next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------010404060305040305000703
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Wonderful story Clarence.
Don MacNeill donmacneill@bellaliant.net
On 07/07/2014 6:30 AM, Clarence Stevens wrote:
> Hi All, Its 3:30 am Monday morning and Dad and I have just returned from birding parts of Digby & Yarmouth Counties. I'm too wired to sleep so I figure I might as well do a posting. In 5 hours of birding today we found 30 Black Skimmers, 5 Gull-billed Terns, 4 Royal Terns, 2 Sandwich Terns, 1 Forester's Tern and like Ronny & Alix - who were birding many of the same areas as we were - to many Laughing Gulls to count.
>
> All the way to Yarmouth there were Laughing Gulls on the shorelines. Laughing Gulls out over the waves. Laughing Gulls on the beaches following people around begging for potato chips. We even had two flocks of Laughing Gulls roosting in a field.
>
> For us, one of the best locations was Mavilette Beach. There in one flock of very obliging birds there were 22 Black Skimmers, 3 Gull-billed Terns, and 1 Foresters Tern. All were posing nicely on a river sandbar across from one the entrances to Mavilette Beach and behind them in salt-marsh a 4th Gull-billed Tern was flying around.
>
> At Salmon River we missed their Black Skimmer but did see their Gull-billed Tern along with 3 more Laughing Gulls.
>
> At Pembroke Beach we got our first Royal Tern and of course more Laughing Gulls.
>
> Between Overton and Yarmouth Bar we added 7 Black Skimmers and 2 Sandwich Terns. The first Sandwich Tern was at scope distance, sitting on some wooden posts in Yarmouth Harbour. However the second was a very close, stunning plumaged bird on the shoreline just before Yarmouth Bar.
>
> Just past the bar and the long cement wall, at the big bend in the road there is a popular pull-over for scanning the ocean. There we watched 3 more Royal Terns repeatedly diving into the surf like miniature Gannets.
>
> >From Yarmouth Light we birded our way back to Mavilette Beach. There were no new hurricane additions but we did pick up an American Bittern in the marsh behind Mavilette Beach.
>
>
> Attention:For those just interested in bird species we sighted feel free to stop reading now and move on to another juicy Hurricane Posting. For the rest, read on.
>
> With a pocketful of hurricane delights and multiple lifers for two counties we headed home, another adventure completed. Or so we thought.
>
> Many times just after dark we have traveled the highway from Yarmouth to Digby. After ten this road can be pretty quiet, so we were surprised at all the cars that were passing us, heading the other way into Yarmouth. But like the stars of any good B-class science fiction movie we continued blissfully on our way, heading in the very direction that everyone else was fleeing from.
>
> Still basking in the glory of another fun and exciting birding outing we exited at Digby for our scheduled gas stop. “That's odd”, we thought the gas station by the exit was closed, “oh well there'll be another one open in Digby”. Wow were we wrong. Nothing was open in Digby!
>
> The power was off and Digby was so dark we actually got lost. Digby in the dark is a scary place.
>
> We eventually came upon a favorite Digby birding spot of ours and reversed engineered our way back to the relative safety of the 101.
>
> By this time, we were getting low on gas but according to our DUE (Distance Until Empty) Gauge we still had 71 kilometers left in the tank. So we thought that should be enough to reach civilization again.
>
> At the next exit, Exit 25 we were greeted by nothing but darkness. Exit 24, all is dark. Exit 23 more blackness but these are all pretty small exits so we were not worried because coming up was the glorious Exit 22, Annapolis Royal.
>
> OH OH! even with their own hydro-powered dam Annapolis Royal was as dark as the dead of night.
>
> It's OK, its OK, still enough gas to reach the next exit. At 17 kilometers left on the countdown we were approaching Exit 21 and the near-distant lights of Bridgetown never looked so beautiful.
>
> The town wasn't at full power, so we were having a hard time navigating mostly dark streets. We finally stumble upon a blazingly bright motel parking lot jammed full of Nova Scotia Power vehicles. The helpful clerk directed us to the other Bridgetown exit which has a 24 hour gas station.
>
> A few kilometers later we are pulling into a fully lit gas station with a sigh on the door saying closed due to power outage.
