“Who knows when it’ll be this warm again?” she said.

Little did we know, the weathermen would be predicting 6 – 12 inches of snow for Wednesday!

I told Tami I wanted to see some wildlife. She told me not to get my hopes up.  “It’s pretty late in the season, Maxx,” she warned.

That Tami!  She’s such a glass-half-full-kind of person!

It was already getting kind of dusk-ish out, but down by the lake, the sun lit up the other shore . . .

the island with the house . . .

Looking off toward Range Pond State Park beach . . .

Tami immediately started snapping pictures, but I had spied something better.

“Psssst!” I whispered.

She didn’t hear me.

“Psssssssssssssssssst!” I said a little louder.

She waved a hand my way.

“OVER HERE!” I yelled.

“Geesh! Wait a minute! The sun won’t be shining like this forever -”

“I don’t think the eagles will be on their island much longer either -”

Tami whipped around so fast, I thought she was gonna fall in the water!

BOTH eagles were sitting pretty, just waiting for Tami to take their photo; one on the nest and another on a nearby tree.   If you look back through the blog, you’ll see that once the babies leave the nest, we rarely see them together again until February, when they get ready to lay another set of eggs. Tami was so excited, she almost missed seeing the cormorant on a nearby log too . . .

And then, on the way back home, we also saw how hard the beavers have been working along the lakeside trail.

This tree that they took down is about eight feet long.  It fell in such a way that it was caught in the bushes, so the beavers are stripping it of its bark, and cutting it into three foot chunks.

So much for not seeing any wildlife, huh?

Still, in all her years at the campground, Tami hasn’t seen a beaver in the wild yet.  She’s heard their tail slap the water in warning, but that’s it.

Beavers are pretty interesting mammals:  They have only one partner, can live about 24 years, their kits stay with them for about 2 years with the parents sharing duties, and they’re second only to humans in their ability to change their environment.

One of these days, she swears she’ll have a picture to show you!

And we all know how much Tami loves her loons!  It’s been “the loons this!”  and “the loons that!” and “Aren’t the loons soooooo cute!” all . . . day . . . long.

She used to talk about ME like that!

Here’s the empty nest, the first clue the babies hatched, because right away, Mom and Dad coax them to the water.

They’ll never set foot on land again, until they’re ready to have chicks of their own.

So Paul and his family went about fishing and trolling.  It didn’t take long until they ran into the loons family.

And sure enough they didn’t just find one ~

They found two babies!

How awesome is that?   They’re sooooo cute.  But soooo vulnerable.   Snapping turtles and large fish are predators from below; the eagles from above.  Mom and Dad are going to have to keep them very, very close.

The turtles are back!

Once a year, the turtles climb all the way UP the hill from the lake to the playground/playing field or office area to lay their eggs.

And at least once a year, a camper thinks a turtle is lost and they take them back to the lake before they’ve had a chance to lay their eggs.  Which means the poor turtle . . .

has to trek all the way BACK UPHILL once again.

So if you find a turtle the size of a dessert plate or bigger, let them be.  If you find one the size of a dime,

It’s okay to help it to the lake.

I’m sure he’d appreciate the ride!

Sorry about the delay – this spring has just been so much fun.  Dave opened the pool, Tami planted all her pretty flowers, the guys put the boats in the lake, and we finally got to meet our new playmate Maggie!

As you can tell, Maggie had a fight with the waterballoons . . . and she said the waterballoons won!

Maggie’s gonna help out with recreation!  She’s a lot of fun, we had a blast with all the events packed in to Memorial Day Weekend.  She did a great job running Candy Bar Bingo, helping Debbie out with arts and crafts, and playing wiffleball.  My favorite was story time

with a cup of Moose Mix!  Yum!

Even though we got rained on a little bit, it didn’t stop us!  We still had our Memorial Day Parade – we held our umbrellas in one hand and our noise makers in the other.  It was a great time!

I made lots and lots of new friends ~ and found some old ones too!

Oooo!  Good news!  Mama Loon is back this year, and sitting on her nest.  Do you know what that means?  We’ll hopefully be seeing baby loons soon!

Hey, by the way, before I crawled into bed last night I caught a glimpse at this weekend’s Rec Schedule and guess what?

. . . the Bouncy House is coming out this weekend!  C’mon! Come and play!

Maax here!  It’s been kind-of-a-quieter weekend,  what with the cloudy day and all.  But the rain held off long enough to put up the bouncy house!  The kids had a great time in it.  They also had a great time at arts and crafts and kids games in the playing field.

Tami didn’t get pictures of any of it though, because she was down at the lake.   And I bet you can guess what she was focused on . . .

With her largest camera lens, the tripod and an extra battery. she was bound and determined to get photos ~ good photos~ ~ of the eagle baby, or babies.   Even though lots of campers had reported two,  just like with fisherman and their tall tales, Tami wasn’t going to announce it here until she saw it with her own eyes.  Or someone brought her a photo.

When she got down to the point on the lake, she found quite a few campers with their binoculars trained on the nest.  Yet none could claim to have seen two eaglets that morning.

