Still lagging behind on yard work. The dock is still in the water and it is theoretically possible to continue kayaking. I keep thinking there isn’t much of interest to blog about but keep accumulating more and more pictures. So here goes:
Boids
The bird populations are shifting into the birds that over winter here. We still have a few hangers on but most of the migratory birds have moved on. There is still quite a bit of forage out there for the birds that are staying.
These guys should be moving on. Here he is eating the Juniper berries.
To get ready for the winter, it was time to replace the bird feeders that the bears destroyed. So I got new components and we bleached the feeders we could reuse and put the feeders back up.
It was nominally safe to put the feeders back up because the bears should be heading to their winter hibernation dens. The day after we got them up, a bear was spotted in our neighborhood. I was too lazy to take the feeders down right after I got them back up. A night later we had a storm and the bear came by and took them down for me. The bear also took two of the feeders away and so far we have only found one.
At the tail end of the storm we got a dusting of snow. The temperature got down to 20 degrees so the snow stuck to the ground. (-6.7 degrees Celsius) Because of the cold weather, we had to take down the bird baths in the front yard and plug in the heater for the deck bird bath.
So we had our feeders taken down for us again.
Mammals
I saw some deer, a doe and two fawns on Shackford Point. They waded out into the muck at low tide to browse. I am not sure why they do this behavior but suspect there is some nutrient in the seaweed that they want.
We saw the mangy fox again. It looks like her fur is growing back in.
We saw her interact with some turkeys. The turkeys are territorial in the fall and they put on a good show chasing her around the yard.
The turkeys have also been chasing off the crows. We had a largish flock in the yard today, somewhere between eleven and seventeen. They are very loosely organized and wander all over the yard.
Kayak Adventure IX
We had a nice afternoon on Halloween and decided to go for a paddle. Meg, Benji and Andrew all came along. It got cold and we finally gave up as the wind shifted to the North.
It was just after high tide early in the afternoon. Initially the wind was quiet. Benji would not settle and Meg was unable to take pictures.
Most of the excitement was as we approached Shackford Point. We saw an eight point buck foraging on acorns and he was largely indifferent to our approach from the water.
He doesn’t have a lot of body mass and so is probably two and a half years old.
There was also a heron on the point. We left it alone.
There was not a lot of bird song and there weren’t many birds near the shore. We paddled up the river past the point and decided to drift back. We could hear bluejays and phoebes but we didn’t get any pictures as they were too flighty. Meg got a glimpse of a pileated woodpecker and could hear it calling but didn’t get any pictures. The scenery was pretty.
We have some warm weather expected at the end of the week. If the dock is still in we may give it another go.
Fun with Benji
Benji has a certain joie de vivre that makes it really good to have him around during these times of self isolation.
Helping Blog 
Fun with Food
We are starting to feel the cold weather. This tends to make me hungry. I like to start the day with a big breakfast.
Frittata 
Egg Sandwich 
Eggs and Toast
Sunday remains pancake day.
We also try to enjoy MINI BYOBs on Friday evening. This is just a throwback to the good old days at Moody Point.
Fixins 
On Grill 
Flipped 
Boiled 
Sliced 
Seasoned 
PLated
We did two iterations of Pillsbury versus Toll House for premade chocolate chip cookies. The first round was won by Pillsbury but the trial was determined to be biased. So we had to do a second round. The ladies preferred Toll House in this experiment and the gentlemen just wanted to continue testing.
We try to have a little fun with the cooking because we have to do it anyway.
It is November 2 and October sure blew by in a hurry. We continue to self isolate and have grown weary of the self isolation. However COVID cases are rising alarmingly and we feel it is necessary to maintain our vigilance in spite of our weariness. We hope you all stay safe and well.
Mark, Wink and Meg