>
> Down to 14 kilometers it was time to call roadside assistance. “No problem” they said, “we will send someone to you with enough gas to get you to the next open station.” wait by your vehicle and we'll be there in 45 minutes or less.”
>
> Forty minutes later the phone rings and its roadside assistance to apologize that they were unable to find any gas to bring to us but if we get some somewhere they will reimburse us. lol problem solved.
>
> Its now midnight, and according to their sign in a short 6 hours the gas station might be open again. So we are now thinking of camping at the wonderfully scenic gas station parking lot.
>
> However before we got ready to roll out our non-existent sleeping bags we thought we might take another visit to the RCMP building up the road. We were there earlier but no one other than a very pleasant 911 operator was around to help us. She said that they had been receiving calls all day from people who were desperate to find gas and they were directing them to Greenwood only a short 37 kilometers from our current location.
>
> Since DTE gauges are not 100 % accurate and we were down to 14 kilometers we decided to walk to the police station this time.
>
> As we approached we could see a new vehicle in the parking lot so we rang the door buzzer.
>
> Two burly RCMP officers appeared and we told our tale of woe and asked if they had any emergency gas on hand that perhaps we could purchase from them.
>
> Surprisingly they did not but the one officer Constable Ross Lloyd volunteered to drive to his own house, get a gas can he had at home and put whatever gas there was in it into our tank. He wasn't sure how much he had but it should be enough to get us to either the 24 hour gas station in Nictaux or the one in Middleton.
>
> We attempted to pay him a couple of times but he told us to just pass on the favor as well as his card as an experiment to see if it ever gets back to him. We took two cards jumped in the van and headed for next gas station.
>
> As it turned out both the gas stations in Nictaux and Middleton were closed. However due to all the gas Constable Lloyd poured into our tank we were able to make it all the way to Coldbrook and found our first open gas station since leaving the Yarmouth Lighthouse.
>
> Well that was our brush with the Dark Side. Thanks to kind person going beyond the duty of their position we were able to escape the clutches of Hurricane Arthur and drive our way out of the Dark Ages.
>
> I can hear birds singing out my window right now and I'm still on a Hurricane High so I think I'll go do some birding. - Cheers, Clarence
>
>
--------------010404060305040305000703
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><font face="Calibri">Wonderful story
Clarence.<br>
<br>
</font>
<div class="moz-signature">Don MacNeill
donmacneill@bellaliant.net</div>
On 07/07/2014 6:30 AM, Clarence Stevens wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1404725422.82894.YahooMailBasic@web163806.mail.gq1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hi All, Its 3:30 am Monday morning and Dad and I have just returned from birding parts of Digby & Yarmouth Counties. I'm too wired to sleep so I figure I might as well do a posting. In 5 hours of birding today we found 30 Black Skimmers, 5 Gull-billed Terns, 4 Royal Terns, 2 Sandwich Terns, 1 Forester's Tern and like Ronny & Alix - who were birding many of the same areas as we were - to many Laughing Gulls to count.
All the way to Yarmouth there were Laughing Gulls on the shorelines. Laughing Gulls out over the waves. Laughing Gulls on the beaches following people around begging for potato chips. We even had two flocks of Laughing Gulls roosting in a field.
For us, one of the best locations was Mavilette Beach. There in one flock of very obliging birds there were 22 Black Skimmers, 3 Gull-billed Terns, and 1 Foresters Tern. All were posing nicely on a river sandbar across from one the entrances to Mavilette Beach and behind them in salt-marsh a 4th Gull-billed Tern was flying around.
At Salmon River we missed their Black Skimmer but did see their Gull-billed Tern along with 3 more Laughing Gulls.
At Pembroke Beach we got our first Royal Tern and of course more Laughing Gulls.
Between Overton and Yarmouth Bar we added 7 Black Skimmers and 2 Sandwich Terns. The first Sandwich Tern was at scope distance, sitting on some wooden posts in Yarmouth Harbour. However the second was a very close, stunning plumaged bird on the shoreline just before Yarmouth Bar.
Just past the bar and the long cement wall, at the big bend in the road there is a popular pull-over for scanning the ocean. There we watched 3 more Royal Terns repeatedly diving into the surf like miniature Gannets.
>From Yarmouth Light we birded our way back to Mavilette Beach. There were no new hurricane additions but we did pick up an American Bittern in the marsh behind Mavilette Beach.
