July beauty

One of the environmental highlights for us this past week on Prince Edward Island was a calm day, without any wind, when the sea and sky became one. On such a day, the horizon disappears and different elements are indistinguishable.

I wonder what the cormorant sees when it looks around?

Our family went camping this past weekend, so my husband and I had the golden grand-dog for a few days. Those days included a visit to the beach at Mont Carmel. Daisy can be off-lead there as few people frequent the beach. She loves to fetch a ball out of the water.

It was a calm day and local cottagers were enjoying water sports . Paddle boards, Sea-doos, 

and a hydrofoil provided hours of entertainment for the cottagers and those watching.

Other days we walked on trails where other walkers were obvious in the distance and Daisy could run free before they approached. Unfettered, she runs ahead and stops periodically waiting for the seniors to catch up. 

We know it was a successful outing with Daisy if she is tired afterwards. A tired dog is a good dog.

Nature provided hours of entertainment this past week as the parade of wildflowers continues along the trails. Along the Confederation Trail, fireweed is resplendent in some areas. 

Queen Anne’s lace dominates in places though the two are usually not together. 

In the fields, some potato plants are in blossom already while others have some growing yet to do. 

A wheat field that borders the Confederation Trail looks to have benefitted from the rain we’ve had recently.

Along the boardwalk, the wildflowers are doing well. Yarrow 

and St. John’s wort grow beside the trail and brighten the days with their colour. 

At more than a metre high, wild roses and vetch attract bees. We stopped to watch the bees among the roses as we could hear their collective buzz.

Another interesting sight this past week was a swarm of flies we suspect were midges. They are visible in the photo below 

and a close-up is better than I thought it would be. We were lucky they weren’t biting.

I was fortunate to see a Great Blue Heron fishing in the salt marsh one day.

Another fortunate photo was the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker with a beak full of pin cherries before it entered the nest to feed its young.

Finally this week, one evening, just after dark, we passed a young fox out hunting. It was near a wheat field where the hunting is good. The fox wasn’t afraid of us when we rolled down the window to photograph it. 

Our encounters and experiences in nature continue to brighten our days and keep us moving.

Blooms and critters

This past week was a busy one with activities with our grandchildren and having the golden grand-dog overnight. We did manage a walk most days however, when the weather permitted. We have had cold winds and a great deal of rain.

Along the trails now, Mountain Ash 

and High Bush Cranberry are in bloom. 

Gone are the apple blossoms but people can enjoy a succession of blooms along trails and pathway over the weeks of late spring.

Prince Edward Island is known for its potatoes and planting is well underway now. The fields await the first eruption in the red soil with the potential of another bumper crop of the stem tubers.

One morning this past week, as we readied for the boardwalk, a fox and her two kits played across the street. My husband managed a photo of the mother through the window, but the kits played in the tall grass and were impossible to photograph.

Meanwhile, we walked the Confederation Trail with Daisy, the golden grand-dog, in an area where we could watch for other people. When nobody was around, we let her off the lead to run along the trail. She runs so far ahead and stops to wait for the two seniors behind her. 

Farm animals were out in the fields this past week. A farm with three horses is near the Confederation Trail where we took Daisy. This young pony didn’t mind the barking dog as it grazed in the farmyard.

Cattle were out grazing or relaxing one afternoon in another field. There were a number of additions to this herd this spring.

The same was true for this small herd of sheep another day. Lambs enjoyed grazing along a hill by the farmhouse.

It is lupin time again and the roads and trails are lined with the beauties for a few weeks. The whites, pinks, purples and mixes of colour provide a flash of colour as one drives by. It is so much better to walk past them.

My friend Lucy’s garden is beautiful again this year and I took some photos of some of her blooming beauties last week. My favourite photo was of these irises.

Lucy and I went to a birding class this past weekend along a trail in the National Park at Cavendish. We saw some familiar birds, including Bald Eagles, Osprey, Cedar Waxwings, Great Blue Herons and Song Sparrows. I was also thrilled to see Red-eyed Vireos, 

Chestnut-Sided Warbler

and an Eastern Kingbird.

It is always fun to be around a group of people with the same interests!

We enjoyed lunch with our family yesterday at our house. We have a wall in our utility room where we measure the kids every year and record their heights. We measured their grandfather and me last year too. While the kids each grew appreciably this past year, their grandfather and I shrank, though at a slower rate than the kids grew…at least.

We can rejoice in having lived long enough to experience the life which led to this loss of height and enjoy life at a new altitude!

Have a great week!

A busy week in August

It was a busy week. Besides our walks along the boardwalk, time with family and friends this past week has kept us busy. It included time on one of the most beautiful beaches on the island, at Thunder Cove on the north shore. It ended with a sleepover for the grandchildren, always fun, though exhausting.

There are certain expectations with a walk along the boardwalk, depending on the time of year. The Great Blue Herons which summer on Prince Edward Island are often visible in Bedeque Bay. 

The bands of colour and texture at low tide on a sunny day in the bay make us stop to take in the scene as one of the large birds feeds in the tidal pools.

By late August, shorebird migration has begun and some of the birds stop in the bay on their way south. Yellowlegs are common visitors and this one was alerting the animals to the predator sitting on the bank of the stream.

I managed a photo of the Red Fox running into the bulrushes. It was a few minutes before the bird stopped its alert!

Another day, sailboats were out on the bay as they often are but sails were furled. The wind was high that day.

At Thunder Cove, fun at the beach was the order of the day. The expanse of shoreline is a great place for sand castles, lying in the sun, a walk

or a frisbee. 

The local colony of gulls was watchful for morsels of food and were entertaining, as usual, as they explored areas vacated by beachgoers.

At sunset, the beach took on a glow in the diminished light. 

As the sun settled lower, the approaching night has a look of its own.

We headed back over the dune path, looked back at the peaceful scene and were thankful for our good fortune to live in this time and place.

June in bloom

Our morning routine has changed recently to accommodate the weather. It has been humid in the afternoons, so our walks are earlier in the morning when it is cooler. Life has moved to the patio for the summer too, many meals cooked on the barbecue and eaten on the deck. I love this time of year.

It is lupin time now. 

We have seen some along our usual pathways but lupins require a special visit to large patches we know in the area. We will visit the lupins soon. Daisies are present too with their beautiful faces smiling in the sun.

We usually arrive at the trail or boardwalk after eight a.m. and the early morning has attracted some of our favourite animals too. A Great Blue Heron likes fishing at that time 

and a female Mallard likes that hour as well.

Away from the marsh, young foxes enjoy the early morning, playing near the boardwalk.

It is green and shaded along the Rotary Trail though light makes it to the trail in places. 

The wind, usually present here, rustles the leaves, creating its own sound track. However, the birds add their voices too, Warblers I can’t identify and Blue Jays or Robins which I recognize.

A nice addition to nature this past week was the presence of tadpoles near the surface of a pond along the Rotary Trail. 

Hundreds of the larvae were visible just below the surface of the water.

We’ve checked in on the Bald Eagle pair recently too. One adult was in a nearby tree while a young one was visible in the nest.

On-line, we keep a watch on the pair of Osprey at Blackbush, Prince Edward Island, where two of the four eggs have hatched and the parents are busy feeding the two hungry chicks. The photo taken from the feed is blurred but worth a look.

On the home front, the tomatoes, peppers and cucumber plants are all transplanted and doing well but beans have yet to break ground. We look forward to the produce from our strip of earth.

It is a glorious time in nature!