heron rookery

I went today with two friends from work to see a heron rookery. The great blue heron is a beautiful big bird, and it was really neat to see a few dozen nests, high up in trees in a big swamp. We could see beaver-gnawed stumps at the edge of the water, but they had clearly been worked on some time ago. Unfortunately, I did not have my good binoculars with me, but I had a pair of old opera glasses that I keep on me for just such "emergencies" and they were better than nothing. One of my friends had a better pair of binocs, and the other had a camera with a good zoom lens, so we were able to get some good sightings. We could see the parents flying to and from the nests, and we got an occasional glimpse of a chick's head. So cool! If Deb got some good photos, maybe she'll let me post them here.
Other interesting bits - literally. Outside my old back door is an old-fashioned garbage bin; a concrete cistern with a cast-iron top and a bucket inside. I don't use it much - I tried it one winter when my usual compost was frozen solid, but the raccoons figured out how to get into it pretty easily, and made a mess. Anyway, on top of this garbage bin I saw a few bits of bumblebee! Somebody must have been snacking and forgot to clean up the leftovers - or maybe they were planning to compost them, but couldn't get the top open (it's rather heavy).