Titanic

Earlier this Spring, we had a pair of Coopers Hawks building a nest in a tree in our backyard.  I always put out a martin house, but since the main diet of Coopers Hawks is small birds, no martins took a chance on my house.  However, the Coopers did not utilize the nest after building it.  They took off, and some starlings moved into the martin house.  Here's one of the Coopers before they left the nest.

And on another fowl note, I found this on my truck one morning.

No idea how it got there.  Some said it flew through the aliens transponder beam.  Others suggested it might have been attacked by a neighbors dog and landed there to get away, but it's wounds proved fatal.  My favorite explanation is that it was a message from the Mafia. and they couldn't get a horse head on short notice.

I'm still fishing in the secret pond on Mondays.  My pal Bill has done well lately.  I think it's due to his lucky hat.

 

I'm also fishing from my Hobie Pro Angler 12.  I've been out on my lake several times, and caught a few small bass and crappie.   I really enjoy the Hobie PA 12.  Not only is it easy to pedal to the fishing spots, but once I get there, both hands are free to fish.  I've installed an anchor trolly on the boat that allows me to place the anchor at the bow or stern (or anywhere in between) depending on the wind direction.

And, by the way, the Hobie PA 12 works well for taking grandkids for a ride.

I own a small aluminum fishing boat, but since I've gotten the Hobie PA 12, I haven't used it.  However, last week, I found a couple of jet ski lifts on Craig's List.  They were just up the road, and reasonably priced.  So I bought both of them.  I figured I'd put my Sunfish sailboat on one, and my aluminum fishing boat on the other.  Even though I don't have any immediate plans to use it, I could keep the aluminum fishing boat on a lift and out of the way.  So I bought new bunks and cables for both lifts, and put them in the water yesterday.  Last night, it rained about 4" a little to the north of us.  I had left the drain plug out of the fishing boat so it wouldn't fill up with water.

While I was fishing on the secret pond today, I got a call from Pam reporting that my fishing boat was gone.

So I left the pond a little early, and came home to look for my fishing boat.  Here's the Sunfish, and the empty fishing boat lift.