Maxx's Maine Camping Blog

Eagle gawking . . .

Hey! Maxx here . . .

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.

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!

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.

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!

The Eagle Family

One of my Spring Special campers, Joyce Thompson, took these shots last weekend of the eagle family!

copyright Joyce Thompson 2008

copyright Joyce Thompson 2008

Aren’t they gorgeous???

Joyce said she only saw the one baby, so it looks as if he’s going to get Mom and Dad’s undivided attention this year.

While I was at the lake late yesterday, I watched as one of the adult eagles swooped a loon who was fishing nearby. He didn’t touch the loon at all, but it was definitely a warning. After that, the loon moved away from our point.

This makes me a little sad, because I enjoy them both.

The Eagles are Nesting!

Cookie and I took a walk to the point today. Poor thing, she’s been cooped up for a little over two weeks, what with Ben and I both so sick for so long. When I used the word “walk”, I swear she jumped and wiggled in mid-air!

I’m sorry to report, only the TOPS of the picnic tables can be seen as I walk through the campground. There’s still three to four feet of snow in most places, although I did see some bare ground too. I wore my snowshoes to make the trip easier.

When Cookie and I reached the lake’s edge, I was so glad I remembered the camera! Here’s proof, our eagles are nesting;

What do you mean, you don’t see anything? Right in the middle . . . there . . . don’t you see a white bump? That’s the top of her head. Hmmmm – how about this image?

The second eagle had flown in to feed the first. I’m not sure which is which, female or male. I’ve read that incubation duties are shared, but the female primarily does this job. So, it’s probably her on the nest.

I stayed to watch them for a bit. Getting a few more shots like this

before I heard splashing water. Heart in my throat, I scanned the ice. Sure enough, Cookie had fallen into a 3 foot wide hole, about 5 feet off shore. She was in over her head and although her front paws were on the ice, she couldn’t get her back legs up and out.

I ran around the point, trying to find something, anything, to lay across the ice and get to her. The docks were all too heavy or frozen to the ground. For twenty minutes I coaxed, demanded, pleaded, and begged. But it wasn’t until I tearfully called to her, “Cookie! I have to go home. I have to get David! I’ll be back!”

At the word “home” she started to cry and whine. She scrambled and dug at the ice until finally, she broke free! I fell to my knees and hugged her sopping wet neck.

She looked at me, like, “What? What’d I do?”

I now smell like wet dog. And wet dog has never smelled so good.

A great day for eagle watching!

Here are some pics I took today from the trees on the point

They were here a long time, just the two of them, surveying their kingdom.

It appears the eagles aren’t sitting on eggs yet, because they both left the nest a little while later when an ice fisherman drilled a hole about 150 to 200 feet from the island.

I believe they’re only sprucing up their nest at this point. Once or twice, one of the pair tried to come back with a stick, as you’ll see here, but she never landed. I think she was leery of that fisherman, even though he was sitting quietly.

It was so much fun to see them so active. Once the eggs are laid, I’ll be lucky to snap a picture of the top of her head. She sits so low in that nest, you wouldn’t know she was there.

First Eagle Sighting in ‘08

Once upon a time, we had a pair of ospreys. Their nest was at the tip top of a tree, on a little island just off our point. I had campers who returned year after year to watch those osprey raise their young and send them off into the world.

Then one spring, five years ago we found eagles in the nest! They’d chased off our osprey, which is common I hear. Ready made nest . . . a quiet lake full of fish . . . who could blame them really?

We were sad for a bit, until we realized what a rare treat we had! With good binoculars, we watched as first one little eaglet head, and then another, poked up out of the nest. We watched Mom and Dad bring them fish. Watched as the eaglets first perched nest-side and unfolded their wings to practice catching the breezes. Some of us were lucky to see them fly for the first time.

We’ve all been converted to eagle lovers! And we watch for them eagerly year after year.

My first eagle sighting for 2008 was this past Sunday! Driving home from Portland, we crossed the causeway between our lake and Middle Range. There he was . . . sitting high in a dead tree.

I took this photo this past Fall, after we’d closed the camp. He was sitting on our point looking over the swimming area, where the game wardens had just released a truckload of brown trout.

photo by Tamra Wight ‘07

You’ll find more photos on our website.

I’ll keep you all posted on future eagle sightings!