August at the Lodge

I seem to have completely forgotten to post of our second summer trip to the Lodge in Bancroft this August...It's been a busy summer. But again we enjoyed great times up with family, this time Holly's sisters and parents and all us married in brother-in-laws along with the nieces and nephews; 35 of us in all if I count right.  We celebrated a 100th birthday combination of Mom and  Mark that week, some good laughs being had during a short program after a great birthday meal.

As for wildlife and photographing thereof, I had some fun with that too.  Here are a few shots of things around the grounds.

Cabbage Butterfly

I couldn't quite confirm what this one was.... It's either a type of skipper or dash butterfly I think.

Long Dash??

One afternoon, I headed out to a little larger lake a little ways from the Lodge where I had often seen an adult and young common loon.  I was rewarded with a bit of patience as they ended up coming to that end of the lake for a short while.  The adult was bringing small fish to the young one.  It appeared that the adult would catch a fish, bring it near the young one, then let it go a short ways away for the young one to chase and catch itself.  Fun to watch.

Common Loon adult and juvenile - Learning to fish

Juvenile Common Loon

Loons "stand" and flap like this to adjust their feathers after swimming under water.  It gets the water out from between the feathers, and resets them to their proper positions.

Classic pose.

This little guy was chattering at me in a tree near by.  A little dark shooting into the middle of a tree, but it turned out alright.

Red Squirrel with a dirty nose.

At one point there were about six painters on this log.  I was no where near them, but when I started to  head over to see if I could get a nice shot, five splashed into the water in a scramble for the weeds in the water.  However, this one remained.  It never even took its feet out from its shell.  Either the brave one or the least sensible.  

Painted Turtle.

Later in the week, while digging on the hillside to improve the grade by a new rope swing we put up that week, we found a little Red-bellied Snake.  It's only about 8" long, and pretty tame for a snake.  Apparently they are commonly bred for pets.  

Red-bellied Snake peeping out from under a tree root.

Red-bellied Snake

One of my nieces, Jamie, had no hesitation in holding up the little guy to allow the characteristic red belly to be shown for evidence.

My brave niece Jamie showing the red belly it's named for.

While following the little snake along the water's edge in it's attempt to escape, it stopped right beside these two frogs (you can just see the snake in the top right corner).  Since I was really concentrating on the snake, I didn't take too careful notice of the brownish frog, but from what I've found on the net, I believe it's a Green Frog, contrary to the browner colour.  (Kyle, maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong?)

Northern Leopard Frog (left) and Green Frog (right)