Between the toll and the free bridges on Nummy island, we trained our binoculars on the landscape: a person carrying a rifle at 2:00, a white bucket at 5:00, a large flock of Brants in the bay, diving ducks on the right, but no owl.
Despite spending 2 days of scouring the tidal bays and meadows from the car, visiting Nummy Island twice and driving through the Forsyth Wildlife Drive and chatting with other birders, we didn't catch a glimpse of a snowy owl, but we did enjoy many other amazing sights, including:
soaring birds
beautiful ice creations
ice filled landscapes
and numerous birds,
including an immature common loon, long tailed ducks in winter plumage, american black ducks, 100's of brant geese, a northern harrier, a peregrine falcon, northern pintails,
common merganser and even a bufflehead.
But the bird who took the cake and a show bird at that, was
a Herring Gull.
As we drove along Forsyth Wildlife Drive, a gull suddenly landed abruptly right in front of our car.
We stopped in the nick of time and then he began his show.
He had a large oyster and
flew up above us about 6 to 8 feet
then dropped it onto the road, over and over.
After just 3 times, success!
After gobbling it down, off he flew,
leaving us in wonder and delight to take in the late afternoon rays
for a memorable weekend, after all.
