It's A Go...

Bill talked today with the equipment operator/coordinator who is in charge of a project at Umbagog NWR, which is on the border of Maine and New Hampshire.  We'll leave Aroostook NWR this Friday and head west.  Bill will work on that project all next week.  I'm really not sure what I'll do, but it sounds like a good time to get ready for our winter plans.

All day the sky has threatened rain...  then it was sunny...  then storm clouds again.  All day I've felt the same way...  not knowing whether we'd be here a few more weeks or moving on soon.  Bill & I feel that we're quite flexible and willing to go in any direction...  but it was good to know this evening whether I should start packing up or hang in there a while longer.

I really didn't get much done for the refuge today.  I wanted to wait until the rains were over before I mowed the trails.  I ran some errands and did some odd jobs...  even working with my photos is kind of a "refuge job" as I leave a CD (or several) of all the photos I take during my time here with the Refuge manager.  I can walk through the hallway and see maps or other informational signs with my photos from years past illustrating various sites.  So...  if I spend a few hours working with photos, that's okay.  It's a good rainy day project.

Solitary Sandpiper

I saw this guy hanging out alongside one of the beaver ponds today.

I cleaned my hummingbird feeder and refilled it....  I still have a female Ruby-throat Hummingbird who visits several time a day.  I know I'll feel bad when we do leave, but I'll provide her with something until we do.

I have a "route" I drive each day...  and now that our time here is drawing to a close, I find the need to drive that route more than once a day.  I stop at the photo blind...  a very favorite place.

I see this female mallard...  

Female ducks always give me fits when trying to identify them.  But she is gracious... she shows me her blue feathers along her side...  I watch her quite a while.

Just a bit further along the shore of the lake I see this White-tail Deer....

She doesn't have a fawn with her...  she's all alone.

Her red coat stands out against the green of the grass.  It won't be long before she'll have her dull greyish coat of winter.

I take my time heading back home...  the main "flower" blooming now is Goldenrod...

In my Entomology class...  many years ago...  we all headed out to a field and were told to select a plant and identify as many of the insects that inhabited it as we could.  We all quickly found out that Goldenrod was host to a multitude of species.  I still cannot see a Soldier Beetle without thinking of Karen Enterline, the instructor of that class, and how my love of insects just expanded.  

I didn't really have a very productive day as far as "work" went today....  and it wasn't until quitting time that I knew for sure we'd be leaving here come Friday...

But...  when Bill got off work and we sat down and talked about the day...

the rains came again...  And so did this rainbow....

Always a good sign that good things are on the horizon.

We'll be leaving here on Friday, but have left some major projects still "in progress", already we are talking about returning again next year.

But for now...  it looks like another volunteer assignment is coming up soon...  if we're lucky, maybe we'll have internet there and I'll be able to blog about our latest adventure.

That's All For Today!