Hanging Out With the Guys...

I was going to paint this morning.  Painting is real close to the bottom of my list of things I don't like to do.  I started painting the new photo blind last week, and that went pretty good.  But I missed some places and some places need a second coat...  stuff like that.  I am not usually a procrastinator.  In fact, most often I do the dreaded deeds first just to get them out of the way.

This is the job I started last week and should have finished today.

But no, I did a few other things like pick up the mail at the Post Office in Limestone.  And while in town I also went to the Chamber of Commerce to pick up fliers about the upcoming 4th of July festivities.  Then I thought I might as well head on to Caribou.  The Chamber of Commerce there also has fliers about upcoming events.  

Sometimes we get visitors who ask what there is to do in the area and I like to have that information on hand.

Got back to the refuge by 10:00.  Too early for lunch...  too late to start painting...

So I took a little walk to see what I could see...

I'm thinking that this killdeer might be planning on building a nest in the area beside the diesel fuel tank.  She was playing the "injured bird" game...  spreading her wings and hobbling along.  This is a ploy on her part to distract me from her nest.  When I say building a nest I'm exaggerating.  Killdeer just sort of brush out a circle of dirt with their wings and lay their eggs right on the ground.  I looked around a bit but didn't find the nest.  I didn't want to disturb her but I'll keep a watch to see what happens.

I knew the lupines were blooming, so I headed to one of my favorite sites...

I can see East Loring Lake, Moose Marsh, and across the lake into one of the old Weapon Storage Areas.  Sometimes I'll spot a bald eagle perched high in one of the spruce trees.  But not today.

However, I did see these...

This Cedar Waxwing flew into view.  You can see the yellow on the tip of his tail, but what doesn't show...  and is really neat...  is the red "waxy" tips on the wing feathers.  Maybe I'll be able to get a better picture another time.

I really didn't know what this bird was until I downloaded my photos...

Once I saw the red "stitching" on his breast I knew he was a Yellow   Warbler.  Even with my binoculars, all I knew was that it was a wood warbler....  I love my 300 zoom lens!

Oh Yeah...  this blog is about hanging out with the guys..

Well, after lunch I put off the painting a while longer and headed up to the Weapon Storage Area where the guys were taking out manholes and filling the leftover hole full of dirt and gravel.

Bill's using the excavator to pick up those huge pieces of concrete and load them into the dump truck.  Kirk is driving the truck - and when it's full, he'll take it to an area where it will be broken up and disposed of.

My job?

Going along after them ...  picking up all the broken PVC pipe and other debris that came out of the manholes and hauling it all off to the dumpster.

 I managed to put off painting until around 3pm...  

So, who hung out with the guys?

Gracie, Kirk's golden retriever puppy.

Gracie isn't quite 6 months old.  She got very sick last week - apparently she'd got parvo.  She spent several days at the vet's, but is on the mend now.  Kirk brought her to work so he could keep an eye on her and she'd have some company.

You can see her bed which is visible in the lower window of the door.  She had a great day hanging out with the guys!

That's All For Today!