Alone Again, naturally...

 I'm Home Alone...

 Well almost!  Just me and 7 of my closest friends...3 grouped up for photos..




After 4 days of drizzle, the sun came out!   

 

       

 the path has returned along the banks of Twenty Five Mile creek

               the flooding situation receding...

 

I think it's down by about 5 ft? This is the top of the sign from last visit, and the sign now...

        
    

Funny how I never really wanted a cell phone now I feel lost without one...
I broke my phone this week...Blame Murphy! Murphy Gas that is, I was trying to download the APP so I can save a few cents per gallon, in that process long story short my phone was destroyed so I'm waiting on a replacement and Im already fretting about how hard it will be to get it up to snuff! OMG not looking forward to that.  Can you recite anyone's phone number? I can't!! But I used to have them all stored right in my hippocampus. 



I hope this is the last load of firewood I have to split...IM really tired of it at
this point..urggg. 

 Friday, I went to check on the Wisacky Beaver Dam 

 Y'all know I have a vested interest in this particular dam, and all looks good.  It was a cold blustery day a few birds were around... enough to make me smile!  This little Song Sparrow  was standing right on the dam...

I scared a couple of wood ducks upon my arrival all I heard was them leaving in one great swoosh of wings beating on water...The road going up to the cemetery, Broad Branch Cemetery is right by this wetland that's how we found this spot...we photo'd that cemetery last spring if you recall the one where the snake came out from under the stone?  I spun through the 2 big mud slops that seem to never go away and found a dry place to park and do a little exploring..

This view of the pond is from the side that borders the cemetery...I walked down, the bank is pretty overgrown lots of brier, and such...

I'm happy for that, no good for fishing off this bank...so better for the environment to keep fishermen and the trash and line they leave behind ,OUT; I wish I could slip a kayak in and paddle up stream tho...

Think I found a beaver slide area...this spot...not only is it in use, there's evidence of active cutting taking place for dam material..

Very happy I explored because when I checked the Eagle nest from this vantage point I found it occupied!  THRILLED ME. 

last year this nest fledged 2 chicks if you recall my visits to it...  (postings by month/year on right side bar)

I checked found nothing in January, so maybe they were a little late getting some eggs laid or I just didn't see them.   But I def saw one chick's face  poking up from the nest today in this shot..and the adult was feeding a fish..

And from another angle...

The dirt road takes you through the cemetery and out to another black top that straddles this wetland...and on the opposite side I disturbed the nesting of a Red Shouldered Hawk...

A little video of the ruckus...I didn't hang around cause I didn't want to upset the family more than I already had I wouldn't have even known the nest was there if the bird hadn't started screeching.

Before I left I scanned beyond the trees and I think I have spotted the Beaver Lodge,,,he/she is pretty far away from the dam, and is in a protected area opposite the highway...hope you can make it out in this shot...look beyond the scrubby stuff that is in the foreground...it's big!

Now I know where to scan for the beaver! But unfortunately there is a house almost directly across the road from this vantage point up on a hill...I hope they are clueless about the beaver.  Most people seem to be clueless about wildlife right in their own backyard.

Saw other birds around, and another big flock of Red-Winged Blackbirds in the field, the wild mustard plants are starting to bloom, so pretty! 

And on the way home the Timber Creek Wild Turkey flock is back together again!  There was about 30 of them scattered around this field...and I found one hole in he trees to get a look through at some of them...

This day started out being a sad and lonely day where I was missing all my loved ones...I'm so glad I decided to go to Lee County and found some special friends to help me get through it.

 PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Keystone Species

It was 79 degrees!  It was an amazingly beautiful day as the humidity was only 39%.  I worked outside gathering up what I hope will be the last wood pile I will need.  I find the recently fallen trees, or ones that are about to fall and that is what I use...I don't cut a tree UNLESS it's a hazard, has grown in  a spot that it can not fit, or is so deformed it will be a hazard.  

