Eclipse Day

 Rick and I had a fabulous and full eclipse day. We went for breakfast at the Dover Dairy Bar (The DDB) and then drove to Long Point to see if the banding station was open. The parking lot was full. I had never seen so many people there. The "greeter" said it was because there were "birders" and "eclipsers".

First we walked out to the nets and this Brown Creeper was in the first one, waiting patiently to be rescued. Such a pretty bird. At that point the "net checkers" were returning with lots of bags

so we went back to the building to watch the banding. This was about half of the bags that came from that net check so they were doing "speed banding" with two people banding and one scribing and no time to really entertain the visitors.

Every now and then one of them would quickly turn and give us a chance for a picture (Goldfinch)

or would tell us a bit about what they were doing. Measuring a Winter Wren's wing.

Winter Wren.

Robin

Measuring the leg of a Grackle to see what size band to use.

Grackle.

He knew this was a Cardinal before he even got it out of the bag - very active, very vocal and bit him.

First time I had seen one of these up close. So colourful. A Fox Sparrow.

I could stay and watch them all day but we finished our walk around the nets. They had banded tons of Junkos and there were more in the nets.

A few Tree Swallows around.

When we got back they were about to release a Brown Thrasher.

It was like summer with people parking and streaming on to the beach with picnics and chairs and other paraphernalia..

This is looking West. Looking East the Provincial Park beach was very crowded, they had sold out of the day passes.

We were surprised at how few birds we saw along the Causeway; some Geese, some Swans

and a lone Bald Eagle. Photo by Rick. Sparse for Long Point.

Lunch was an ice cream at twins in Port Rowan.

Turkey Point was also busy

and Port Dover was really hopping.

When we got home Rick set up his camera, he had bought a special filter to use for the eclipse.

I had decided to take a picture every 15 minutes

to document the gradual darkening but really there was very little change.

In between we set up the cold frame (there are lettuce chard, spinach and beets already sown)

and increased the height of the nursery bed as I am going to use it for vegetables as well as growing flowers from seed.

It wasn't until the eclipse approached totality

that it got appreciably darker and colours started to look different.

At totality it got quite cold and the horizon, all around, went pink, like sunrise

and sunset at the same time.

Sort of creepy, no bird song, we could just hear the waves clearly and the other people along the shore.

I risked a quick shot with my little camera.

These last 3 are Ricks

obviously much better than mine

but marred by the sporadic cloud cover.

All together a great day with a fun mix of good food, interesting things to see, some gardening and, of course, the eclipse.

Home: dogs, ducks and sails.

Nicola picked me up at the airport, drove me home and stayed over. Nice to catch up but I was pretty jet lagged and "out of it".

 

The next day "The Dogs" arrived. Daniele is currently working in the Bahamas so I have Sammy and Ruby when Fiona is in Guelph for her final week of classes and then when she has exams too.

Ruby and Rasta pretty well ignore each other but Sammy and Rasta fight like siblings

Sam tries to chew various parts of Rasta's body and Rasta retaliates with hisses and boxes Sam's face with his closed paw (no claws, its just play fighting)

"Who us?" If Rasta meows I know he has had enough, and I call Sammy off. Invariably, Rasta walks close past him within a few minutes, teasing.

Look at that face. Hard to believe that he can be such a pill. I exercise them by taking them to the dog park and throwing the ball for them to chase. I can't manage them both walking on a leash so the dog park is a great help.

Duck watching is my other spring occupation.

Common Merganser (Male)

Common Merganser (Female)

and together.

These were further out on the bay so not as clear a picture but I think they are Red Headed Ducks.

Rick is going to be racing Spellbound this year so has to get a PRHF (handicap) rating. The first step in that process

is to get the sails and boat measured.

This was done at the yacht club where there was room to lay them out.

It was the first time I had seen the spinnaker. He had told me it was quite small.

Didn't look small to me!