Loons and Butterflies...Wildlife Waterside Stories..??

[spider solo]

I know quite the diverse category...
The last couple of times on the local pond I can't believe how many butterflies are flying across the open water... going... ?? I'm of the understanding that butterflies migrate...is this what I'm seeing...or just locals out and about on the sunny days ? Skinny dipping... I don't think so... figured they would avoid the water like crazy.

I've gotten used to dragonflies occasionaly hitching a ride or scooping them up and "saving" them by letting them dry off.... then they seem to proceeded to jump right back in....umm... don't think I'll ever understand that.

Loons..for the 1st time I saw one on Great Bay NH....he gave me a yodel or two just to let me know what he thought of me being out there I guess. As soon as I realized who I was dealing with...I gave him or her plenty of "elbow" room.
It is said that loons will start to congregate on local waters before starting for their winter destinations...has anybody noticed that?

Seems Hawks/ Ospreys should be moving about and heading out about now..or have they gone already?

Any Wildlife Waterside Stories" that you wouldn't have seen otherwise..
...ever have an Otter swim up and give their 2 cents of exactly what they thought of you...?

"Pecked to Death by Ducks" by Tim Cahill
could set one to wondering....

 

[AMF]

As far as the butterflies, you are probably seeing them starting their migration south. Its amazing - the butterflies born early in the year all die the same year after laying eggs. Its the 2nd generation that gets to live long enough to migrate. What kind of evolutionary trick is that?

But on the wildlife side, I saw an odd occurrence on the riverbank at work today - a gaggle of 6 geese was having a mixup with a flock of about 16 turkeys. The geese were all honking & posturing, while the turks basically paid 'em no mind & went about their business. Quite the scene!

 

[Jay H]

I saw a bunch of butterflys out in Penobscot Bay when Warren and I were paddling there. They were generally headed SW, which makes sense for their migration, but it brings meaning to "harbor crossing". These guys not only face a life or death gamble crossing the open waters, they do so with an inner ability to navigate. Makes our kayaking crossings a little less special I remember seeing my first monarch going across the penobscot bay, about to enter Stockton Harbor when we were headed back from Castine area on the monday we went out for a day paddle. I followed it for a bit, just coasting while the little guy was plotting west. I didn't want to scare or alter it's course so I kept a reasonable distance behind him. With the grey sky, it was very easy to spot him flutter off towards land and eventually he went out of sight. He would only fly about 10-12 feet off the water.

Later on, I had some large fish breach about 2feet left of my bow, which scared me, much like grouse when hiking in the woods!

Jay

 

[kaibar]

Wildlife

The butterflies went through Casco Bay about two weeks ago. My wife and I were out sailing and a few landed on the luff of the main sail to rest a while. As for wild life we actually have a Bald Eagle, about 4 Osprey, a few Great Blue Herons, some Egrets, numerous Sea Ducks and lots of seals right here in our cove.. It's easy to get dulled to seeing these things when you see them so often and I kind of wish I still had the magic of seeing the Bald Eagle for the first time. Actually the eagle almost swooped in and took one of our Dachshunds while he was running around on the intertidal zone...

-Acoustic

 

[kaibar]

Speaking of Castine...

We were just there in early September and I snapped this shot of a kayak on the dock at Dennett's Wharf. Was it anyone here??? I wonder how many degrees that compass is off??? Hope it does not get foggy!

 

[Stan]

I have a video of a loon casually floating by in the foreground, a bull moose feeding at the pond outlet and raising a rack dripping with weeds behind the loon, and ledge-scarred Mt. OJI as the backdrop.

I've portaged over many beaver dams but oddly the only time a beaver ever gave me that loud tail "splash!", a warning of some kind I believe, I was hiking along the shore.

I've come to take the routine sighting of osprey, eagles, loons, great blue herons and other wildlife for granted and very much a necessity of any paddling destination. I don't lose sight, however, of how fragile this joy is. Loons, for example, will abandon a pond and their nest if they get too stressed by our presence.

 

[spider solo]

who's viewing who...?

Much as Stan has mentioned.... it has been a bit of a learning curve to
realize that the sheer fact that we are poking about has an impact as we can inadvertently be invading some of the last hidden places of many species...
These days I try to use far more caution but still sometimes you just don't see the whole picture.
.... It was a Merlin that had my interest..I did not associate them with bogs and ponds...yet what was he doing skimming the water and plucking something up??
Fishing ? No that didn't make sense. We went for a closer look in fact to the bottom of his "feeding perch tree."
Well he was catching dragon flies...taking them to his tree and plucking the wings off and eating them wingless.
I thought this was pretty amazing...and spoke to my wife... alone... so I thought...but...as soon as I spoke a huge Moose stood up beside us !!
She was a big one and was apparently snoozing in the wet marsh grass beside us...only the tip of her nose and face were dry. She moved off none to happy with us, I'm afraid.
...Still if that is a "twice told tale"...

...... here are a couple of reversals on who's watching who....

...Few years back canoeing the Allagash Wilderness my friend in the stern calls to me... Look Quick !!
I turn to see a Moose tip toeing across the river..he apparently had waited for us to go by unseen, never thinking we would look up stream.
You know up till then I never knew they could walk tip toe like that...must be those ballet lessons...

this summer: We are kayaking to see two seal colonies. We know from other trips not to crowd them.. give them their space. Two different species of seals ...one shy and the other not so.

The not so shy...Loup de Mer... grey seal.."Wolf of the Sea." Not because they are vicious but because they howl !!
Early morning lots of coffee & calm seas.. we keep a respectful distance from all and enjoy the viewing from afar.
But boy do we need to find a landing place...too... much... coffee... we need to pee. We find a tiny beach at the base of some cliffs, well past the colonies, to land.
I jump out of the boat and facing the cliff do what needs to be done.
My wife jumps out to do the same..and gentleman that I am... turn to face away... where much to our surprise we have an audience.
Guess we were their entertainment and had followed our kayaks for aways.

Well, you know a "girls gotta do what a girls gotta do" and there is no hiding place... I'm not sure but I swear they raised themselves higher in the water ...For a better look.
I wasn't completely sure... till I saw one of those seal fellows give her a wink...
You know I'm not so sure they call them "the wolf"...for the reason I thought!!