Friends and Feathers

This favorite showed up this week.  A Pileated Wood Pecker is large and beautiful.

When I put out some suet the bird miraculously showed up.  Can it see this little package of grease?   Do they smell it?  Amazing.

We occasionally have visitors who make the effort to come to the lake.  These dear friends from Grand Forks visited recently and we found out that their romance had a special start in Itasca State Park.  

One of our neighbors recently replaced a travel trailer with a park model.  Watching the slow process of bringing it down through our narrow lane brought memories of our similar journey five years ago when we got ours.

Any new park model coming down the hill brings a crowd. 

The owner looks on with concern as the final turns are made down the hill. 

The last few yards were accomplished with a Bobcat.

This female Scarlet Tanager was a first for me, but I couldn't get her to bring her more spectacular red mate.

I have heard this bird frequently but haven't seen it very often.  It is an Eastern Phoebe. 

And finally an Eastern Bluebird perched on the top of a pine tree.  Soon many of these birds will head south and we will miss their beauty and song.

Out and About in the Woods

Eagles look good in B and W too. 

Paddle boarding has come to Eagle Lake.  The Pacific in Hawaii has nothing on us... well, maybe a little.  This man teaches in way south Texas and comes up here to cool off in the summer.

I wish I knew why eagles always look so angry.  Maybe it's from eating road kill. 

Parents of toddlers never get a break, do they?

On our walk this morning, these twins came out from the woods and gave us the once over.  Notice how the one is stomping his hoof in order to scare us off. 

Just a change in the sunlight and the camouflage makes the one more difficult to see.

We had a stare down for a couple of minutes.

The truck in the background shows how close they were to a major highway.

The one was more aggressive and even starting walking toward us until a car pulled out of the side road and off they went.