And a partridge in a pear tree...

Or maybe that should be six grouse in a tagaltar tree!

While barbecuing the other night we heard a lot of commotion up in the bushes behind our house and decided to investigate. It turned out we had six ruffed grouse devouring the berries of a tagaltar tree. We had heard that our mama grouse had five or six little ones but we haven't seen them all summer. She has certainly kept them well hidden up until now. I imagine that with our pet fox gone the little ones have had a better chance of survival this summer. Many years we've seen two or three on our property in the fall but this is the most I've seen in one place in the last six years. Mike was able to get quite close to them before they scattered: the berries must have been extra good!

Snapping turtles

This one's for you Cheryl! You got me thinking about our turtle friends. I grew up just an hour north of Temagami but as far as I know we do not have snappers up there.

We are always entertained by these turtles when we go houseboating in Cross Lake. They seem to know the sound of the houseboat motor and that it could mean food for them. It usually doesn't take long for them to show up and make themselves right at home under our houseboat.

It's fascinating to watch them eat the leftovers from Mike cleaning our fish. Apparently snappers need to eat underwater because their tongues are fixed, making it difficult to swallow when they are

out of the water. It's amazing how long they can stay down there chewing and tearing away at the skins and carcasses.

Once again I read that they rarely bite when in the water so swimming should be safe while they are around. You'll have to decide for yourself how much you want to believe what you

read...especially on the internet :) I know that I have swam quite close to them before without realizing it and not come to any harm. However when they are on land it is quite a different story. The snapping turtle cannot fully pull its head, tail and limbs into its shell. That may be why they are so aggressive when they feel threatened on land. I've heard stories about a snapper getting so upset it stood on its back legs and rocked back and forth hissing. I don't recommend aggravating a snapper this much. Besides it being unkind they have very long necks and could surprise you by how far they can reach to bite you in self-defense.

This June a group of guys on one of our houseboats got to watch a female snapper digging holes in which to lay her eggs. Apparently she dug most of the campsite up trying to find an appropriate place to lay them. Snapping turtles normally lay 20-30 eggs that will hatch in 50-60 days. Many of these nests are discovered by predators and the little ones eaten before they ever reach the water. Interestingly enough the weather affects the sex of the baby turtles! If it's a cool spring most of the hatchlings will be male. If it's warm most of the little ones will be female. Who knew!

It takes snapping turtles 15-20 years to reach maturity. That is one of the reasons why these

turtles have been designated a special concern species by the Ontario Endangered Species Act, 2007. Many females are killed on the road as they search for an appropriate place to lay their eggs. As a result the females may only lay a few nests of eggs in their lives. Many nests are destroyed: we have seen little evidence over the last few years of baby turtles having hatched from the nests around our campsite on Cross Lake. There seem to be many creatures who enjoy a snack of turtle eggs.

If you have any turtle stories to share I'd love to hear them!Here's a video Mike took of our snapper swimming by...

I found my facts on the following websites:

http://www.kawarthaturtle.org/species.html

http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/stdprodconsume/groups/lr/@mnr/@species/documents/document/276686.pdf

www.borealforest.org/reptiles/snapping_turtle.html

Our week houseboating

July 3-8 was our week to enjoy some time on the lake. I don't think we've ever been out when it was so warm. In fact the weather was HOT: but the lake was great for swimming. Mike always likes to go to Cross Lake to 'his' campsite. It's a nice spot but in the past I've been cautious about swimming there because there are some big snapping turtles around. This week Mike didn't try to lure them in with fish remains until later in the week and we didn't see them (although I'm sure they were there) so I told myself it would be fine to swim. I still have all my toes and 'apparently' the turtles are not normally aggressive when in the water.

We went out with my parents and they parked just across the bay at their own special spot where it's deep enough to catch smallmouth bass off the back of the houseboat. We had a nice time, sharing suppers together, playing some games, fishing and even my parents went in the water.

The fishing was good although it was windy at times. We caught a little bit of everything: some lake trout, some smallmouth bass, some northern pike, some pickerel and a whitefish.

It was great weather for resting and reading. The bugs were not bad at all...until the sun went down that is! Then you had better hope you were inside because the mosquitos were hungry after not being able to eat most of the day ... poor little things.

On the way home we stopped at the opening to the Tetapaga River. Even though it was windy I really wanted to put my kayak to use and travel at least part way up the river. I've been up it by boat but there's something about travelling by kayak: you get to see so much more. I saw what could have been a black duck with six ducklings. They were a little way off as I was entering the Tetapaga so it's hard to be sure exactly what kind of duck they were. I followed a great blue heron for a while. I'm sure he thought I was chasing him but really he just kept flying a little way ahead of me. I also saw a muskrat minding his own business. I was downwind from him so I'm not sure he ever noticed me. He took a small 'stream' off the main course through the wild rice. I also saw the cutest little flowers. They looked like they were growing in a patch of grass on rocks that would have been covered by water last year at this time. They were yellow and probably less than a centimeter across. I wish I'd been able to take a camera with me but even though I've never tipped the kayak I didn't want to chance getting the camera waterlogged!

The baby bass have hatched!

As promised here is a quick update on the bass nests. We were a bit worried that some of the eggs had gone bad (one nest in particular was looking a bit fuzzy) but it seems that little ones have hatched out of all of the nests. We first noticed the clumps of black on Friday, but now they are much more visible as little fish. Mike took these pictures yesterday and as you can see they have begun to spread out. It won't be long before they begin to explore and hang out at the surface of the water.

