Wild Day

This morning I woke up and thought there is nothing that I have to do today. So what am I going to do... I started the day by walking with zoey around the farm barefoot. That's right no shoes. It was wonderful to feel the dew on the grass. Not a goat head or cactus for miles. (Well that's not true my grandmother has a cactus in her garden she dug up in AZ years ago.)

I decided to do some laundry, my least favorite chore. But there were no parking spaces in front of the laundry mat so I went to go see Eli instead. Eli is a friend of my father's who has taken a serious interest in birds and photography. He had taken many wonderful photos of birds. Check out some of his work:http://www.whiterockphotos.com/ . Anyhow after telling me about the porcupine Kujo tangled with and the woodchuck that is no more, we made plans to check out a Merlin nest in Vergenes. (vergenes is the smallest city in the US, one square mile.)

A Merlin is a Medium sized Falcon.

We found the nest. There appeared to be at least 2 fluffy chicks in the nest, but we could not see any of the adults. The nest was in the top of a large white pine and the branches made it difficult to get a clear view. Maybe we will go back another time to get a better look.

After dinner this evening I took a walk up to downtown Bristol. on the way home I saw a dark figure at the edge of the gravel pit near the mill where my father used to work. Two large ears stood tall. A moose? It can't be. maybe it's just a big deer. But then it turned and I could clearly see the characteristic hump on the back and profile of its big head. I could not believe my own eyes. I wanted some one else to see it so I could verify that it was indeed a moose. A few cars past by me as I was standing there staring, but they paid no mind.

I continued on home and there was a deer in the Christmas tree field back at the farm. This deer was much lighter in color, smaller and the ears were positioned differently. This helped me confirm in my own mind that I did indeed see a moose! (sorry no photos to prove it.)

Zoey had fun playing in the river today. We found a nice deep pool where she could really swim. We played fetch for a while and she really got into it. But the mosquitoes started to bite so I knew it was time to head home.