Maxx's Maine Camping Blog

Fall Kayaking

Tami closed up the campground store late afternoon yesterday so she and her friend Sue could go kayaking on Lower Range Pond.

Do you think they’d ask me to tag along?

Nooooooo!

Shucks!

Fall kayaking is so pretty, too!  The lake was calm as could be, so it reflected all the red, yellow and orange tinted trees like a mirror.

The first place Tami and Sue headed was to the beaver hut, but they didn’t see anything happening there.  Of course, they were probably chatting back and forth so much, the beavers heard them coming a mile away!

But on their way back . . . heading toward the state park beach,  Tami discovered a new beaver hut!

We can watch this one from the campground shoreline.  With her telephoto lens, Tami should be able to get some great shots!

No geese to report.  Or eagles.  Or loons.  Only one lone duck  landed as the sun was dipping below the tree tops.   But Tami said the geese and ducks were on their way.  In the meantime, views like this one made it all worthwhile.

Rainy Days .. .

Yeeeees, it’s been raining on my little campers this week.  But it hasn’t stopped us from having fun!  There were still plenty of swimmers

And lots of people out and about having fun

Debbie and Bryant never cancel their fun activities on account of a little rain.  Or a lot of rain, either!  They just move it all indoors!

Or they build boats to float in the puddles.

The fishermen have had a great time the last two weeks.  The fish are reeeeally hungry!

Look at this beauty caught by Fred Becker!

3 1/2 lbs .  . . 21 inches long . . . brown trout.  Amazing.

The Lamoreau Family reported to Tami this morning that they’ve caught around a hundred fish during their week stay.  Among their prizes were  2   2lb large mouth bass and a 4lb’er too.  They also caught a Crappie, which I didn’t even know we had in Lower Range Pond.   Oh – and pickerel too!

The baby eagle is sitting on the edge of the nest now.  When he hollers for food, you can hear him all over the lake.

The Joyce family gave Tami this photo of the baby and adult.  Isn’t it a good one!  In no time at all, that baby will be flying.

We have tons of activities lined up for this coming week  including a performance by B J Hickman on Sunday night and a science-y arts and craft lesson on how to make Exploding Lunch Bags with the Science Guy on Tuesday.

I can’t wait to explode lunch bags!

And guess what?  The sun is trying wicked hard to shine through the clouds today!  Cross your antlers . . . I mean your fingers . . . that it gets a chance to come out!

Check out these eagle photos from 2008

One of our campers, Mike Morin sent some pic’s of last year’s baby eagle.  They’re so amazing, I just had to show them to you!

copyright 2008 Mike Morin

copyright 2008 Mike Morin

Now why can’t Tami take photos as crisp and clear as that?  Huh??

Eagle Baby Twins!

Maxx here!

huff, puff, huff, puff

I just ran all the way up the hill from the lake

huff, puff, huff, puff

to let you know the eagles have two babies for sure!!  Look!  Look at the photos Tami got just a couple hours ago!

Can you see two there?  One under her wide open mouth and the other behind her?

No?  How about in this photo?  See two now?

Aren’t they cute?

I wish the photos were clearer, but Tami had the really BIG lens . . . but forgot the tripod.  Sheesh.

Mom was obviously ripping something up and feeding it to the babies.  For the first twenty minutes, it looked as if there was only one in the nest.  When Mom turned sideways and stopped feeding.  THEN we saw two little beaks begging for food!

Now we know for sure there’s two!

Max here!

Remember how Tami and I took a walk to check out the snow situation yesterday?   The first place we went was to check on the eagles.   There was no sign of them, I’m afraid.  But I’m pretty sure I saw something moving in the nest, so it could be that the adult was hunkered down to keep warm.  The wind was whipping down the lake, and it was pretty chilly, in spite of the warm sunshine.

Tami was hoping it was time for her loons to be back, but there was still ice from the state park beach, past our point all the way off to the left as far as we could see.

But there was some open water on either side of the strip of land to the beaver hut.  So we headed over there.  Not enough open water for loons to land, but we thought we might see signs of the beavers . . . or the pileated woodpecker.

As we reached the beaver hut, Tami saw a robin on a branch

you would’ve thought she’d won Powerball or something.  After she snapped the picture, she started grinning and hopping around.  “It’s a robin!  Spring’s here . . . spring’s here . . . uh-huh . . . it’s Robin!”

Sheesh, you’d think she’d never seen one before!

Right after that she saw a Wood Duck cruising the shoreline and heading our way.  So she scooched down into the bushes.  While we waited for it to pass by, Tami told me about them.

Did you know they lay their eggs as high as 50 feet up, in the crevice of a tree?  And just one day after the chicks hatch, they jump down and follow their mother?

Whoa.  I’d like to see that.

Then some Ring-Necked Ducks came by.  From a distance, they can look a little like loons . . .  but up close I could definitely tell the difference.

We were just about to leave when a pair of Canadian Geese landed on the lake rather noisily.  They called back and forth, their song echoing loudly from one end of the lake to the other.  The Ring-Necked and Wood ducks all scattered.  Just as Tami was about to take a photo, we found out why  . . .

A humongous flock landed!   I’ve never seen so many at one time!  There had to be sixty of them if not more.

And they were kind of goofy too.  I mean, they were rolling in the water . . . they ran across it and slapped their wings on the water’s surface . . . they dove under only to pop right back up.

And they hollered endlessly!  It was like a geese party.  They made such a racket, the eagle soared overhead to see what was going on.  Which made them holler even louder, of course!

Tami and I were cracking up, watching their behavior.

