Black wolves and jolly hungry otters

Beryl, are those ducks?” Bill asked. I followed his finger to where a wide v-shaped wake speeded toward our shoreline. Binoculars revealed, what we’d never before witnessed in our 15 years in this house: two  otters racing toward shore. We watched in delight as they clambered, in their wonderfully playful way,  up the rocks. Their heads would bob into view and then disappear, as if they were having difficulty mounting the rock. “Oh, please,” I thought , “don’t take off for some more easily climbed rock.” They didn't leave but finally managed to breach the rocks, dragging with them a very large fish, which they then – very  un-playfully—proceeded to devour. It didn't take long, then off they went, their V-shaped wake pointing away from our rocks, until they disappeared into the deep blue of the Lake’s body.

Bill was also the one to sight a large wolf loping toward him up our driveway as he drove down towards the house. While I've been seeing wolf scat and bear scat on our driveway, I've not spotted one in the process of leaving its mark. For that matter, I've never seen a wolf on our property, period, though others have. My son and his wife spotted a large black wolf near our unattached garage, and a neighbor spotted the “Biggest black wolf” he’d ever seen heading down our driveway. So, where was I when all these things were happening?  Obviously, in the wrong place. I did see a black bear cross our driveway in a heavy morning mist but that time Bill was with me. Perhaps I need to hang closer to him both in and out–of-doors.

Wonders on returning home

It hardly seems possible that, with the Summer equinox only days away, it should still be so chilly. Bill and I arrived home, having spent four months in Florida, to find we needed to fetch our long underwear from the cedar chest. From early May till now, June 13, we've had a log fire at night warming the house. The cold however, did not stop our beloved denizens of the shoreline … the eagles, the deer, goldfinches, sparrows, chickadees and the tiny hummingbirds (which arrived a week late -- from making their welcome appearances.

As I've been so remiss in blogging, I thought I’d hop back into the blogging world to share some of the wonders we've encountered on Lake Superior since our return. Florida was lovely and warm but my writing genie preferred the cold and the lake to the warmth and a pool.

On our first day home, a mother eagle settled onto our ledge rock to teach her two children to fish – or at least that’s what I think she was doing as both juveniles had a freshly caught something on which to dine. I think it was the same mother eagle sitting atop a dead birch with her two juveniles close by as I wended my way up our long driveway the following day. One sibling lifted off and made a huge sweeping circle through our woods, then headed back to the same tree where it’s mother waited.  By the time I fetched my camera (actually my telephone as I don’t have a digital camera), I returned to find both juveniles gone, the mother alone remaining. Perhaps that was the day she’d sent them packing. They knew how to fly and, presumably, to hunt.