The Annual Summer Lodge Post

Well, I'm doing this post about two and a half months after actually taking most of the pictures on our annual summer vacation up north with my wife's family.  I'm getting further behind and taking less pictures than ever these days! Oh well...

One of the first things I do when we get there, well birding wise anyway, is to listen and look for the Merlins which nest and raise young every year on the opposite edge of lake where my in-law's cottage is.  Last year I noticed, with significant chagrin that the new owners of the cottage with the big old white pine tree which hosted the Merlin nest had been cut down.  I wondered if this year they'd still be around.  I was happy to notice them quite soon, and even more pleased that they seem to be spending more time on "our" side of the lake.  In the morning one day, one of the young ones spent a few moments in a snag not far from our beach.  It tolerated me for long enough to get a couple picture from a bad angle below, and headed out with its trademark "kalee kalee" call.

juvenile Merlin against blue sky.

My dear wife is agreeable to me heading out for a good chunk of a day that week, and I made a circuit of a few spots I've started to have success with over the years.  Tait Lake almost always gives good views of a Loon pair that nests there yearly.  I wasn't disappointed this trip either. 

Common Loon on Tait Lake

Common Loon

Common Loon

I only got one short bit of time though with some close up shots and the loon decided I was not good company and dove to a more distant section of the lake. While wandering around after, the calm morning water doubled the presence of some Mallard females.  They were different sizes, so I wonder if some were juveniles that hatched early in the spring and gotten all their adult plumage already.

female Mallard ducks

As I stood along the bank, I noticed something foraging right along the water's edge, hidden by the foilage growing in a short little undercut the water had made in the sandy bank.  At first I didn't really pay it much attention, but as it continued slowly along, I got curious, for some reason expecting it to be a Starling or something of that sort.  But as I approached, I saw it wasn't a bird at all.  Two black little beady eyes met mine on a dark furry face that froze as I did.  We both looked at each other wondering what would be next.  I knew if I moved it would be gone, but longed to get my camera up.  The weasel moved first and dove into the water for a getaway.  I had to clear some scrub and by the time I got my camera on it, it had made a surprising amount of headway meaning more distant picture. 

Weasel swimming across the lake.

A new mammal on the animal list though!  Because I didn't get more than a partially hidden view on land, and only the view of a wet back in the water, I can't say which of the two larger, darker species it was.  We have three weasels here in Southern Ontario, but I believe it was either a Long-tailed or Short-tailed Weasel. It was too dark and large to be a Least Weasel.

I headed on to Eagle's Nest to walk the Christie Trail loop. (I recently found a better link to a map for the park)  I didn't see a lot this time, but still got a few pictures. My first sighting along the trail to the Hawk Lookout was a Flicker.  Usually, you hear their scolding call first before you have a chance to see them.  However, this one seemed to eye me carefully first, let me take a partially impaired photo, and then beat a noisy retreat.

Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker

A teasing Hermit Thrush stayed just a head of me as headed to the Christie Trail and gave me only a few chances for an partial view for a picture.

Hermit Thrush

As I finished the walk along the trail which winds through the lower elevations and more open forest, a White-breasted Nuthatch was foraging along the tree bark and caught a caterpillar for a meal.

White-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

On my way back to the lodge, I stopped one more time at Tait Lake and this time both the loons were back in the small bay by the road.  I stopped and flushed one of the loons into the air as I got out.  That is strange as their preferred method is to dive as they do not get airborne easily. It made a long, running takeoff necessary to get this water loving bird out of the water.  They are actually very fast flyers, reaching speeds faster than most birds, but they need a very long takeoff to get into the air, "running" on the water's top for quite a ways to aid in gaining speed.  The first loon circled back over me again and I managed to get one half decent shot as it zipped by.

Common Loon fly by.

Not long after its mate took off, the other decided to follow suit, too quick for me to change my camera settings leaving me with only a few salvageable shots.

Common Loon takeoff

Common Loon takeoff

Common Loon take off

Although quite blurry, I kind of like this shot from right at the beginning of the takeoff.

