The family has arrived. With four guests in our house for the past five days and two more on the way to join us tomorrow, we've been having a fun, busy time. We had planned to go to the Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy today but the weather has gotten in the way. So it's a quiet day for catching up on sleep and nosing around Fredericton, I guess.

We went whale watching on Tuesday, down in St. Andrews by the Sea. This was my second experience with the whales and trip two was just as fantastic as trip one. Our first visit, we went out on the zodiac, which was very exciting. This time, we went out on the catamaran of Quoddy Link Marine, a more sedate trip but just as great. We saw lots of amazing things, including minke and finback whales close up (within 20 feet of the boat), harbour porpoises, harbour seals, grey seals and black guillemots. Really quite amazing.

Of course taking pictures of whales is not as easy as you might think, given their massive size. Sometimes, all you get is their spray but, at other times, you're lucky enough to get much of the back and the fin. We all had a blast on the trip and it might just happen that some of us go again when the other members of the family arrive.

Other adventures so far include bowling at Kingswood, the place where I play golf. We never did solve the mystery of the candlestick pins but had a lot of fun trying. We've wandered Fredericton and have plans to visit the beach at Mactaquac as well as Kings Landing at some point during the visit.

On a birding note, Patti came across a little fellow nestled in the grass under our dining room window. It would seem he knocked himself loopy by flying into the glass. We scooped him up to keep him safe from predators and then placed him in a box with food, water and some cedar leaves to give him time to recover. We're happy to report that the little guy enjoyed a brief stay in our bird hotel and then, his wits recovered, flew off into the world again. Nice to see a happy ending.

Now if I could only make a definite ID on the kind of bird he is. I know, pathetic that I can't figure it out with such a clear picture! If anyone out there can help me, I'd very much appreciate it. I've taken a quick look through my various books but I'm not getting anywhere. He's got a little yellow patch on his upper back, yellow on his chest and white patches on his wings. Otherwise, he seems to be black/grey/olive all over. And he's tiny, no more than four inches. Help!!!

Tags: Fredericton, birding, Bowling, Kingswood, whale, St. Andrews by the Sea, Fundy, Quoddy Link

The main reason for making the trip back to Ontario was to work with my sister to arrange an appropriate memorial for our beloved mother with the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. I'm pleased to say we have now arranged to have a lovely London Plane Tree planted near the Lilac Dell in the Arboretum in her memory, with an appropriate sign in front. It may take some time for the tree to be planted but, if you're in Burlington in the fall, please do take a walk in the Arboretum and look for it.

Some of my fondest recent memories of my Mom involve the walks we used to take at the RBG (either at Princess Point, the Arboretum or Valley Inn Road) to look at the birds: swans, geese, herons, ducks, shore birds and the tiny finches and sparrows that filled the trees and bushes. So it's natural that a visit back to arrange the memorial would also involve a great deal of bird watching. And this trip didn't disappoint.

It started on the way to the Fredericton Airport, when we spotted a male bald eagle sitting proudly in a tree, gazing down on us as we passed on the Lincoln Road. Then, when my sister Lynn and I drove up to the Arboretum the next day, another male bald eagle soared above the entrance. After taking care of business, Lynn and I went for a walk on the path at Princess Point and saw a wide variety of birds, including goslings (see photo), swans, yellow warblers and a number of other species.

My birding experience was further enhanced by the fact that Lynn and Gavin live in east Toronto, very near to Lake Ontario. As a result, their modest backyard is a haven for all kinds of winged creatures, including purple finches (see the picture), orioles, and cardinals. There is even a family of grackles living in the eaves of the house behind them, giving me a great chance to snap photos of the baby grackles as they cried out for food and then, moments later, their mother feeding them.



I'm not the most spiritual person in the world but I can't help but feel like it's no coincidence that, during this trip intended to memorialise my mother, most of her favourite bird species made an appearance. Their presence made a potentially melancholy task a joyous experience.

Tags: Grackles, Finches, Goslings

So there we are out on our favourite peninsula of land, just across from the Mactaquac Marina, playing ball with Marlee Marie, the Punkin of the Century, when all of a sudden the flock of geese bobbing on the water start squawking.

"I wonder what's up with them?" Patti says, tossing a ball for our panting pup.

I look around and see it, massive, dark and majestic. A bald eagle in all his glory, swooping down to the surface of the lake to look for fish.

Stunned, we stopped everything to watch. Marlee didn't like that. She wanted more balls to chase but we weren't going to miss a good three or four minutes of watching this amazing bird of prey at work. Swoop, glide, flap and rise. Swoop, glide, flap and rise. Beautiful.

It would have been nice if he had caught a fish but no such luck (for him or for us). When he finally decided to rest in a tree across the lake from us, another male eagle settled in near him in the same tree.

By that time, of course, Marlee had had enough waiting so we went back to our ball throwing. But not before we said a note of thanks for being so privileged as to having seen the eagle out fishing and a curse for not having our camera with us.

Tags: Bald Eagle, Mactaquac

I have received some really positive responses to my photo of the bald eagle, which I published both in this blog and on my Facebook page. Lots of people said they liked it, several made very kind comments, and several responded with some of their recent wildlife photos.

My friend Thanna sent along a beautiful photograph of a Great Blue Heron that she took while canoeing with her family in the Princess Point/Cootes Paradise area in Hamilton. She said they had seen numerous such herons that day.

Another friend, my brother-in-law Gavin, sent along an amazing close-up photo of a fox that he took while he and my sister Lynn had a brief break near Lakefield, Ontario. I am reproducing these photos here without their permission so please don't copy and use them. If you want info on the owners of these photos, e-mail me at mark.walma@gmail.com and I'll facilitate the communication.