  

Today I found a Longleaf Pine seedling as they just replanted the clear cut area..So I found a seedling laying in the road I brought it home and planted it! In about 100-150 yrs it will reach maturity!  Some can be 500 yrs old.  It's a Keystone Species...and native to SC  This means we could have Red Cockaded Woodpecker numbers increase as now as much as 40% of pines planted are Longleaf.  These are being planted for a cash crop so they won't be allowed to reach that ripe old age...anyway I planted that one and there's others growing here too.

I took a Sunday Drive to this spot:

Beaver is also a Keystone species for ecosystem development! I did find a scientific paper about the Beaver, it will take hours to read and even more for my under-educated brain to comprehend...but I'm going to try. To me it's only smart to want to increase the size of Riparian areas especially since so much wetland (286 Million acres) has been drained to increase farm acreage, build roads, and subdivisions! 

Can you imagine with a little work and a lot of planning Beaver could actually bring more water to the Deserts.  The Beaver was eradicated due to early settlers having a fur hat on their head.  There was no rules or regs on taking them same as the Buffalo.  Today, on private land they can be hunted year round and on public lands like this place there is a season of Oct 1 - Mar 1  So currently in season! The reintroduction of beaver was a success but not completely. 

I found this lodge! No Beaver around but another River Otter, (above photo) he was very camera shy...

               I hope there is a Beaver sleeping inside this lodge. 

When I was in Canada I saw Muskrat lodges, they have lots of mud in them and grasses and smaller twigs are not finely thatched like a beaver's work  is, it's like a lazy attempt to be like a beaver..lol But I also saw Muskrat out of the water and it's really a cool animal I saw them in Texas, Florida, and Colorado!

you can see the beaver habitat, and the lodge on the right upper before the tree line

I did not find the dam This is a beautiful wetland on the Singleton Creek in the  Wildlife Management area and a hunter could come here and shoot a Beaver in season...and an OTTER too! I found 3 kingfishers in this area, you can see the beaver pond is still somewhat intact maybe his dam is under the bridge I had no way to see under the bridge I was on.  Here is the opposite side.  It is flowing toward me, and then under the bridge, it heads on till it empties into the Wateree Lake.

red-headed woodpecker

There is another road I can take it winds down to where Singleton Creek flows into the Wateree Lake.  So next time I will explore that road. 

This is a huge WMA.  I would avoid it during main deer hunting season tho.  And I  wished for my sisters and their 4 x 4's and all wheel drive vehicles to  continue on the road with as you see it in the distance in that shot above.  I went in as far as the Kiosk which I forgot to get a photo of...I didn't sign in since I was not staying there was one other person in there he signed the log book and said he was hunting squirrel...can you imagine that?  It reminded me of some stories my Mom told us. 

Belted Kingfisher

My Mom's family used to go on hunting camp trips.  They would bring back turkey and squirrel, and camp by the river cooking and warmed by huge campfires.  They slept on a 'bed roll pallet" on the ground.   This game meat was used to feed the family.  The Appalachian women would gather star grass or peel shiny haw bark, which was a medicinal remedy for women who were prone to miscarry their babies  

It was the bark of the Black Haw tree with a shiny black color, known to the mountain people as "Shiny Haw." My mom spoke often of time spent with Grandmother Dovie, riding her horse Dixie down into the "hollers" to gather medicinal plants for trade with the "traveling store."

Anyone who can afford a vehicle to drive way back into these woods in 2020  does not need to kill a squirrel for food!  Even if you're homeless you can go to the Food Bank and get food free of charge.  My Mom's family would all crowd  into an old T-model with kids riding the running boards, or walking behind. 

What would turtles do without this Beaver Pond to live in? They need slow water and not the swift current of the creek.  I thought of Mom's camp trips while I watched this water slowly creep by.



... way on the other side of the pond a Great Blue Heron was also hunting...the beaver has created the perfect ecosystem...there is room for  Otter, Kingfisher, and Heron and they are finding food.  Snags provide perfect nesting cavities and  insects/worms for the Red Headed Woodpecker...and where there is small prey there must be a bird of prey to help keep that in check...

 

a red-tailed hawk

Shy River Otter swims back and forth

On the way I pass a few lake access points so I cruised down one, and found a Common Loon swimming around...that was fun, not a bird I see often. 

