Bear at Bird Feeder

A few days ago a bear came to our bird feeder and spent a long time eating up all the bird seed. It stood on its hind legs to reach the feeder and pulled it down rather gently, took the top off and laid down to eat the seed. Since it is a clear glass feeder you could see it inserting its tongue into the feeder to extract the seed.
I had plenty of time to make some great shots of the bear close up and personal with my new camera.
I will post these sometime soon.

Winter Again?

We woke up this morning to a bit of snow on the ground. After the wonderful spring weather we have been having, this seems like such an insult. However it is a good day to stay cozy inside and do some painting.
The other day we saw a golden eagle flying down by the water in front of our house. It was cruising along the shoreline looking for something to eat. It was an absolutely huge majestic bird!
We finally had several visits from a pair of male rose breasted grosbeaks and quite a few evening grosbeaks at our feeder. We hadn't seen any throughout the winter. Such pretty birds!

Just Some Thoughts

We had a very busy Christmas and New Year's season. Bernie and I did a lot of traveling. It was nice seeing everyone at Christmas but also nice to come home finally.
We had the best Christmas present of all this year when our brother in law received a new heart on the morning of December 24th. He is doing very well and is already at home. We are so happy for him!
When we were snowshoeing the other day, we saw a barred owl sitting in the tree about 20 feet from us. He was very large, about 18 inches long from head to tail, and he stayed there for quite a while. When he flew away he flew directly over my head!

First Big Storm:

We finally have our first big storm of the season. There is lots of snow. We are hunkering down and not going anywhere today. It's great to just watch the snow coming down. The lake has not frozen over yet, with the middle of the lake still being open water.

Is summer over?

We finally have had some nice weather that we can call summer. There is a crispness to the air now that is reminiscent of fall. Some of the leaves are already starting to change. I haven't done much painting this summer but am looking forward to doing a lot more this fall and winter.

Long Weekend

The long weekend finally arrived and there is a rainy start. The previous week has been glorious and has allowed us to go kayaking and sit out on the dock enjoying the sunshine. We have been observing a hooded merganser pair flying around the house and fishing in the water. We finally saw the female trying to get into a hole about 50 feet high in a tree off of our Muskoka room. I actually thought she was stuck there, the hole being pretty small. She managed to get out and has been back many times. I guess this is her nest, so we hope to see the baby mergansers emerging in about four weeks! The blackflies have not been too bad so far!

Finally Spring!!

The ice finally went out on the weekend of April 18th. We now have all kinds of ducks that are migrating through the area. They are a joy to watch as they dive for fish in the lake. A single loon has also been around, but I believe he is just passing through as there was no mate. We have not had any nesting loons on our lake for about 6 years now. This may be due to fluctuating water levels, more boat traffic and possibly because loons have been injured and killed by motor boats on the lake.
A few days ago, we saw a mother bear and two cubs over at my neighbours' house. She was laying down in the grass but when she saw us she sent the cubs up a tree!