And Stephanie, too, is for the Birds

 

Fishing and Hunting, Quebec rules

The following is the information regarding fishing and hunting seasons and regulations. It was appended to a 2023 post, but your fearless editor suspects it may be more useful as a 2024 post.

https://www.quebec.ca/en/tourism-and-recreation/sporting-and-outdoor-activities/sport-hunting/seasons-bag-limits

Another Wildlife Sighting

 In late May, I awoke one morning quite early because a crow was being exceedingly noisy outside my window. Usually they settle down after a bit, but this one was intent on destroying the last vestiges of my sleep. So I got up, went to the window to look for the culprit and saw, not a crow, but a hulking brute (backlit, so features hard to make out) perched on a branch between me and the lake.

Vulture? I thought, but it seemed more compact than that. Then it turned its white head and gave me its profile. A bald eagle. No wonder the crow was distressed.

We have seen the eagle off and on over the winter, but this was an amazing up-front and personal view.

It soon left its perch to fly across the lake, pursued by a mob of one very brave crow, still spitting expletives.

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Merlin tags of recent weeks: indigo bunting, hermit thrush, and a chorus of thousands.

Kindness of Madeleine

Tonight there was a rainbow over the lake that was still there as I, and a thousand blackflies, reached the shore. While I looked, a loon [Editor's note: It's a mallard. Still beautiful withal.] drifted quietly past and into Outlet Bay over the coloured water. Lake Anne is magic!

Spring Has Sprung 2024

It was a relatively mild winter, with long rainy thaws in unexpected places. Spring came early but decided to stay and stay. So cool, rainy days after a lovely 20C bit somewhere at the start of April. Everything is hovering around 10C to 15C these days.

The ice went out on or about April 19, after lingering for days looking fragile and past its best-before date.

The first loon was heard (by me, others may have heard it earlier) on April 18, while the ice was still covering all but the edges of the lake. There proceeded a very long week of lonely loon calls and receding ice, followed by a joyful carillon of two-loon joy beginning April 25.

The coltsfoot is in vibrant bloom, whether or not we want it.

A beaver swam past the dock a week or so ago, and deer were running down the length of the lake not long before the ice went out. WW looked out the window and said, "Oh dear!" Turns out he was saying, "Oh! Deer!"

And birds. Seriously, birds.

There are, of course, all the usual suspects: black-capped chickadees, nuthatches, dark-eyed juncoes, American crows, American robins, Canada geese (sporadic and few so far) and turkeys...so many turkeys. But there's more going on.

The woods are alive with ruby-crowned kinglets voicing their loud, lovely song. When they allow space, the yellow-rumped warbler, northern flicker, chipping sparrow, song sparrow, pine siskin, eastern phoebe and northern water thrush all pitch in.

I know all this because of the wonderful app from Cornell University: Merlin. It identifies birds by their songs. You can click on birds you've recorded and see a photo and brief description. Who had ever heard of a water thrush?? Merlin had.

The hummingbirds have reached Hudson, QC, so it's time to unlimber your hummer feeders, if that is something you do. Apparently, these wee birds return to the same feeder(s) year after year, so don't disappoint the little jewels.

Just so it's not all rainbows and unicorns...mosquito at the gate today.