RARE SIGHTS

Some awesome sights up here on the hill this week. The continued mild weather (9C today!) in December is bad news (climate change) but good news in a way. Work is still getting done outside. One of the Maintenance Staff is wrapping the (Japanese Maple) tree instead of wrapping Christmas gifts under it! The other guy is digging up the rotted clothesline pole --- and he's part Pole himself. Hmmm.

But out on the bay a rare ship glided by that we've never seen before. What was odd was that it had no control tower ("bridge") and was being pushed by a tugboat sticking out like a ... (insert your naughty analogy here). It was the St. Mary Challenger, built in 1906 in Michigan and the last steam powered ship on the Great Lakes, working literally under its own steam til 2013. After 5 name changes and refits over the 107 years, it was shortened to an articulated barge pushed by dedicated tugboat. It has been in Owen Sound twice in the last 10 years but keeps going and going. Maybe the next name will be The Energizer??

A huge and whacky buzz over a rare sight was created by the bird featured in the blog last week. We're used to an amazing parade of  migrating and local birds at the feeder. But this one put our place on the map, literally. Local experts and serious birders agree that it was a female Summer Tanager. As you can see on the birdbook map, it summers in the middle States and winters in Florida or Mexico. As you can read in the emails, the last sighting  in our neck of the woods was in  1994! We were besieged by birders wanting to come see for their Life List. And the details including address and "Observers" are now enshrined in local bird history. (Where is she today??)

After all that excitement it's contenting just to look out the window and see our own daily rare sight --- another stunning sunrise, another beautiful day.