The Weekly Smile for the 26th of April, 2021 #weeklysmile

34 Replies

It has been a strange week. Let’s pull ourselves away from all of the bad news and think of some of the good. On the space front, not only did NASA fly a helicopter on Mars, they have flown it a total of three times so far! And there was another successful commercial “humanned” launch to the space station this week.

After work on Friday I took a walk down on Cape Cod. At one point there is a dam with a small fresh water lake on one side and a tidal river on the other. There is a herring run beside the damn, but the tide was too far down for the fish to climb the ladder. in fact, the tide was super far down. A great egret was in the middle of the river, so I hid behind a tree to try to get some photos (if a great egret sees me pointing a camera, it will always fly away, even if I am very far away).

I was up against the tree and heard a noise above me. Before I figured out what it was, an osprey sparing from a branch above my head and dove almost straight down into the water beneath me. It went in only about 10 or 15 feet way (3 to 5 meters). It emerged from the water with a fish (herring/alewife) and flew off. I was taken so much by surprise that I forgot about my camera. I did try to get a few photos as it flew off, but none came out. When I looked back, the great egret had a fish as well! I thought the fish was too big, but, after dropping it, repositioning, it swallowed it whole.

I also saw a flock of comerants feigned on herring a little later in the walk.

All together, it was a great walk, and the birds were all happy and well fed!

That was my smile for the week, being up close and personal to large birds feeding on herring.

What made you smile?

****

Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week.  Why don’t you share it?  I hope you can join in!

Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas.  If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity.  Don’t smile about the misfortune of others.  Don’t smile in a way to excludes others.  Make sure a 12 year old can read it.

To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile.  Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one) (Note – pingbacks have been very inconsistent – please leave a comment :) ).   You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me).   Next week I will compile all of the Smiles and do a separate post of them on Monday morning just before the smile.  (I will shoot for around 7 AM EST).

34 thoughts on “The Weekly Smile for the 26th of April, 2021 #weeklysmile”

  1. Forestwood

    Birds are a favourite animal of mine to watch. Defying gravity soaring high and low in the sky over the water. Fantastic sights. We regularly see cormorants drying their wings and egrets, (maybe a different species), around here too.

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  6. workinacresnothours

    Oh no the camera, isn’t that so frustrating when that happens, lol. How cool to have had that experience so close it shows you are a kind human if the wildlife are that chill around you. My happy this week would be the council mower slashing the whole road side front yard area for me right up to our fence line about a quarter acre, Country gal very happy. Have a wonderfully wild weekend ahead.

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Sometimes I do grumble about those missed shots, but the experience was not to be missed, so I can’t complain! Some of my most memorable wildlife experiences occurred when I didn’t have a camera, though this was slightly frustrating since I had it but didn’t use it…
      Glad they were able to get that mowing done for you. Hope the rest of your week goes well and that you have a great weekend!

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  12. Susan St.Pierre

    Wow! What a great walk experience!
    I feel your pain when it came to missed photos. But, witnessing is better than fumbling around for photos any day.
    Your Cape natural experiences are so different from the ones in the forest. Both are cool.
    :-D

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      It was a great walk! the funny thing is that although where I live in New Hampshire is much more wild (well, a few minutes drive or walk from my house), but I typically see much more wildlife on the Cape! On the other hand, in last year, I did see a bear (from up close) and a bobcat in NH, animals I never see on the Cape, but I do see a lot more birds and such…
      Yeah, sometimes it is better to experience it than to photograph it :)

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            1. trentpmcd Post author

              I grew up in flat country next to a Great Lake (Ohio, near Lake Erie), so even though I have always loved the mountains, there is something about the waterside that is home. It is funny – where I live when I’m on the Cape is within 10 miles Latitude of where I grew up, and I think that helps that “home” feel… But I will never give up spending time in NH! Or VT or ME. Or Western MA/Berkshire area (how close to Tanglewood is that? I used to go into Boston to see the BSO all of the time, so I wouldn’t mind being close to Tanglewood!)

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              1. Susan St.Pierre

                Oddly, I’m closer to Tanglewood when I’m at our camp in New York. My home (and birthplace) is in Northern Berkshire County. Mt. Greylock area. (I graduated from Mt. Greylock High School.) Tanglewood is in south county. A 15 minute drive over a mountain from our camp and I’m in Pittsfield, MA. Tanglewood isn’t far from there.
                I haven’t been to Tanglewood since the 1970s.
                Vermont and New York are each minutes away from my home in MA.
                My brother moved to the Cape (from our hometown) a few years ago. They love it there.
                As for ME, I love it too! My favorite seaside vacation area is Old Orchard Beach. I’ve been to many but I wouldn’t want to live there. Hampton Beach, NH was a favorite destination for my family as a kid.
                Lakes are in my summer memories too. Fishing was big for us.
                Nice to know others like and know our area. ;-)

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                1. trentpmcd Post author

                  Truthfully, I have spent very little time in Western MA, mostly just driving through, but, being an outdoors man, I have tried to explore every corner of northern New England I can find in the 30 years or so that I’ve lived here :)

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