I’m working really hard at making sure that Travis doesn’t develop the fear of insects that so many people here seem to have. I’m not sure what it is but many people have a runaway, screaming sort of fear of flies and what not. I vividly remember working at the Patrol Cabin when I was first here and hearing a blood curdling scream outside. Being the good mountie I jumped up and ran out to save what ever damsel was in distress just outside my door. Turns out I had to save her from a house fly.
I take the screens off the windows here, as really there isn’t much point in them. The mosquitos we have never seem to be around town and there are so few of them there hardly seems to be any point (Ask me about Fort Providence sometime). The down side to this is when the occasional housefly comes in I have to stop whatever I’m doing NOW, and kill it or remove it from the residence. Nothing else can get done until that happens.
Yesterday evening, we had taken a trip out to Victor Bay. It was a gorgeous evening out there. No wind, warm sun. The intent was to clean up the area around Leah’s parent’s tent, but I stopped at a small lake to see if I could see a Red-Throated Loon. There weren’t any there, however we did get a very good look at a male Lapland Longspur. We’ve seen this fellow before, or I believe it is the same one as he was on the exact same rock. Last time Travis spotted the female ("Look Dad. ‘nother birdie") but she was no where to be seen. We watched him display for awhile, flying up in the air and gliding down with stiff wings while singing. This one had his tail cocked while gliding down, and I’m not sure if I just never noticed them doing that before or it was a peculiarity of this one.
We did see a couple of loons when we got to Victor Bay, but they were high in the air, circling around and calling. Perhaps it was the pair from the lake we were just at.
After cleaning up around Leah’s parent’s tent, we moved over to her Aunt’s tent. While there we discovered a large grey and black Wolf Spider. As it was on a rug, we got to watch it for quite awhile and Travis was thrilled. Perhaps a little too thrilled as the spider was somewhat traumatized when he tried to put it on a rock for a closer look.
While we thought that it was large, we soon discovered another almost twice as big. It wasn’t on a rug so it was a little harder to get a good look at. It was similarly coloured to the first one, but a little sleeker, and definitely larger. It eventually disappeared beneath the shale. I was quite happy that Travis showed no fear of the spider, perhaps he’ll start a trend.
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I just wanted to say thank-you. I’m currently posted with the RCMP in Cold Lake, Alberta and I’ll be transferring to Arctic Bay at the end of this month. I’ve recently been directed to this website and reading the stories has started to get the “excited” to over power the “nervous”. I’ve just purchased the Mountie in Mukluks book as well to get the pre-game warm up started. Thanks again.
Adam
Ohhh Lapland Longspur! You lucky dogs! I was lucky enough to see a wayward Smith’s Longspur on his migration a few years back and have never forgotten it.