Dog

 

  For the most part, on my days off Laurie and I have been in fields looking for snakes and butterflies. We have quickly learned that seeing a butterfly is much easier than either catching it or photographing it for an ID. As for snakes, we have not seen many except I finally saw my first Black Racer of the year on Friday.

   Fishing... I went twice last week. Once in my canoe in a weedy lake filled with bass and pickerel and the other at a reservoir that can only be fished from shore. Both days were horrible. I caught two small bass on the weedy lake. The second day, I couldn't even get a bluegill or perch to bite the tail of a grub. Lets put it this way... I jokingly told my boss I was going to transfer to the Gifts Department because I could no longer in good conscience give "expert" advice to fishermen. Luckily, he refused my transfer.

 

 Laurie and I wanted to check for Baltimore Checkerspot butterflies in Falmouth. We had seen them around June 20 a few years ago. We couldn't go on Sunday because it rained all day. So we went Wednesday. The plan was to look for the butterflies and then let me go shark fishing for a couple hours since we were only fifteen minutes away. We saw a couple butterflies including a possible Checkerspot but it was moving fast and I left my camera at home so we didn't count it.

   We tried for sharks from dark until 10:40. I didn't catch any real sharks but I did have three runs. The first run I think was a Dogfish but it dropped the bait. The second run was hard and quick and I do think it may have been a shark but it also dropped the dead eel. The third fish I did manage to hook. It was a Dogfish about two and a half to three feet long. I was having uncontrollable shivering from the cold ocean breeze and did not bring a sweatshirt so it was time to go after the one fish. I can't even say I'm sad I didn't catcha shark. A fifteen minute walk back to the car after getting wet head to toe pulling a shark out of the water would have been awful.