Belay that seagull obituary!

When I went to empty fish guts on the rock yesterday evening I was met by a dozen gulls! And I swear, they had two vultures for wing men. 

I guess they all were just slow in getting up here. I knew air travel has been having its problems but this is ridiculous.

Finally a rain, fire danger falls

We had an all--night rain a few days back and may have got an inch altogether. The fire danger has dropped accordingly.

I used the wet day to fell a bunch of birches trees that were leaning over the new cabin. It was a slow process as I had to use a battery-powered winch to pull them toward a safe direction.

We saw a bear one afternoon right next to the cabin. Doc took off after it but returned readily when I whistled. Two days later a cow moose walked into the lake right beside the cabin and then swam around the side of the mountain towards our neighbour, Mike Miller. He just missed seeing it when he paddled his solo canoe over here for a fish dinner.

Brenda and I had actually gone fishing earlier that day and got three nice eater pike.

From all reports the fishing is great.

I think it likely the bear had killed the cow's calf and may have injured her as well as she seemed to be swimming unusually.

On a sad note, there don't seem to be the usual number of gulls. There are just two at the fish gut rock, not the usual dozens. They can’t even clean up the guts. 

Wonder if this is a result of avian bird flu?

Haven't seen any vultures either.

We have seen bald eagles flying but not at the gut rock.

There are the usual number of ducks and loons.

How did all the ticks get here?

In just a couple of years wood ticks have moved into this area. Whitetail deer are usually thought to be the transportation vehicles but that can't be the case here. Deer are still very rare.