By Alkali Springs Correspondent
Well, gentle readers, Memorial Day is over and the long endless summer of camping has begun.
This last Memorial Day looked great to us out on Beaver Creek Park. Only one day of rain, no terrible heat and lots of camping spots most anytime. We had family at our place and on Saturday we had our Memorial Day picnic and everyone could get there. That really surprised us, as many is the Memorial Day that we have had to postpone that picnic until the Fourth of July due to a foot of snow falling that day.
So this Memorial Day, Saturday was a piece of cake compared to most and that was good. As usual we set our lawn chairs out on the porch thinking that we could maybe sit outside and even at one time got the "wild" idea that maybe we could eat outdoors at the picnic table. We should have known better than that. For long ago we came to the conclusion that picnic tables and lawn chairs were a useless expense at Bear Paw cabins. Consider this. Most of the time the wind is blowing so hard that full plates of food will take off like planes coming in and out of the Havre airport. Or it is so cold that a meal cannot be enjoyed at all. Or it is so hot that this is the one year that mosquitoes have hit the cabin like a hoard. Or, as is the case this year, wasps not killed due to such a mild winter, are ready to run any person venturing outside back inside rather quickly. Not only that, but out at our place, they have taken over the outhouse for the time being. We guess what we are saying is that most of the time, family and guests are much happier eating their meal and recreating in the house where the wind only blows down the chimney and wasps can be counted singly, not by the hoard.
So everyone stayed in and were all day long amazed, agog and atwitter at the display of birds at our feeder. Our only reason for seeing such a greater display of birds than before is the thistle seed feeder we put up early this spring. In hanging it up we have attracted so many nondescript brown birds that at times the ground below the feeder is just alive with them. Not only that, but we have been getting a dozen or more of bright yellow gold finches every day for a fortnight now. Combine that with plenty of pine siskins, chickadees, woodpeckers, rosy finches and red polls and juncos and there are plenty of birds to gaze at. And that is not even mentioning the five or six pheasants that skulk in and out several times a day. Not only that, but we have found that chipmunks along with bunny rabbits love thistle seed that has spilled to the ground. Only problem is that keeping all those animals in thistle seed is keeping your humble correspondent very broke!