Common Loon takeoff

Back at the Lodge there were other sights to see too.  Almost every summer, we experience one night when there is a emerging of flying ants.  They dig out of their underground habitations and take wing.  There to capitalize on the event are hundreds of dragon flies.  It's quite a sight.  Some years are more intense than others, and this year the numbers were not quite as big as other years.

Flying ants emerging and taking to the skies.

A nephew and I rigged a net and caught of few of the dragonflies to look at up close.

Dragonfly

Dragonfly

Dragonfly

Other insects inhabit the lodge grounds as well... I couldn't determine what type of grasshopper this was.

Grasshopper species.

A new butterfly landed just long enough to let me take a blurry picture while it took a quick "sip" from the sand.  I also could not tell what type it was for sure.  It think it is a Duskywing Butterfly.  Dwayne, do you know which one it is?

Juvenal's Duskywing Butterly (thanks Dwayne!)

Later that week, visiting our former Pastor and his wife who were vacationing on the opposite side of the lake the same week, I spotted one of the Merlin again. 

Merlin

Merlin

Don't hold your breath till the next post... my track record would prove to put you on the floor passed out.  But we'll see if I can't close the gap a bit.

Till then...
Keep enjoying HIS handiwork!

A Lot of Tails

So yes, except for one of the items in this post, they all have a common element - a tail.

A few weeks ago we were able to take a week off and head up to the Lodge for a week, first with some good friends of ours and then family joined us for the rest of the week.  Being up at the Lodge during the fall is completely different than during the summer.  The bugs are gone and we can actually hike in the trails in the bush, the colours are already started compared to home which is a couple hours south, and the crisper temperature mean the woodstove is on to warm the place up.  Evenings are inside with games and talks in the great room.

Our good friends Adam and Kerri have boys almost the same ages as ours, so we hiked all but one of the trails in the "back forty".  Coming back from the trails, the boys brought back tales for the moms (Ok, corny and a stretch!)

Crazy gang of hikers!  Adam and his boys with mine.

Some bright fungi on a log.

More fungi on a tree stump.

But, on our way back from one hike, we must have just scared off something eating a Garter Snake it had caught.  The kill must just have happened because even though it was half eaten, when touched, the tail would still constrict and grip your finger.  I really wonder what we scared off.  Too bad we didn't see it.  The boys were quite fascinated by it though.  (There is tail #2)

Half-eaten Garter Snake.

Throughout the week, I was also glad to get a number of  opportunities to get some nice pictures both around the grounds and on an outing to Bancroft one day.

In a canoe ride fishing on the lake with two of my boys, we were surprised by a big splash and soon spotted a beaver. We were close enough to shore to go back and get the camera in the fading afternoon light and followed him around to get quite close.

Beaver.

 A bad picture of the "splash and dive". (but tail #3!)

By the lodge, I got a couple other pictures of interest... One of a daring Red Squirrel which chewed into Holly's plastic container to get at some homemade Sweet-Marie bars, got it open and managed to get a way with a huge square.  Later, it was found licking off the spoon from one of our Apple Crisp desserts.

Red Squirrel finishing off our Apple Crisp.
(tail #4)

I saw only one butterfly the whole time up there, but it was one I hadn't seen before.

Morning Cloak Butterfly

Morning Cloak Butterfly -
missing its characteristic blue spots though.

This post is going to have to end here as I should be off to bed, it's getting long, and I obviously ran out of tails!

I'll post the rest of the pictures from this trip soon where I did my day trip out towards Bancroft.  The trip ended up going way longer than the couple hours I had planned as I kept bumping into more creatures...but I'm getting ahead of myself. :) And I won't torment you with more corny themes like "tails".

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

July at the Lodge and Young's Point

Well, vacation is over for the summer, back from my second time up at the Lodge in Bancroft.  Although shorter for me, we had a great time with Holly's side of the family.  It was cooler than the record highs of our previous stint in Bancroft, which meant a little less water activities.  But a great time with relaxing and even construction of a new swing over the water.

