Northward Bound: Of Merlins and Small Spaces

This morning I made it out to Vergenes with Eli to check out the Merlins nesting. We arrived there a little after 7 am. It was quiet. We did not see any signs of the birds. I walked around and found one of the adults on top of a big willow.

Then I looked back at a nest tree, there were three or four birds sitting out on a limb.

After a while the chicks made their way back to the nest.

Eli took theses photos with his Superior camera and lenses.

Then it was off to the outhouse races... yes that's right Bristol Vermont is famous for its annual fourth of July outhouse races!

I was quickly bored with the outhouse race so I wandered around the park where there were various vendors and such. Then the parade, and a picnic at uncle Donald's house.

After the picnic I came home and spent some time with Zoey. We went over to the ice pond where she found a family of ducks. I think she scared up about a half dozen or so half-grown ducklings and chased to mama duck around the pond for at least 6 laps. At fist the mother flailed around as if she had a broken wing, but she could clearly fly and kept a comfortable lead on Zoey.

I was going to take her for a walk to the swimming hole, but I figured this was enough exersize for her. So then I decided trying to get Zoey acclimated to the kennel she will be flying to Alaska in.

First I throwing in treats. She quickly reached in and backed out. So to encourage her to come in I decided to show her it was not so bad. I climbed in and called her in with me. I got her to stay in there with me for a while.