Attention:For those just interested in bird species we sighted feel free to stop reading now and move on to another juicy Hurricane Posting. For the rest, read on.
With a pocketful of hurricane delights and multiple lifers for two counties we headed home, another adventure completed. Or so we thought.
Many times just after dark we have traveled the highway from Yarmouth to Digby. After ten this road can be pretty quiet, so we were surprised at all the cars that were passing us, heading the other way into Yarmouth. But like the stars of any good B-class science fiction movie we continued blissfully on our way, heading in the very direction that everyone else was fleeing from.
Still basking in the glory of another fun and exciting birding outing we exited at Digby for our scheduled gas stop. “That's odd”, we thought the gas station by the exit was closed, “oh well there'll be another one open in Digby”. Wow were we wrong. Nothing was open in Digby!
The power was off and Digby was so dark we actually got lost. Digby in the dark is a scary place.
We eventually came upon a favorite Digby birding spot of ours and reversed engineered our way back to the relative safety of the 101.
By this time, we were getting low on gas but according to our DUE (Distance Until Empty) Gauge we still had 71 kilometers left in the tank. So we thought that should be enough to reach civilization again.
At the next exit, Exit 25 we were greeted by nothing but darkness. Exit 24, all is dark. Exit 23 more blackness but these are all pretty small exits so we were not worried because coming up was the glorious Exit 22, Annapolis Royal.
OH OH! even with their own hydro-powered dam Annapolis Royal was as dark as the dead of night.
It's OK, its OK, still enough gas to reach the next exit. At 17 kilometers left on the countdown we were approaching Exit 21 and the near-distant lights of Bridgetown never looked so beautiful.
The town wasn't at full power, so we were having a hard time navigating mostly dark streets. We finally stumble upon a blazingly bright motel parking lot jammed full of Nova Scotia Power vehicles. The helpful clerk directed us to the other Bridgetown exit which has a 24 hour gas station.
A few kilometers later we are pulling into a fully lit gas station with a sigh on the door saying closed due to power outage.
Down to 14 kilometers it was time to call roadside assistance. “No problem” they said, “we will send someone to you with enough gas to get you to the next open station.” wait by your vehicle and we'll be there in 45 minutes or less.”
Forty minutes later the phone rings and its roadside assistance to apologize that they were unable to find any gas to bring to us but if we get some somewhere they will reimburse us. lol problem solved.
Its now midnight, and according to their sign in a short 6 hours the gas station might be open again. So we are now thinking of camping at the wonderfully scenic gas station parking lot.
However before we got ready to roll out our non-existent sleeping bags we thought we might take another visit to the RCMP building up the road. We were there earlier but no one other than a very pleasant 911 operator was around to help us. She said that they had been receiving calls all day from people who were desperate to find gas and they were directing them to Greenwood only a short 37 kilometers from our current location.
Since DTE gauges are not 100 % accurate and we were down to 14 kilometers we decided to walk to the police station this time.
As we approached we could see a new vehicle in the parking lot so we rang the door buzzer.
Two burly RCMP officers appeared and we told our tale of woe and asked if they had any emergency gas on hand that perhaps we could purchase from them.
Surprisingly they did not but the one officer Constable Ross Lloyd volunteered to drive to his own house, get a gas can he had at home and put whatever gas there was in it into our tank. He wasn't sure how much he had but it should be enough to get us to either the 24 hour gas station in Nictaux or the one in Middleton.
We attempted to pay him a couple of times but he told us to just pass on the favor as well as his card as an experiment to see if it ever gets back to him. We took two cards jumped in the van and headed for next gas station.
As it turned out both the gas stations in Nictaux and Middleton were closed. However due to all the gas Constable Lloyd poured into our tank we were able to make it all the way to Coldbrook and found our first open gas station since leaving the Yarmouth Lighthouse.
Well that was our brush with the Dark Side. Thanks to kind person going beyond the duty of their position we were able to escape the clutches of Hurricane Arthur and drive our way out of the Dark Ages.
I can hear birds singing out my window right now and I'm still on a Hurricane High so I think I'll go do some birding. - Cheers, Clarence
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
</body>
</html>
--------------010404060305040305000703--
next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects