I have been awakened by the pre-dawn call of loons from across the bay. It's a perfect prelude to an early morning walk. 

We typically don't see them, since they're way on the other side of the water, but we occasionally get a glimpse when we're walking along one of the other nearby lakes, which is where these pictures were taken. 

Bald is Beautiful

These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago, when the trees were just beginning to put on their summertime finery. 

On the hillside behind my sister's house is a favorite perch for the eagles to survey their territory. 

When Piper and I take our early morning walks, we frequently see them gliding overhead, looking for hapless fish, squirrels or rabbits as they hunt for something to feed their youngsters. 

This handsome pair must have a nest nearby, since they are in the neighborhood almost every day. 

Now that the leaves are on the trees, it's impossible to get a good picture, since they're hidden by the foliage, but they can still see all the hunting possibilities. They do have the eagle eyes, after all! 

Oh, Deer!

Piper and I discovered this little sweetheart hidden in the grass very close to the road along which we were walking a couple mornings ago. 

It did an excellent job of staying put and hardly twitching a muscle, in spite of Piper's interest. I told Piper to leave it, took a quick picture and kept walking, so we wouldn't disturb it. I think I might need to lecture its mother about leaving her youngster quite so close to the road - there were much better places nearby to park the baby while she went to find her breakfast. 

Piper remembered where it had been and took me by the same spot the next morning. Needless to say, she was disappointed the interesting and unusual creature was no longer there.