They must have had a long flight, because some of them were a little sleepy

Some of them were cranky

And then there were those who didn’t know which end was up

When Tami, Ben and I went back later, they had calmed down quite a bit and  a few were sunning themselves on the ice.

It was wicked interesting to watch them in action like that.  Neither Tami nor I have ever seen them so active.

The Eagles are back!

Maxx here!

At noon time, Tami was typing away on her lap top muttering something about having to get the character in her middle grade novel out of the corner she’d backed him into.

“It’s 50 degrees out!”  I said.  “Let’s go snowshoeing!”

“But I really need to finish these revisions before the campground opens guys!”  she whined. ” C’mon.  I promise we’ll  go tomorrow.”

I grabbed one arm, Cookie tugged at a foot and Ben tried to push Tami out of her office.  “It’s gonna rain tomorrow,” I said.  “Besides, you haven’t taken one eagle photo yet this winter.  What will our campers think?”

Well, that had her out the door faster than you can say, “Spring is right around the corner”.

I can happily report we saw many signs of meltage!!

Is that “gasp”, bare ground??

There was something bigger to gasp about as we rounded that last corner before the lake front. Both eagles were sitting up on the nest, keeping careful watch on some snow mobilers right off the point.

Tami guesses there aren’t any eggs yet . . . . but something tells us it won’t be long.

All is well

Maxwell Here!

Tami and I went for a walk today with Cookie.   We wanted to see if there were any downed trees or branches.  The ice storm was pretty fierce here, and we lost power for about seven loooooooong hours last Friday.  We’re hearing that many of you are still without it though, so we’re feeling kind of lucky.

We’re happy to report all is well within the campground.  Just some very small branches came down, and none that we could see on campers.

Walking, on the other hand, was quite an adventure!

Cookie on Main St.

All the roads were covered with a thin sheet of ice.  Several times, Tami flapped her arms and squealed when her feet started to go out from under her.   She grabbed onto my fur to stop her fall.  And I have the bruises to prove it!

We saw lots of signs of wildlife,

The pile of pine cones went all the way around the left side of the tree! There were crumbs on the right side leading all the way through the doorway.  Whoever lives here is eating very well at the moment.

This is what Tami calls a “dinner table”.  Some squirrel or chipmunk loves to sit up here and munch away while keeping a careful watch for danger.  On the ground around the rock were more piles of pine cones.

We also saw turkeys!

turkeys in the 20's

They’ve been scavenging all through the 20′s from the looks of things.

We decided to go down by the lake.  It was freeeeeee-zing down there, on account of the wind whipping across the water.  And the ice is forming already.  So between those two, Tami didn’t want to stay too long.  Not with what happened to Cookie this past spring, anyway.  Cookie loves the water so much, that if there’s any open spot, even if it’s in the middle of the lake, she heads right to it.  Doesn’t matter how cold it is outside.  Doesn’t matter how thin the ice might be. It’s enough to scare a moose to death!

december ice

We’re thinking of you all, especially our New Hampshire neighbors who were so hard hit.  (Tami’s sister Myndi and her family are still in the dark as of today)  We hope everyone’s power is restored very, very soon.

A November Walk

Hey everyone!  Maxwell Moose here!

Sorry it’s been so long since my last post.  But Tami and David have had me working day and night!  After they finished the floor in the store, Tami was raking, emptying and moving plant pots and getting the garden’s put to rest.   Dave’s been cutting trees, working on some of the culverts, fixing up a couple sites and winterizing the buildings.

Tami took a break from her winterizing chores to take a walk with the boy scouts today

They’re working on their Naturalist and Forester badges, so they were looking for six different kinds of trees, six other woodland plants, and signs of wildlife.  We found it all!

We saw deer tracks down by the lake, and signs that the deer have been bedding down in the area.

The beaver have been quite busy too!  The boys were able to gather some twigs and wood chips that’d been gnawed on.  I would say there were at least six freshly “chopped” trees out there.   It also looks like the beavers are covering their hut with a fresh coat of mud and wet pine needles.  They’re definitely getting ready for winter!

As the boys ran ahead onto the point, they scared the eagle from the trees and he flew off over the lake.

They found lots of animal homes too

Those boys spent so much time investigating the woods, they didn’t get back to Tami’s house until after dark.

Last night, David took a walk and captured these shots of the full moon over the lake

Cool, huh?

Wildlife pictures courtesy of The Richards

Jeff and Debbie Richards gave Tami some awesome wildlife photos this week . . .

Here’s an adult eagle with its baby

Right now, the baby eagle is all over the lake, so he’s hard to find.  Especially since he blends into the trees so well.

Here’s a great shot of a turtle sunning himself

Can you see the dragonfly sunning himself on the turtle’s back?

And here are the fox pictures I promised.  This little guy came trotting through the sites in the middle of the quiet week, right by Jeff and Debbie’s camper

He made his way to the edge of the volleyball court and laid in the sun.

Kind of cute, huh?

Loons and eagles and foxes . . .

Hey campers!!  Maxwell here!

Look at these cool pictures Tami took of the Mom loon feeding the baby loon  yesterday!

Mama reached up high to stretch her wings.  Feeding babies is hard work!

After the loons moved out of sight, Tami was about to leave when I hollered, “Look up there! Is it a plane?  Superman?”

The eagle!  Tami kept her camera trained on him, hoping he’d dive for a fish or two.  But he must not have seen anything good to eat, because just like the loon family, he moved out of sight too.

One of our campers reported seeing the fox sun himself on the volleyball court this morning.  Jeff (the camper) and Myndi (Tami’s sister) both got some pictures of him.  Tami’s going to try and get copies so she can post them.

Things sure have been pretty quiet this week.  I can’t wait for our Fall Special people to come back tomorrow for weekend #2!