Doesn’t the chipmunk above look like he has a twinkle in his eye???

This could be why!!

Up above is a baby eagle from 2007

and a sunning turtle on Lower Range Pond in 2008

The downy woodpeckers are everywhere too.

But these are the photos Tami was most excited to get . . .

because these are from this month!!

The loons are nesting!

We thought they might have lost their first nest – because they were fishing together toward the end of May, when they should have been separated with one on the nest and one out on the lake feeding.  But it was reported to Tami early June that they were in fact sitting on eggs!  yay!

But I’m still the cutest animal in the campground, right??

Count ‘em, two!

Here’s Dad bringing home some supper . . .

And here’s Mom and Dad feeding their little ones.

A big, big “thank you” to Brian for these photos!!   They’re awesome!

Guess what?  I have wicked good news!

Tami and I walked to the lake this week, hoping to get photos of the loons, but even though they were calling, she couldn’t see them.  Not even with her really long lens and tripod.

So she turned her camera on the eagle nest.  One of the adults was sitting its edge, surveying the kingdom, when all of a sudden a little wing lifted up beside it!  Tami kept her camera on the nest, one finger on the button, and chanted, “C’mon baby, c’mon baby”

She pressed down hard on that button when the little head finally poked up

“YES!” she said, dancing in a circle. Did you see that Maxx?  I got it!   I got a picture of the baby eagle!”

While she’d been dancing, I hadn’t taken my eyes off the nest.  “Um, Tami, I think you ought to -”

“Do you know how long I’ve been watching and waiting for a sign of the baby?” she said.

“Well – I think- you-”

“Everyone will be so excited when you post on the blog that we have proof!”

I grabbed Tami by the shoulders and turned her toward the nest, so she could see what I was seeing.

“OH!” she said, quickly putting the camera back up to her eye so she could snap away.

The baby had crawled up beside its parent!

I wonder . . . what is that baby looking at?  Do you think there’s another in there?

Our maintence worker seems to think so . ..

Is everyone getting excited for camping season?  Are you?  Huh?

Everything seems to be happening early in the campground this year.  The purple finches are back already.  The trees are turning green already.  And animals are nesting earlier than usual.

This last week, David told me how he’d accidentally flushed a mother goose off her nest when he walked the narrow stretch of land out to the beaver hut.   He backed off right away, but he was sad to report that the mom hadn’t gotten back on the nest before he left the area.

He was a little worried, so I decided to take a walk today to see if all was well.  Standing on the mainland shoreline with my binoculars, I could just barely (through the trees) see her nesting again.  When I told Tami, she said she’d try to bring her great big telephoto lens and tripod down next week and see if she can get a picture of it from the shoreline.  It might be hard though, ’cause it’s kind of far away.

Dave was really glad when I told him the good news.  He says he’s going to block off that jut of land until Mama Goose has put those babies in the water . . .

Tami, Ben, Cookie and I and got down to the lake this week.  It’s been 35 days since the eagles started sitting on the nest, and we wondered if we could see any eagle babies.

B and I looked through binoculars while Tami stood in her usual spot

I’m surprised she doesn’t have a circle around her left eye, she spies at the eagles through that thing so much!

Anyway, we looked and looked and looked, but we didn’t see any little gray heads poking up.

We did see her poke her beak into the nest though.  Either she was turning the eggs or tending to the baby(babies).

Tami really thinks those babies have hatched.  The nest is wicked deep though, so we might not see the babies for another couple of weeks. But we’ll keep trying!

While we’re all enjoying this wicked warm weather, Tami worries about the babies. When the game warden came to tag them a couple years ago (click on the eagle tag to the right to see the post) he said that hot, dry weather can dehydrate eagle babies.  This nest especially, because it has no shade.

But we’ve had two eagle babies survive before!  And we’re hoping we do again . . .

banding of the baby eagles by the warden

So, you should have seeeeen Tami’s face when she found out Dave got pictures of the eagle first this year.  She was like, on a mission to get down to that lake and find them for herself.

Not only did she grab her camera, but she took an extra battery, the lens extension AND the tripod.  “I know I can get more pictures and better pictures than David,” she grumbled. “It just takes patience.”

Cookie and Ben followed along too.  Tami made them take the leash, even though Cookie’s tail drooped at the sight of it.  But it’s a good thing they did because the lake was loaded with people!   Normally it’s pretty quiet, even on the weekends.  But instead, we saw snowmobiles putt-putting up and down the length of it, ice fisherman  out with their families, dogs  yapping,  four wheelers doing donuts over and over again while they waited for their little orange flags to pop up . . .

and even a sea plane landed!

