Birds Arriving....

Greetings Everyone!

We've begun to experience a lot of  bird activity recently.  Each day new birds are arriving and I'm frequently finding myself flipping through our bird book - some times I'm able to identify a bird - other times I'm wondering if  'that was' the bird I saw.  All in all - a fun activity. 

The Mallard ducks are arriving along with the Common Merganser's.  Oh - and we've spotted Loon's! They all quietly swim in the open waters around our cabin while the Sea Gulls squawk and carry on in their familiar attention getting song.  We've also seen and heard Robins and other smaller song birds - which I believe are members of the Sparrow family.

A Short-billed Dowitcher checking things out along the shore. 
Note the ice on the lake - facing towards the upper landing.

A large flock of Sandhill Crane's arrive - complete with loud cackling sounds which definitely got our attention.

These ducks appear to be a mating pair.
 I'm speculating they are either a pair of Greater Scaup's or Barrow's Goldeneye.

View across from our cabin.

Ernie and I took the canoe out yesterday to see how far around the island we could go. 
Because ice has only melted a little way from the north shoreline - we ended up staying on the south side of the island.
This view is from the south side - facing towards the upper Kenai - 'the slot.'

A walk along the north side of the island - looking towards the lower landing.

An ice crack going from the north shore out to the sandbar between Little Caribou and Frying Pan.

The 'Ice Classic Dock'
Looking through our binoculars - we couldn't see any open leads way out - but then again - who knows?

So far there are sixteen folks guessing when the ice will 'break-up' - let me know if you want to be included. Other than waiting for the ice to go out - we've been --- you guessed it - working on projects.  Ernie completed a set of 'duck borads' to go into our sauna's entryway.  We also moved our lumber pile - because it was stacked on the spot for my future green house. Soon we will level the spot and begin building. 

Take Care !