Oreo Cows and Crow Lake Wildlife

Moo?

These cows are not in the Crow Lake vicinity proper, but rather near a town called Franktown as we make our way out to the cottage.  We deduced, based on their unusual black-white-black pattern that these are the cows from which Oreo-dipping milk is drawn.

Chistine and I are on holidays.  We'd been at the cottage since Friday night and returned for one over-nighter today to take care of a few things (including a very important haircut for me).  We expect to head out again tomorrow late morning or early afternoon.

My folks popped by on Tuesday and stayed until this morning as well.  I spent my birthday making dinner (well, the main course, anyway) while drinking a glass of red wine and listening to Buddy Guy.  I'm not sure how I would have had it any different, but I'm damn sure I wouldn't have anticipated it a year ago.

My parents are coming again on Sunday, and Caroline and Asley will join us as well, so that should make for a nice night.  Since this week is still a work in progress, I'm going to share some of the pictures from past weeks that I didn't have the opportunity to use yet. Enjoy (hopefully)!

First, this guy:

I haven't been able to get a good shot of him (them) but that may be a blessing.  They are all over "Crow" Lake and look absolutely beautiful and majestic in flight.

And they look like hell up close.  Christine identified them as Turkey Vultures.  Ugh.  Think about it.  If I asked you to name the two ugliest birds on the planet, you would have probably chosen one, then the other.  This thing combines both.  Here's a closer look (not taken by me).

Oof.  That hurts my soul.  So let's flip that a bit.

Hummingbird!  They have been all over Christine's feeder of late.  I laid down on the deck and got that shot in about ten minutes. Caroline also got a good one, but because it may well make its way onto a wall inside the place, we'll wait until then to display it here.

Here's a fox we spotted while taking a walk on a side road.  He was way far so I couldn't get a great shot, unfortunately.

One actually scooted across the upper deck on the water side of the cottage earlier in the week.  That was a bit of a surprise.  We also saw one (my parents and I) during the drive to Westport on Wednesday morning.  Pretty cool.

We've also got turtles around...

...we saw a beaver doing its thing only once, but I was fortunate enough to be ready for him...

...and of course...

That one shows up an awful lot and constantly follows Christine around.  There is no lack of opportunity to take pictures of him.

I'm dying to get a good shot of a crow.  The one I thought would be terrific ended up blurry.  There are also raccoons around that I'd like to capture.  We'll see what happens this weekend.