ALMOST-SOLSTICE SIT SPOT SUNDAY SPONSORED BY THE COLOR YELLOW

It got really hot yesterday: 108 I think?

Today to beat the heat today we got up early and made it out to the trail by 8am!

Stopped by our favorite patch of St. John's Wort and harvested quite a haul today. We had been harvesting teeny batches these past weeks but took a few weeks away from the river when our car was out of commission.

Harvest apron came in super handy for the harvest AND toting three toy trash cans, holding my phone, scissors and tea!

Yellow star thistle was blooming all along the path in. It was gloriously quiet when we arrived at the beach. Very little bird activity compared to winter and early spring. There were pairs of dragonflies doing synchronized flying, some swallows and lots of geese distant in the water.

We had so much fun playing in the water and we dug a tunnel in the sand!

A highlight was seeing a mama diving duck and her eight babies swim right by us! I think it was a merganser family. A couple of spotted babies were riding on her back and they jumped off when she dove. The babies practiced diving too! It was adorable. Though I wish I had a picture I wouldn't trade a second of watching them for running to get my camera!

Later they were farther away from us and an egret flew in. I looked up at some noise and I think the mama merganser was attacking the egret. I'm pretty sure there were big egret feathers floating in the water after that! The egret must have gone after a baby. I didn't see that the egret got one.

Kiddo took two big spills and there were some tears but not major injuries and we made it back to the car by 11:30!