As part of my recent visit to Ontario, my sister Lynn and I had our first opportunity to visit the London Plane Tree we had planted at the Royal Botanical Garden's Arboretum in Burlington in honor of our much loved Mom.

I'm pleased that I was able to go to see it and especially pleased that Lynn was there with me. She and I have gone through a lot together over the years and I'm glad to have been able to share this moment with her.

The tree is already quite large and, judging from the fully grown plane trees in the area, it will be massive by the time it's an adult. What is more impressive is the location: beautiful. It's near the forest that lines the water, between the Lilac Dell and the shrubbery walk. It has an open space to itself and a small bench nearby. When you stand looking at the tree, you can also catch glimpses of the water in the distance.

I'm happy to have a place that I can go (or at least think of) when I want to feel close to my Mom. I don't know how often I'll get back there but it's good to know that the tree will grow and people, birds and other wildlife will get the chance to enjoy it for years.

The only negative was the fact that we got a $35 parking ticket while we were visiting. We had passes for the Arboretum but the ticket office was closed so we just drove in. Oh well, we'll look at the fine as another contribution to the good work of the RBG.

On our way out, as we headed into the city across the high level bridge, one of the bald eagles that have taken up residence in the Arboretum soared over our car, giving us a lovely view as he passed. Again, I'm not the most spiritual person but it's hard not to notice the pattern: every time Lynn or I has an intense Mom moment an eagle or a heron (two of Mom's favourites) makes an appearance.

Tags: Janny Walma, Plane Tree, Royal Botanical Gardens, Arboretum, RBG, Burlington, Bald Eagle

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

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