Spring is here in between we will have more cold snaps for sure..it will be interesting to see just how hot it will get this summer around the World. 

Don't forget to participate in the Backyard Bird Count coming up Feb 14-17.  All you do is keep a list of the birds you see in your backyard in a 15 minute time frame...Find out more by clicking the link. 

Till next week...I'm taking life  day by day. 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Blue Lake and Back in the States!

9/13/2016

I saw enough of Canada to realize it's a vast mostly uninhabited wilderness that I'd love to explore more if I ever get the chance again, and  hopefully I will and at a more leisure pace, like an entire summer?  But is there ever really enough time? If you spend days and days in one area you miss out on another area, my goal is to see as much as I can in the allotted time! Leaving Kakabeka Falls was hard I really wanted to just hang out there...but off I went!  From Kakabeka Falls to Blue Lake Provincial Park driving on the Trans Canada Highway its approximately 382 KM it's near the town of Vermillion Bay.  That's about 230 give or take miles, so half before lunch the rest after puts me in my camp at about the time of day I'm ready to stop which is 3 pm. 

And it was 5 days from closing for the season...so it was basically empty! There are some rustic looking cabins that sit right by the lake that one can rent...

the lake is large and it is a beauty! It was quiet the night I spent there.  I enjoyed the tree stumps/chainsaw art on the shore...like this Eagle coming in for a landing.

and this heron 

...even tho it was cool and breezy that day I spent some time walking along the shoreline and enjoyed the tranquility of the north woods, and next morning after breakfast I broke camp and took off for our last day of sightseeing in Canada,  the squirrels had obviously had a picnic on my table and didn't bother to clean up!  I would be re-entering the US at International Falls, MN.  

I stopped at a cemetery and was able to find one grave that had not been photo'd for the F.A. Grave website, and there was a Black Billed Magpie in the tree...he caught me off guard but I snapped this shot of him..I've only seen these guys way out west before, so I can add him to my Canadian Birds List. 

After the cemetery I decided to do a little off road trip.  There was a 19 mile "shortcut" to leave Blue Lake and then get back to highway and along this route was many "lodges". Many of these are rustic lodges for visitors. SO the road I took is Blue Lake Road. It was an awesome scenic drive.  For the most part the road was easy a few spots were sketchy...but I had no problem getting thru. 

The Aspens were starting to turn in this area...

after crossing the bridge over Red Story Lake I came up this sign of course I was curious so I stopped...

There was no sign of what this memorial was about, I found that out later via the internet.  

there's a few old buildings there too...

I found out that this school was run by the Catholic Church from 1925-1969.  It was a way to try and assimilate the Aboriginal people of Canada!  These were residential schools.  They tried to completely eradicate the spirit and belief system of the Indian people who were forced to go to these schools...Only recently did the Govt of Canada Issue an apology after the summary of the final report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). The report is a culmination of a six year study into the church run and government funded schools that existed in Canada for over 100 years.  People were tortured, abused, humiliated, and died!! It was an atrocity!  

stones and gifts left at the memorial

People living today were affected by this as it is ingrained in their family history...I did not know there was an overgrown cemetery near the location. I certainly would have paid my respects...I was able to at least reflect upon the fact that something had happened in this location and it seemed like a sad place...

As I continued on down the road I came upon this pretty beaver pond...complete with lodge.

Just one more delay...

A few more miles on the Trans Canada Hwy and then I crossed the border into International Falls Minnesota.  I stopped to exchange my currency at one of the duty free shops.

International Falls Mural

back in USA

...then secured my lodging at Wooden Frog, a Campground near Voyageurs N.P. A nice view of Lake Kabetogama is right by the campground.

The sun went down pretty fast that night...I went to watch the sunset and admire this tall aspen a beaver has decided to cut  down!!  No way he could drag this away...

Voyageurs is a park of water, islands, trees, rivers and lakes! Not the best time of year to go there Summer would def be better if one wished to kayak or to go boating even house boats are available for rent...

More of Voyageurs in my next post. 

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.