Canada geese familyAfter not spending much time with Donna for months during daylight hours, I wanted to make today memorable. So did Donna. She made a lunch and suggested we take a pontoon ride, see nature, and maybe click some pictures. When she got here, she saw I was deep into writing an exhibit and let me get some thoughts down while she read.
Finally, we went. It was great!
Fern - daughter of JewelDonna had fun ideas on what to do. We cruised slowly along the shore headed for a lee side of the peninsula. A great blue heron seemed tolerant of the minimal disturbance. Later, we had a family of geese swimming along the shore with us, stopping to pick bugs from reeds. It was the first family of geese I’d ever seen here. Then she said lets go to the seagull rock and see if we recognize any gulls that come to WRI. Sure enough, there was the tame gull and Blocky with a couple we didn’t get to look at closely enough. Now we know where they hang out.
We took a selfie of us eating anniversary cake and one of us getting a little fatter.
Back on shore, we noticed that male red pine cones were spreading pollen. Donna spotted the hooded merganser female sitting in the entrance of her nest box. I haven’t seen her for so long I thought she was done nesting. She’s just been quiet.
Then Fern capped it all off by putting in an appearance to show us how her fur is growing back on her face. Fern is a good-mannered gentle sweetheart.
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| Hooded merganser nest box | Red male pine cones | Great blue heron |
A great day.
Thank you for your good wishes and the much needed hazelnuts that you are sending.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center