This is the sixth time I've watched this process of the smallmouth bass coming to make their nests and protecting the little ones and it still facinates me. I love to walk along the docks every day and see how they are doing. Once they leave the nests and start to swim around these babies will still stay close to the docks where they can quickly hide underneath them if need be. We have also seen several little ones from last year and the year before who have returned to hang around the docks.

Can you identify these ducklings?

My mother-in-law was heading to the store yesterday when she saw these little guys walking down our driveway. By the time she returned home they had made it to the lake and were happily eating bugs and swimming around. They proceeded to swim down the bay towards a very shallow area. Unfortunately we watched helplessly as a seagull swooped down to make a snack out of one of them. And so now there is only one...

We have tried to identify them without success. Both the internet and the bird books have little to say about a duck with this kind of facial marking.

There is a pair of small, shy, dark coloured ducks back in that bay but if these were their babies how did they come to be so far from home. If those are not their parents then the mystery remains: to whom do they belong? Can anyone help us figure out what kind of duckling they may be?

Fall Fire Reminder

The current fire ban imposed across our region reminds me of a disturbing and scary experience I had last year. Last fall I took my last fishing trip with my father in law into Cross Lake for late season bass. It wasn't a productive trip for bass, but I was glad I went. There were very few people on the lake, and especially in Cross. As we entered the northeast arm of Cross Lake, we passed by the first big island with a campsite on our right. The sight even from the moderate distance of the main channel of the arm caused me some concern. I stopped the boat and grabbed my camera, using my zoom lens as binoculars.

My suspicions were confirmed, it was indeed smoke I saw rising from the middle of the island, and there was no one near the source. A slightly more detailed look showed the black trail that the fire had made from a campfire along the shore into the bush behind. A scan of the area showed a blue and white houseboat leaving the campsite at the southern end of the island. I tried my VHF radio, hoping I could reach base from Cross Lake. I could not. There was simply too much distance and high ground between me and home base.

We quickly scouted the area to assess the fire condition. My experience as a volunteer firefighter gave me the knowledge of what to look for, and it took no time to see that the fire had gone underground and was in serious danger of becoming a forest fire if the conditions changed. It was also something we couldn't fight ourselves with the small pail we had. We left and caught up with the houseboat leaving the area in hopes of a higher antenna being able to reach out further. We stopped the boat and talked to the friendly folks on board. They used their radio and called back to their base at the hub of Lake Temagami, who relayed the message to the MNR about the fire.

We returned to the fire site and proceeded to put water on the areas that were starting to come to the surface around some of the trees, fire licking at their trunks. As water ran through the top layer of soil to the rocks below, you could hear the intense sizzling as water vaporized against the superheated rocks below. We did what we could, then continued fishing. As we fished in a secluded bay, the weather turned to drizzle, and a short time later we heard the faint sound of a water pump running.

We gave up on our fruitless fishing expedition and headed for home, noting the MNR boat and firefighter hosing the fire site with a portable pump and fire hose only a few hours after our first spotting the smoke and having it called in. I applaud the fast response of the MNR to the ticking timebomb of a forest fire in the making. It would have been a sad sight this year if the island, and who knows how much more of the surrounding forest, would have been nothing but cinders and blackened trees standing in the wilderness.

I don't know who was on the houseboat, but it could have been any boat, and anyone who was leaving the campsite. They had been there three days and had seen the smoke, and no one around, but had done NOTHING. They did not think it strange, they did not investigate, and they continued about their business, leaving a smoking island at the end of their stay. Please, I beg of you, DO NOT display that same ignorance when you are enjoying the Temagami wilderness this season. I am not using this story to point fingers, but to be a somber reminder that we all have a serious part to play in fire safety. With the fire ban on, the forest is tinder dry. If you see smoke, investigate. It doesn't matter if there is a fire ban on or not, if there is no one around the smoke, it deserves closer attention. If there is a fire ban on, it deserves immediate attention, even with people around. They need to be told that a fire ban is in effect and that the fire must be put out.

If you are found responsible for a forest fire, you will be liable for the cost incurred fighting the fire, and I'm sure those water bombers and helicopters aren't cheap. So be smart. Make sure that when you are able to have a campfire, that it is out and cold to the touch before you leave. Douse the fire with water, then turn your leftover wood to expose the undersides and douse it again. Continue doing so, turning and dousing with water, until it is cold. Don't be like the folks this weekend whom I watched setting off fireworks and throwing caution to the wind. Don't toss your butts to the ground without making sure they are out. One spark is all it takes. Let's all work together to make sure the Temagami wilderness is here for all to enjoy for years to come.

Prize Laker: caught and released

One of our private houseboat customers came back Monday from an exciting week of fishing. They caught this beautiful lake trout while wire lining on the bottom of Lake Temagami with a big silver spoon. It weighed in at 31.2 lbs. They spent about 45 minutes reviving the laker after his ordeal and watched him swim away to live another day. Pictured below is another nice catch by the same group of guys. All in all it seems to have been a good week of fishing!

All this week our customers have been having good luck catching lake trout. Early in the week they were catching them in as shallow as 15 feet of water but this warm weather has caused the water to warm up quickly and the trout are retreating to cooler places.