Tami was sooooo worried the eagles wouldn’t hang around with all that busy-ness.  But there they were, watching over everything like the King and Queen of the lake.

Tami set up her tripod, while B and Cookie hung out on the point.   When she had the camera in place she turned it on and snapped two pictures.

“Darn it,” she said.

“What’s up?”  I asked.

“The battery died already!  Wait! I have another!” she grinned at me and said, “Aren’t I smart?”

I made a face at B, and he rolled his eyes back at me  as Tami put her spare battery in the camera.  When she said a bad word, I thought she’d seen me, until she cried out, “This battery’s dead too!”

Just then, the eagle started squawking.  Tami said, ‘No, no, no, no, stay there! Please!”

A beautiful hawk came into view.  The way it soared . . . I wanted to trade my antlers for wings!  It passed right over our heads, and even though Tami didn’t have a battery, she tried to take pictures anyway.  Click, click, click.

She was pretty close to tears.  “Hey,” I said.  “Why don’t I run up and see if Dave has another battery, okay?”

She sniffled and gave me a little smile.  “Th-thanks Maxx.  I’ll stay and keep an eye on the eagles.  Hurry!”

Like . . . did she think she could get them to stay if they decided to go hunting?

Anyway, B, Cookie and I ran from the lake, past campsites, and all the way up the hill to the house.  After getting a battery from David, we ran down the hill, past the campsites and back to the lake, just to keep Tami from crying into her camera lens.

She put the battery in and added the lens extension.  We sat on the point while she took a million thousand a few dozen pictures.

When we got home, she settled at her computer with a silly grin on her face.  B and I were playing bowling on the Wii when we heard that bad word again.

“Now what?” I asked.

“The pictures are all blurry!  There isn’t a good one in the bunch!  What am I doing wrong?”

I ran to get David before poor Tami had a total melt down.  B and Cookie hid behind the couch.  When David showed Tami what she was doing wrong, she reached for her coat and boots.   I grabbed my scarf.

“It’s okay Maxx, you don’t have to come,” she said, blowing her nose in a hankie.

“But I want to!”

So we trudged down to the lake again.  Thank goodness those eagles were still there, ’cause I don’t know what Tami would have done if they weren’t.   An hour later and she was all smiles again!

“Whoa!” I said, looking over her shoulder at the computer screen, “those pictures are gorgeous!”

“It just takes patience,” she said.

Uh-huh.   Whatever you say, Tami . . . whatever you say.

Guess what??

C’mon, guess!

Dave walked through the campground and down to the lake yesterday . . .

no . .  wait . . . that’s not the surprising part . . .

He saw the eagle soaring over the lake!

I snuck up on David down on the point as he was trying to focus the camera through tree branches and snap photos, but that eagle flies fast!

“Hey Dave,” I said.

He bobbled the camera and yelled,  “Maaaax!  Don’t do that!”

“Soooooo-rry Dave.  Hey, where’d the eagle go?”

“Over there, on the island with the house.”  Dave pointed and shook his head.  “Wish I’d brought the bigger lens.”

“Yeah.  Tami says that every time too.”

That eagle sat on the pine tree branch, staring down at an ice fisherman under him.

I think he was hoping for handout . . .

We still haven’t seen them sitting on the nest, even though we stared at it and stared at it.   But I’m thinking I can twist Tami’s arm to take a walk tomorrow and we’ll let you know!

I was heading up to the house today to see if Tami wanted to go for a walk, and it looked like she had the same idea!

Great minds think alike!!

“Heading to the lake?” I asked.

“Where else, big guy?” she said, patting my antler.

So we started down the main road, and tromped into the middle of the playing field.  Tami checked the seasonal sites on both sides of the field

before we walked under the basketball  hoop into the woods. As always, Cookie had to be in the lead

She’s such a five year old!

Tami stopped a lot  ’cause she said she wanted to take pictures.  She thought I couldn’t tell, but she was really getting winded from the wicked bad cold she has.  I asked her if she wanted to go back, but she really wanted to see if the eagles were down at the point.

When we first stepped into the woods, four huge ravens started squawking and shrieking.  They swooped low over us

and landed on a branch where they kept taunting us.  They didn’t worry me at all . . . really!  But Cookie was so freaked out, she ran back to walk next to Tami.

“Never mind them,” Tami said.  “They’ll stop.”

