The Bald Eagles

... inching my way closer ...

I like going on day trips.

Wyona called and said that Moiya and Dave were returning from the U.S.A., and that we could drive over to Kamloops and meet them there -- preferably at Costco.

That seemed like a lot of gas to use to get to a store where we didn't want to shop, or even to a store where we would shop and buy commodities we don't really need.

Wyona said she needed to go somewhere.

She had been watching bald eagles all morning and since they wouldn't move, she thought that at least she might move.

... looking at them face on ...

Going down to the lake to see the bald eagles seemed like a better day trip to me, than going to Kamloops.

She picked me up.  I had my binoculars in one hand and my camera in the others.

Sure enough, they were still sitting there and they didn't seem to be bothered either by our car, or by the next train that whistled on by.

"Get out of the car and take your pictures," she said.  "The rain on the windshield is going to show up and ruin the images you are getting.

It is stunning to be right there under the tree, looking up and seeing the birds.

There is still a lot of deadfall on the road past the track and it is hard not to get distracted and start cleaning up the beach so that it is easier to walk.

... the bald eagles take flight ...

Whatever I did, the birds stay there -- even when I went under them and tried to look at them from every angle.

When they took leave of us, they were too quick for me to get a good shot.

Still I tried to capture them as they flew away.

Arta

Western Tanagers

Western Tananger

I am seeing so many of Western Tanagers this morning, that I put my bincoculars beside my printer so that I can grab them and look at the birds every time one lights on the trees just outside of my window.  The next thing I knew I was out on my deck so I could get a little closer.

I saw my first one yesterday and was so surprised by the red colour on his head that I shook my head in disbelief.

The books say that this is a "stocky, mostly bright-yellow songbird, with scarlet red on its face and two bright wing-bars on jet black wings. The book should underline the song in songbird.

Between the flocks of western tanagers and the little hummingbirds that are darting around, I am not getting much work done.

Just beautiful!

Arta

Too much cow!

Too much cow!

That is what some of my kids say about D Dutchman Dairy.

And that is why I have a four litre bucket of the flavour Double Chocolate in my freezer.  I think, "Just the right amount of cow."

I usually like my ice cream in a cone, but the ice cream has to be just the right temperature to get a nicely rounded scoop.  My freezer is too cold and I am in too much of a rush to wait until the bucket gets to be the right temperature, so I dig the ice cream out with a very strong spoon and then wait until it gets to the consistency where I can stir it into a faux malt.

Ice cream, anyone?  I still have half a bucket left.  And when I am through my bucket, I am walking down to Wyona's and Greg's for last night they told me they also have the Double Chocolate, plus Sour Cherry and Cherry Cheesecake.

Three of us agree.  Just the right amount of cow.

Arta

On watching the two bald eagles

... two bald eagles ...

... yellow train engine ... (I was hoping for a blue train engine)

... twinberry ...

Wyona writes:

I have been watching two bald eagles perched on a top branch of a tree now for one hour.

One bird just flew to a higher branch.

The female, being 25% larger has been sitting still the whole time.

The male has been fidgeting for the hour.

It is the male that finally moved to the top branch.

How long do I have to watch before they fly to another spot.

One of them should be sitting on the two eggs which were laid in February.

However, the eggs hatch by end of April or first of May so maybe they have hatched.

If so, the parents should be out looking for food for them.

Fly birds fly!
Fly away home
Your house is on fire
And your children are alone!

Oh, that is lady bugs.

A train went by and the birds just sat there. My camera battery is loading or I would go down and take better pictures. I don't know what for because the best pictures are on the internet.

stinky bob

Yesterday I ran down to the tracks to take photos of a yellow train engine, my first time seeing one. Then I get to the beach and there it was, a yellow American train engine in the middle of the train going full blast only this train had stopped to let another two trains go by.

The trains left. I walked up the long path between Woods and Bates. Squish, squish, ooze under my feet where the water crosses the path. Ferns, having no respect for human traffic, pop up in the middle of the path. I pick out a couple a dozen of those. (Arta asked me why I did not pick them and cook them for dinner; another name for them being fiddleheads).

I checked out my twin berry bush which is coming along just fine. Tonia and I transplanted and copied a number of twin berry bushes and planted them on the path. Marcia decided to weed one day last year and the place where she weeded was just where we had planted to twin berries. Thinking they were weeds, Marcia cropped them all off. Oh Well! Such is life! However, not gone forever because there are still a few leaves popping out.

stinky bob

And of course as I walked the path, I happened on a number of Herb Robert or Death Come Quickly, or Storksbill or as we call it 'Stinky Bob'. Uprooted those! Then upon arriving at the large cedar I sat on the bench which Teague rescued from down the beach a number of years ago. And low and behold, I spied a hill full of 'Stinky Bob', just everywhere, too many to pick with my bare hands. Now should I weed them or leave them for my grandchildren to weed?

Three hours later, four trains have gone by, and the bald eagles are still sitting on the same tree.

Wyona

Events for May: opera, Shakespeare and National Theatre

Elza van den Heever as Elettra
in Mozart’s “Idomeneo.”
Credit Hiroyuki Ito for The New York Times

I have written Idomeneo three times in my dayplanner, so it must be showing on three days:  the 6th the 8th and the 10th.

I am looking forward to learning something about the opera before I get there.

I have been thinking about the choices of NT live experiences that are coming up this month:  Obsession (May 12), Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolf (May 18), The Twelfth Night (May 20) and Der Rosenkavaliaer.

May is going to be filled with some wonderful shows, besides this lovely Mozart opera, Idomeneo.
.
Arta

Worms

What do earth worms eat?

Dave Wood and Bonnie Johnson cut down the old raspberry stalks so that the new ones can grow.

I have a whole hedge of raspberries and though they produce more slowly when they are cut down, I am not left with having to cut out the old stalks by hand.

Now I am left with the job of weeding between the plants, which is why I am thinking about worms.

Every time the tines of my pitch fork turn over another clump of earth, there is an earthworm or two that wriggles out.

 I keep stopping to watch them, so I am not getting that much weeding done.

Arta

Who's that knocking?

This morning there was such a clatter in my kitchen.

I could only think that a bird was caught in the chimney flu and trying to get out.

But that seemed like such a weird explanation, having lived here for 23 years and catching no bird there before.

I had to go to the porch and look at the chimney.

The problem was all on the outside – a woodpecker hammering its bill on the metal. The morning sun must have been just right to give an image of a tree trunk there to fool the bird.

Arta