And there's good news from the writing front. I have been able to maintain my discipline and work on The Silent Goodbye every day. I got the chance to write four pages on my lunch hour at work today and plan to spend more time tonight. So things are progressing. And, if I do say so myself, progressing quite well.

I also completed my re-watching of the second season of Star Trek (The Original Series), which was easily the best, most consistent of the three seasons. Now I'm on to season three, the worst of the three, which gets off to an inauspicious beginning with an episode entitled "Spock's Brain". This episode is so bad I don't know where to begin. Even the actors seem to recognise it's awful and play down to the material.

And finally I'm in the middle of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a final re-read before the movie opens here in Canada on Wednesday. This is easily my least favourite book of the series but I'm interested to see what they do with it on film. To be honest, the advance glimpses I've had suggest the film-makers have taken a great number of liberties with the source material. In this case, that might not be a bad thing.

Tags: Phillip Gold

A second entry for the day to tell the world that Patti and I not only saw a Bald Eagle very close up today as we kayaked down the Saint John River toward Fredericton, we also got several amazing photographs of the majestic bird.

It was standing in a tree near the water's edge and didn't seem to mind when we paddled up quietly. I just floated and held the camera as steadily as I could and click click click. Amazing.

Such a beautiful bird. Look at the powerful beak on it. Wow.

We also saw a family of mergansers in the same area. Pictures of the eagle and the mergansers are also available on the Feathers in Fredericton page of this site.

Great day for birding. I'm heading out to the Potato Research Farm tomorrow in hopes of getting a nice shot of a Bobolink.

Wish me luck. And yes, I will be writing too.

Tags: Bald Eagle, Saint John River

I'm still working my way back toward writing but haven't gotten there yet. The garden is calling me but we're expecting frost in the next few days so I can't get to the planting yet either. So, for the past little while, it's all been birds birds birds. A lovely subject, to be sure.

Patti had our camera so unfortunately I couldn't get pictures of the three lovely newcomers to our backyard feeders: a yellow-rumped warbler, a purple finch and a savannah sparrow. It was great to see them, though. And on our walks through the various parklands around Fredericton we've seen many other new species but I'm just not good enough yet to identify them!

Gavin and Lynn, meanwhile, report that they've been inundated with orioles and hummingbirds in their backyard. Gavin has suggested the possibility of setting up a webcam to show the backyard feeders all day, which I think would be a great idea. He's got a webcam showing Lake Ontario from their house (for the surfers!) so he'd have no problems setting another camera up in his backyard. Gavin's website is here: http://gavinf.no-ip.com/~Gavin/surf/Blog/Blog.html.

Meanwhile, my friend Madeleine from Hamilton and I have finally linked up as Facebook friends and her backyard birds photos are part of her FB page. Amazing! I don't know how she gets such amazing birds to her feeders! I don't know how she gets such amazing photos of the birds! Her collection is really impressive. The latest is a chestnut-sided warbler. In the past she's had brown creepers, purple finches, three kinds of woodpeckers, inidigo buntings, orioles, scarlet tanagers, eastern towhees, redbreasted nuthatches, rose-breasted grosbeaks, and many more. It's a little overwhelming.

What I really can't get over is how great the photographs are. Very beautiful, all in focus and quite close up. Wow.

So now I'm envious. And determined. I'm going to improve both my menu of winged visitors and the quality of my photos. The gauntlet has been thrown down!

Tags: Yellow-Rumped Warbler

The Hamilton Spectator carries an article in its on-line edition today that says there is now a Bald Eagle nest at Princess Point. Wow. Fabulous news. They don't know if the birds are actually planning on laying eggs or if they are just "playing house" but, either way, it's an amazing sign.

Princess Point was one of Mom's favourite places to walk and see the birds. I don't think either of us ever dreamt we'd see Bald Eagles there. It took a whale-watching adventure on the Bay of Fundy last summer to allow me to see my first Bald Eagle and now I find out that there's a nest back in the old stomping grounds. So amazing. And then, of course, the Peregrine Falcons are back at it at the Hamilton Sheraton Hotel, this time with four eggs in the nest.

How is that a Steel City, an industrial town, can become home to such amazing bird activity?

So naturally I read the article on-line today about the Eagles and I think, neat, I should call Mom and make sure she's seen this. And then, of course, it hits me again that she won't be there to answer. A harsh reality in the shadow of Mother's Day, just four weeks after Mom drew her last breath.

Meanwhile, back in NB, the rain continues unabated: good news for the sod I moved and replanted, not so good for my wish to get back to the garden. My finger is healing, however, and I've decided to postpone beginning the grad program so life is improving somewhat. Work on Phillip Gold is still going on but only inside the chambers of my brain so far.

I know I'll get back to it but I seem still to be dealing with stuff. My sister reports she spends most of her evenings slumped in front of the TV knitting a blanket so I guess I'm not alone in my sluggishness.

Doesn't make for the most exciting web reading, though, does it?

Okay, so I'm not really writing much. But I am alive to the excitement of spring and the return of a wide variety of birds to our yard. If you go to the Backyard Birds page of this site, you'll see two new photos. The first is a Chipping Sparrow, a fairly common bird but so clean and beautiful that I just had to take a picture. The second is unknown, although I think I'm just being too chicken to call it a White-Throat like last year's version. I love the little bits of yellow on its head.

We're also getting lots of gold finches, robins, chicadees and juncos to make the world a happy place. So nice to see them back.

Of course, the excitement at the feeders means I am constantly checking for new arrivals. Makes it hard to focus on anything else.

Tags: Chipping Sparrow