Saturday July 19: Play Day

It was finally a very nice day yesterday - the cold front has come and gone. Steve had declared that his jeans are going into the drawer and not coming back out!

We'll see.

Regardess, it looked like a good day to be on the water so we left the dock and headed north onto the lake for some kayaking around the islands just north of here.

With the temperatures in the mid-70's it was perfect. The water is very clear and with no wind it was possible to see the bottom in six feet of water. Normally this time of the summer, the algae has bloomed and the waters become murky. Maybe it's the extra ordinary flow of water this year that has kept the waters so clear.

We were especially happy to spot the bald eagle sitting in the tree at the second island. For several years now we hadn't seen any sign of the pair which had been nesting in the region.

Guess we just hadn't seen them as folks that live here said they come back every year to nest.

Two young eagles were in the nest - again apparently not flying yet but still huge birds.

Lots of turtle spottings. They didn't like us much and took off pretty quicky. Once we left, they would come out of the water and go back to enjoying the sunshine!

Some of them were really small!

This heron was sitting along the waterway in a tree - blended in quite well. When I first saw it I though it was another eagle - it was so huge! But just a heron ....

With it's neck folded down it looked like an old man with a beard :-)


As we were kayakiing, we kept hearing a loon continually calling - which was unusual. Plus they usually call in the evening.

This one seemed to distressed for some reason. We speculated that it was calling a chick or something.

Sure enough, on the way back in, we spotted the loon with not one but two chicks! Smallest ones we've seen this year.

We're thinking that it's about time to move on. The Quebec Construction Holidays (all construction workers have two weeks off) began yesterday so we'll take our time heading south to the 1000 Islands area of the St. Lawrence. Gives everyone a chance to vacation and then go home!