Summer At Last

It’s the end of July and summer is in full swing. Our spring lasts through mid-June so we have about two months of typical summer. Being on the lake we normally have afternoon breezes, which cool everything off nicely. It’s a rare Maine evening when you don’t need a sweater. Before I moved to Maine – coming from the hot and humid Washington DC area - I could not imagine why anyone would want any of the sweaters so nicely advertised in LL Bean’s summer catalogue. Now I know better!

We have had a lot of baby birds this year. We started out with the cutest Canada geese babies. We’ve also been able to watch a family of black ducks raise 6 babies and merganser ducks with 10 little ones. Sadly our eagles, after working to rebuild their nest in early March, just abandoned it by the end of the month. While the adults are still in the area, there are no babies this year. This happened a couple of years ago and the State biologists speculated that because the juvenal from the previous year had not left the area the parents just decided that if they couldn’t get rid of the first one, they didn’t need any more! Interesting parenting style to say the least.

The first week of July I was out kayaking on the lake, and came around one of the small island and to my surprise there was a loon on a nest. Needless to say I moved away as quickly and quietly as I could. Loons have been known to abandon their nests if they feel threatened. About a week later my daugher and I cautiously went back to the area. We saw two adult loons. Then I looked closer and there, under the wing of the mom, was a little newly hatched chick. For the first few days of their lives, the babies ride on their parent’s back to stay safe and warm. What a treat to see. We normally have at least 8 loons on our lake in the summer. They are magical birds to say the least.

We have been having guests from all over the US and the world this summer. Families from Ireland, Denmark, Canada, and Germany have visited. Roger and Anne Marie Telford from Northern Ireland took a hike in the Great Pond Mountain Wildlands area near our lake and came across the cutest little groundhog just waiting to have its picture taken.

We have been having a wonderful wedding season so far. Almost a dozen couples have held beautiful lakeside ceremonies so far this year. While we are booking events for next year already we still have a few fall dates this year still open.I hope everyone is having a great summer!