Island Falls notes (week of January 10, 2018)

Riva Hawkes, Special to The County
7 years ago

After spending three months in London, where she attended college to continue her study on environmental problems, Kylie Dunphy, daughter of Scott and Carol Dunphy, returned home just in time to celebrate the Christmas holidays with her family. She now plans to continue her college career and will leave for Farmington soon and, I am sure, will have many good stories to tell all her college friends of her experiences in London.

Christmas Day guests of Mrs. Susan Prescott have been her daughter-in-law, Claire, son, Tim Prescott, and son Jon and wife and children. Despite the bad weather and driving it was a great day.

Mr. and Mrs Carroll Bates, and children, Ora and Carroll III, arrived from their home in Florida to spend some time visiting with Carroll’s mother, Susie York, and many other relatives in Patten. They all had a super good time and have now returned to a warmer and sunnier state.

Carrie Dunphy and her daughter, Cheryl, from Big Lake, Alaska, are here staying with her sister Sherry and Kent Willigar and visiting with her parents, Leon (Bud) and Margaret Dunphy and many other relatives. Sherry and Kent have a home on Mattawamkeag Lake, so there will be lots of snowmobiling and maybe some ice fishing and lots of cold weather to put up with.

I am still putting out plenty of bird seeds for my many birds that arrive daily. I have had two big blue jays and a couple of woodpeckers, but it is mostly the finch, nuthatches and chickadees that eat all the seeds.

Lately there have been at least five deer who appear mostly when it’s dark, but today, there they were out in front of my house at noontime in the wooded area across from my kitchen. I threw out some chunks of bread, which they came up to and devoured it all.

My bird population has been real small all winter but I still have fun watching them all.