Still sharing pictures with you from my week with my family in July...  I got to see and get some pictures of what really are my favourite group of wildlife, raptors.  They are hard to photograph, having such great eye sight, and having a preference to be left alone for the most part.

When we arrived that week, I quickly noticed characteristic, piercing cries of a raptor.  Soon I located the source, across the lake three falcon-like figures, rolling and diving, chasing and then fleeing from each other with great speed.  A couple years back I remembered having gotten quite close to a young falcon/hawk (didn't get close enough to see which), and recognized the cry as being similar.  

Not wanting to be accused of disappearing right away from family vacation time, I put it off for a number of days into the holiday.  On one of our last days, I noticed I had not heard the sound of the birds, which is a persistent "kee, kee, kee", somewhat reminiscent of a killdeer.  I was afraid I had waited to long.  One of my brothers, Dan and I thought we'd see if we could find what we guessed would be a nest site in the large pine which they seemed to frequent most of the time.  After about an hour of hiking in the bush on that side of the lake, and not finding the nest, patience finally paid off, not because of a skillful search, but with the tell-tale cries coming nearer and nearer.  We came down from the ridge we were on, and walking on, Dan spotted the first, then the second juvenile Merlin, quite grown up already.  The one didn't hang around long, but the other decided to take a nap there.  I had to stop short of banging pots and pans to get it to open its eyes for some photographs - well, not quite.  You can see it sleeping in the third of the photo-strip picture below.

Juvenile Merlin

Spreading, Scratching, Snoozing, Stretching Juvenile Merlin

On the way back to the Lodge, my brother spotted the nest, in one of the big pines on the lot of one of the cottages across the lake from us.  It was much closer to the water than I had thought.  Recent talk in Holly's family might mean that we'll be back next year in July, which might mean another attempt to get a little closer to the young.  I'd love to try and get into one of the nearby trees to get a nest view, but don't think that will be possible.  

Merlin Nest

I posted some facts about Merlin when I saw my first one in Myrtle Beach this past winter.

For the last 10 years or so, we've come home from the Lodge through Young's Point which is about 25km north of Peterborough on Hwy 28.  Almost every time we pass, there is an Osprey sitting on a nesting platform on top  of a hydro pole, just beside the bridge which crosses the Trent-Severn Waterway (near lock 27).  Well, when you're either 3/4 of the way on a four hour trip with kids in the back, and getting close to the cottage, or, finally finished packing, got the kids settled in the back, and no longer asking if we're almost home... you don't get much more than the glance through the windshield and then maybe the side mirror.  This time, I dared to ask :) as I was sure my brother Dan would want stop as well, and we were graciously "granted" a quick dash to the bridge by our wives.  I assured it wouldn't be longer than 5 minutes....though how do those minutes always somehow stretch to 10 or 15 ?!?  I think we didn't do too badly though.

Osprey nest with Adult and Juvenile

As we approached, the adult on the left sounded a warning, and the juvenile (though already as large as the adult) quickly disappeared out of site in the nest.  The parent took off and warily circled, higher, then lower, around us as we walked nearer to the nest.

Osprey circling as we approached the nest

Osprey are large raptors, with wing spans of up to 6ft that feed almost exclusively on fish.  They will watch with amazing eyesight, for a fish in a lake, stream, or river, and then dive, often from great heights, and pull up, feet first to grip their prey, sometimes fully submerging themselves under the water to reach their quarry.  They have unique feet compared to other hawks, with one toe being able to pivot backwards or forwards to assist the other rear toe, extending long, sharp talons into slippery, scaly fish.  As they climb up from the water's surface, sometimes with a fish weighing as much as they do, they will arrange the catch to be head first, a more aerodynamic position reducing the effort required gain altitude again and head back to the nest.

