Back To Nature

We have taken lots of kayak trips in the past week and were lucky enough to see lots of wildlife in our travels. We were even stealth enough in Lake George's Northwest Bay to sneak by this mother mallard duck and her babies, without waking her up...

Although this mother mallard was awake at the kayak launch at Bolton Landing, her ducklings were not about to move when I tried to get out of the kayak at the ramp...

However, when I shooed them out of the way, I noticed something unusual about the brood. One of the ducks was much smaller than the rest. I have a feeling the little one was adopted!

South of Bolton landing we were given the evil eye and screams from this osprey in a nest...

Keeping up with the nesting season, we were really thrilled to come across a huge snapping turtle digging a hole to lay eggs, on the side of the walking trail behind the Ticonderoga ballfields. There are so many holes on the side of the path from turtles. Hopefully the foxes won't get too many of the eggs like they did last year. We also rescued a snapping turtle trying to cross the road in Ti, and guided him back towards the La Chute River. They are so prehistoric looking...

Even at home, we continue to have toads laying egg cases in our fish pond. We had a big 'toad fest' last week with half a dozen of them in the small pool. It turned the water green for awhile, but now at least we can see our goldfish again once it all settled and the tadpoles hatched. There are a few tadpoles left, but I have a feeling that the fish have been eating well...

The red-tail hawks have been very active too. Their screeches while soaring indicate that they too are looking for a mate. This one sat on our big cauldron for about an hour preening and looking nice for its mate. However, the rest of the birds and chipmunks were not too happy about this predator hanging around. Eventually robins started dive bombing the hawk and it flew off.

It's definitely 'THAT' time of year and it's fun to see mother nature at her finest...or sometimes not so fine. Lorraine, one of our friends from the Bahamas, sent us this photo of our apartment in Hope Town with the woodpecker peeking out from inside the outer apartment siding! It is high up in the corner, above the birdhouse (where it should have been nesting). Luckily it hadn't gotten inside...yet.

For the most part though, we still treasure our time spent with all our wildlife. 😀