Great Day in the Morning!

I have to say, though, that every day all day long is great here.  Even though it's really dry up here in Aroostook County and the ponds and lakes just get lower every day.  So what makes my day great?  .... seeing lots of critters....  This dry spell is probably kind of hard for them...  they'll wade around in water deep enough to cool down and keep the flies off.  Rain sure would be nice....

This big guy was wading around in Bucky Beaver's Pond....  as you can see, the water's hardly knee-high on him.  I watched him quite a while before he headed back into the woods.

He's probably the same bull moose that's in the header photo.  

He's just checking out a different pond.

I'm a morning person....  prefer to be out and about at daylight.  I headed up to the new Photo Blind this morning, but someone beat me to it....

This little guy was waiting at the door.  I waited in the car until he wandered off.  I knew Mama was somewhere close by, so I watched closely...

Mama was watching ME closely....

The deer here are really curious and will stand and watch for a long time before they feel threatened.

Yesterday I spotted this Great Egret 

This is the first one I've ever seen here on the Refuge.  It's hanging out with the Great Blue Herons, but seems to be the only one around now. 

(I was hoping he was a morph of the Great Blue....  dream on)

I saw him again today and managed to get this picture. 

While it's really not supposed to be this far north, you never know what you'll see during migrations.

This Great Blue Heron favored me with a beautiful flyover shot.  We've been seeing 5, 6, even 7 at a time.  

I was about 50' from a Bald Eagle yesterday and can you believe it?  I hesitated too long and missed a great shot.

I think I was so surprised to see it sitting on that snag I just didn't react in time.

How many ducks do you see in this picture?

I love these "Mirror" shots!

Earlier this week vandals upset the Photo Blind at Chapman Lake into the pond.  Bill took the backhoe over to drag it out and set it upright again.  While there, he and Steve noticed that a board was missing from the nearby footbridge.  How the vandals broke and tore out the board is kind of a mystery.  It would have taken some real work.....

So Bill measured and cut a new board.  When we went over to reset the trail counters he replaced that board.

This bridge is really unique.  

You just slide the planks into angle iron (I think that's what it's called), then screw down the end boards.

Kirk designed and built this bridge a couple of years ago.

Back to the Photo Blind here at Aroostook...

Saw these two cow moose just before lunch today.

They were wading across the upper end of E. Loring Lake.

"Lake" is kind of stretching it some....  it's more just a big pond.  It, too, is quickly evaporating this summer.

Now that the Upland Sandpipers have finished their nesting season, the fields can finally be mowed.

Bill gets to play on the big toys again.

This tractor has a 15' mower on the back.

You can cut a WIDE swath with that baby!

There are lots of grasslands to maintain, so he'll be busy for a while.

I made pretty good progress painting the Boiler Room yesterday, but I'm at the Visitor Center this afternoon.  Steve is down at Moosehorn NWR - he'll be back Tuesday.  Kirk is at a week-long workshop at the Regional office in Massachusetts.  It's kind of quiet here.

Bill and I will do our grocery shopping tomorrow morning as we are going to give a tour on Saturday morning.  

Then on Sunday I'm back at the VC.

This all works out fine for us....  I don't like being inside all the time and like the diversity of the many different "jobs" there are to do here........  even painting.

How about this for a "Butt Shot"?

Bottoms Up!

Canada Geese checking out what's for lunch.

That's All For Today!