Tag: Nature
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Bald Eagle Surveying Lake Champlain
While returning to Essex from Elizabethtown this afternoon I spied this handsome bald eagle perched 20 to 30 feet above Whallons Bay. He was surveying the glass-flat, frigid (37° isn’t quite freezing, but it’s not far off) waters of Lake Champlain, head pivoting jerkily. Although he never took flight, never plunged down to grab a lake trout…
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Bald Eagle Omen
I share with you a bald eagle omen, courtesy of my mother. Bald eagle by your boat house. Saw this elegant creature as I went to massage and he was still there when I returned. May be a sign of something good? ~ Melissa Davis Rosslyn’s boathouse is often frequented by bald eagles, hawks, and other…
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Bobcat Sighting
This handsome bobcat (Lynx rufus) was photographed with game camera in one of our meadows on January 2, 2016. Friend and Essex neighbor John Davis mounted the camera about a month ago. In addition to photographs of deer, turkeys, and rabbits he discovered four images (from two separate occasions) of this healthy bobcat. In fact, he thinks it might possibly…
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Beavers & Boathouses
We noticed yesterday that a beaver (or beavers?) have selected a pair of trees on our neighbor’s waterfront to sharpen their teeth. One is a large cottonwood with a pair of fallen locusts hung up on it. The beaver (Castor canadensis) has already gotten a pretty good start, and the tree is laaarge and disconcertingly…
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De-Icing the Duck Pond
Let me start by saying that we don’t have a duck pond. We have a lake. Lake Champlain. And although it pains me slightly to say it, we also don’t have any ducks. Not personally, at least. Lake Champlain, on the other hand, has plenty of ducks. And when the lake freezes and the ducks…
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Early Autumn
Autumn appears to be coming early this year. For at least a week nights have been dropping into the chilly 50s. And this morning I see that temperatures slid even lower. Perhaps this is normal? Yet it doesn’t seem normal. The 40s in mid August? In Essex, New York? On the shores of Lake Champlain…
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Rainbow Ramble
At the end of the rainbow… A ferry! That seems like the perfect, cheesoise title for this photo I just snapped standing in the road between our home and the boathouse. Looking east at Vermont’s Green Mountains, though you’ll have to take my word for it since the rain and fog have veiled the view.…
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Birdwatchers and Golden-Winged Warblers
Found him! Birdwatchers from across the United States studied the elusive golden-winged warbler as part of the 12th Annual Adirondack Birding Celebration June 6 at an Essex thicket. The golden-winged warbler is a “species of special concern,” said trip leader Brian McAllister. Populations have declined precipitously during the past 45 years due to a loss…
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Decrypting Bird Tracks in Snow
I don’t recall whether or not I was fascinated with animal and bird tracks in snow as a child, but I suspect I was. I am now… (Fox Tracks, Foxtrot & X-Country Skiing) It wasn’t until my nephews (now teenagers but still “pocket sized” then) began asking me to identify bird tracks in snow, four…
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Fox Tracks, Foxtrot & X-Country Skiing
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An inch or two of fresh powder and bluebird skies above lured me away from my desk on Monday for a mid-morning x-country ski outing with my lab. Hooky! Crisp but otherwise perfect conditions were the enticement; fresh fox tracks (I think) were the unanticipated reward. Griffin, my water and snow loving labrador retriever was…
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Mallard Jacuzzi
As Lake Champlain freezes and thaws and freezes again, trying to create a seamless skateable expanse between the Adirondack Coast and Vermont, Rosslyn’s boathouse bubbler offers the wild ducks welcome refuge. It’s a veritable mallard jacuzzi! Or a bald eagle buffet? The shrewd raptors observe from the trees nearby, waiting… Ducks at Dawn on Icy…