For at least fifteen minutes, they only got glimpses of the one baby

and as cuuuute as he was, Tami still hoped for one more.  She and the other campers  talked about how one baby will sometimes (shudder) eat the other . . . or they get dehydrated and die . . . or one pushes the other out of the nest.  After a few more minutes, she said to the other campers, “I guess we’re down to one.”

Suddenly, there was hope . . .

And  the second baby made an appearance!

Whew!  I was getting a little nervous there.

Next weekend, we’re having an ice cream party on Saturday night.  We still have some sites available if you’d like to join us!

And wouldn’t you know, Mama Eagle was sitting up tall and proud on her nest!

You know what this means?

The babies have hatched!

After watching this nest for about eight years, we’ve found that Mom doesn’t sit up on the edge until her eaglets are born.  It’ll be another couple of weeks before we see their little heads poking up, because the nest is so very deep.   We can’t wait to find out:  is there one baby?  Or two?

So my buddy Cookie and I headed out into the campground today to find it.  We were kind of disappointed that the snow was still close to knee deep in spots, but there were a lot of bare spots too!  Especially at the lake point.

I had to keep a very, very close eye on Cookie too because she goes bonkers for open water, and there was plenty of that to be found!

While we walked the snowshoe trail, we saw places where it looked like the deer might have lain down.  And look at this . . .

I’d say those busy beavers have been hard at work, wouldn’t you?

Cookie and I said hi to the eagle who’s sitting high on her throne nest.

We’re really looking forward to seeing eagle babies!

We saw the wood duck pair today too!  Down by the beaver hut.

I’ve always wanted to see their babies, especially in that moment where they drop from their tree nest, to the ground and head for the water.  I bet that’s really cool to watch.

Cookie and I agreed, we’d seen lots of signs of Spring, and we were about to head for home when we heard honking.  No, not car honking . . .

Goose honking!  There was a whole flock in that little patch of open water.

I’m very surprised Cookie didn’t take off after them – she’s not very trained on “stay”.  Not like I am anyway . . .

I took one last photo on my way back from the lake . . .

The owner of this camper can’t wait for Spring either! I bet she could tell you, right down to the minute, how many days we have left before camp opens . . .

It won’t be long now!

Tami wanted to clean the house.  She wanted to write.  She wanted to do the laundry.

Cookie and I had other plans though.  I hovered over Tami’s shoulder and peppered her with questions.  “Whatcha doin’?   Can I help?  What’s that?  I want to watch.”

Cookie joined me by sighing at every window and dropping her ball at Tami’s feet.

Fifteen minutes later we were all outside, Tami tightening the straps of her snowshoes while Cookie danced around us.

It was no easy trek today!  We all sunk into the wet heavy snow, which was still a good 1 – 2 feet in most places.  We just took it real slow and stopped often . . . .

The beavers have been working hard!   There were lots of signs they’d been out and about on the lake’s edge behind the 80′s campsites.

Cookie and I found a few small patches of bare ground as we got closer to the sunny side of the point.  But it was the open water on the lake’s edge that had her most excited.

And then, we saw what we’d been hoping for!  Nesting eagles!

With any kind of luck, we’ll be watching baby eagles come May!

“Maxwell,” she said with a big, big sigh. “I have way too much campground work to catch up on.”

So I begged a little  . . .

and pleaded and whined.

I wore her down

until she took us out snowshoeing.

We had an awesome time!  Cookie ran around in circles, while Tami and checked all the roads and campsites to see how everything was.  When we got to the lake, we saw the eagle, perched up high in a tree on one of the islands.

We only saw the one, but I know we’ll be seeing two soon!  Usually by February vacation week. We’ll keep you posted!

I’m so sad camping season is over!   It’s waaaaaay too quiet here!   There’s no one on the sites

Or on the roads

I had to go out on the lake and find someone to talk to before I went crazy!

I saw a flock of ducks, but they took off before I could make my way over to them.

Scaredy birds.

The mallard was down by the fire station end of Lower Range, but he said, “I’m too busy grooming my feathers to talk, Maxx.  I’ve got to get ready to head south.”

“Not you too!” I cried.  “Everyone is leaving!”

“Sorry, buddy,” he said.  “It’s what we do.”

The mom and dad loons were no where to be found. OR the baby loon.  Sigh.  They probably already headed south.

The gray heron wouldn’t even look at me!  Every time I got close

He’d fly away . . .

He never wants to talk.

I was so lonely!    But then, Dave and Ben canoed around the corner

so I hung out with them for a bit.  Dave caught a couple of nice pickerel while I was there!

When they puttered off  to find Tami, who was out kayaking somewhere, I trudged off to find my good friend Eagle.

He was grooming!   I cried, “You aren’t leaving too, are you?  I’ll have no one but those Wight’s to talk to all winter!  And you know how they can be . . . ”

“Maxx, Maxx, Maxx,”  he said. “I’m not going anywhere.  The kids may be grown and off the nest, but the wife and I plan to stay nearby.  If those Wight’s get too housebound, come find me anytime.”

That Eagle, he’s a great guy!

I’ll keep posting here all winter.  Fishing, wildlife, camp news . . . I’ll even get you the scoop on next years recreation program!   So come back often and leave me some comments, okay?  I’ve love to hear from you!