It was so pretty outside today.   The sky was a bright blue, and the sun was shining down.

The animal prints above came all the way across from the beaver hut to the campground point.  Then it followed  our marked trail alongside the lake and up  into the 20′s.  Tami tried to take a picture of the prints so she could look it up, but they just looked like blobs in the snow.  They weren’t big like mine, so they weren’t moose.  But they didn’t look like Cookie’s either, so they weren’t from a dog. I guess they could have been from one deer, but deer usually travel together, don’t they?

When we got to the point, Tami called Cookie back off the ice and made her sit.  “I thought I heard the eagle cry,”  she said.  We stood quietly,  looking up and down the lake.   Tami even used the telephoto lens.  We saw some ice fisherman down by the state park.  We saw some snow mobilers out on the lake.

But we didn’t see the eagles.

“Did you hear that?” Tami asked.

“That squeaky, squawky sound?” I said.

We listened some more.

“Um, Tami?”

She held up a hand.  “Shhhhhh!  I still hear it.”

“But Tami-”

“Maax! What?”

“You’re making the squeaky, squawky sound.  When you breathe.”

Tami just looked at me for a minute, and when she squeaked again, she started giggling  . . . which made her cough . . . which made her decide it was time to head for home.   We took the path alongside the lake that lead us out of the woods across from site 29, and we walked up the hill through the 30′s

Tami’d like to go out tomorrow too.  I sure hope her cold is better, and not worse!

But not this kind of  turkey . . .

THIS kind . . .

On Sunday, I started to beg Tami to take me for another walk.  But I didn’t have to whine for very long.  She said taking a walk before all the “turkey-day-craziness” got here, was a pretty good idea.  So, we headed down the main road past Big Joe’s site to check out the water front first, ’cause we could hear the geese honking away down there.

I noticed right away that things are a lot browner now, but we still found a bit of color here and there

When we got to the lake, we couldn’t find even one goose!  Or a duck.  Or a eagle.  Or a turkey.

Tami said it was because I kept kicking up the leaves all the way and I had to learn to tip toe quietly through the woods if I wanted to see wildlife.

Have you ever tried to walk quietly through the woods in November?  Sheesh!  Crunchy leaves and snapping twigs . . . I’d liked to see Tami try to tip toe around them with four hooves!

We did see lots of squirrels.  This one wasn’t afraid of us at all,

In fact, he sat there, looking me in the eye, twitching his tail and yelling!  Every now and then, he’d scratch his back feet on the tree too.  It kind of made me nervous.  I thought he was gonna, maybe, jump on my antlers or something, so I begged Tami to stop taking pictures and dragged her down the trail, along the lake, toward the beaver hut.

Those beavers have been busy again!  There were lots of birch trees cut down

and guess where we found them?  Yep!  On top the hut

Can you see all the branches, grasses and twigs they put on it?  Every time we go down to look, we see more stuff dragged on top and then

They drag mud up and smooth it down over everything.

There’s the top of the beaver’s hut just beyond that big log.

Tami was surprised to see dragonflies out and about.  About four of them landed on her during our trek.

And I was surprised to see boaters!

Brrrrrrrr!  It must have been chilly out on the lake!    My antlers were shivering just watching them!

While Tami and I were walking along, I asked her what she was most thankful for.

“Well, my family of course,” she said, as she took photo number 4324 of the lake.  “I’m always very, very thankful for them, and our health.”

“Me too?” I asked.

She smiled at me over the camera.  “You’re family, aren’t you?”

“What else?” I asked.

“I’m thankful for all my friends, and our campers and to be able to work at something I love doing.   I’m really, really thankful that we can take nature walks right outside our backdoor.”  Tami lowered her camera. “What are you thankful for, Maxx?”

“All that stuff!” I said.  “And my little camping buddies, too!”

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Lately, every time Ben and I go outside to kick the soccer ball around the front lawn, all we hear is this annoying chattering.

And it isn’t Tami.

Those squirrels are busy, busy, busy, let me tell you.  Back and forth, back and forth.

And I think they’re getting desperate!  Look at this!

Squirrel butt!!

He was in and out and in and out of that pumpkin for the better part of a day!  Finally, Tami made Ben and I put those pumpkins waaaaaaay back in the woods.  Tami didnt’ want those theiving squirrels stealing her blankets.

What?  You don’t think a squirrel could steal a blanket?

Try telling the squirrel that!

I mean, really!  Where did he think he was gonna put it?