The osprey was also designed with special legs compared to most raptors; they are much more heavily muscled, longer to reach deep into the water (up to 3 feet) and covered with very thick feathers to help cushion the impact as they hit the water during the speedy dives to surprise and catch the fish.

An interesting link with more information (and some of the information above) can be found here: 

http://www.cvps.com/osprey/facts-feeding.shtml

Soaring Osprey

If time had allowed the adult might have gotten more trusting and landed on the nest to allow for closer shots.  However, after the 5 minutes (likely 10) we walked back, turning around to get some pictures of it landing to assure junior again. 

Osprey landing at the nest.

July at the Lodge

We're privileged to be able to go, often a few times a year, up north to the Bancroft area where my in-laws have  a rustic lodge on some acres of land with two connected, smaller, but quiet lakes.  The last ten years of going there have been filled with lots of fun work projects to improve the place, many hours of swimming, canoeing, and competitive championships such as bocci or horse shoes.  There is ample opportunity for quiet times of solitude to read, snooze, or chat.  And all the while, the place is shared almost every year by one addition (or more) to the quivers of each of the families, making Opa and Oma happy to have purchased the place.

This year, as happens roughly semi-annually, my family was able to use the lodge for a week.  It's great to spend time with family for an extended period of time in a great setting.  My brother and sister-in-law from out west couldn't come, nor could my sister and her husband, and though it would have been better with them there, we had a great time.

I did steal some moments for some pictures... :)

I call it "glory hour".... it's the time when a number of great things often happen all at around the same time!
- deer flies have almost completely ceased to circle your head.
- the wind calms to just a breeze, or often nothing leaving the water as a mirror.
- birds are still singing here and there as they start finding their place for the night.
- the kids are in bed! (for a couple more years at least)
- it's one hour till the mosquitoes descend with a vengeance.
- the fish are really starting to bite
- the temperature reaches perfection.
- the sun is finishing its daily trace of the sky, ready to paint the clouds.

Often, I have to admit, we guys grabbed our rods and fished till the moment passes  (and it is that!) and one of the mosquitoes somewhere gives the signal, "Bite!" as it officially turns to dusk.  However, one night was thankfully taken to pad a canoe so my dear wife with a painful back could recline and share the glory hour with me and watch the sunset on the further of the two lakes.

To Lilly Lake to watch the sunset.

Kids in bed, a canoe for two... peace, quiet, stillness, and beauty.

Sunset over Lilly Lake.

A number of nights, some of us waited for the lights in the lodge to be turned out (who turned that light on again!!!) and let our amazingly designed eyes get accustomed to the darkness to see our small corner of the universe, and see a small number of the billion billion (billion?) stars which humble us before the One who knows each one by name.  Away from the lights of Southwestern Ontario, the night sky becomes inspiring.

Southern night sky over the lake.

This is the first time I've really used one of the features on our camera - it has a multi-frame noise reduction mode.  It takes six frames, then with some software wizardry, aligns and subtracts noise, as best it can.  The alignment of the images is obvious.  For these pictures, each of the six shots is a 30 second exposure, and the night sky is moving enough that over 3 minutes, the stars in the image are definitely not in the same place from beginning to end.

The second shot below is at a higher ISO (3200 compared to 1600 for the first), showing the more distant,  cloudy areas of the sky which are the Milky Way, just slightly visible in the image above.  Noise definitely does more than creep into the bottom third of the picture.  We weren't sure what the orange hue above the horizon was (more pronounced in the shot above).  It was mid-night, and Bancroft is almost due north, while this picture is pretty much the south sky.  Is it possible that that's the "halo" of the Toronto (GTA)?     (Click on the pictures to view larger.)

Night sky showing portions of the Milky Way more pronounced.

The Big Dipper was just setting behind the trees behind the lodge.

The Big Dipper in the northern sky.

When I consider Your heavens,

the work of Your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which You have set in place,

what is mankind that You are mindful of them,

human beings that You care for them?

Psalm 8:3,4

He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.

Psalm 147:4

I was able to get some wildlife photos during the week as well... I'll post some of them soon.