Fun Observing the Animals

[Paradox]

Two weeks ago soon after paddling out to Temple Knoll Island in Lake George I went down to the dock to filter some drinking water. I finished filtering a few liters and was just sitting quietly looking out at the nearby islands and the mountains on the opposite shore. There was a large rock to my left that sort of hid me from that side but I heard some mergansers coming toward me. I could see them but they had not noticed me yet as they could only see my head, and I was not moving. They are a very skittish duck, and I was glad that I was going to get a nice close look at them, but alas no camera. They came aroung the corner and turned toward me still swimming calmly and ouacking softly. When the lead bird was less than 10 feet from me, and finally spots me, he gives out a loud QUACK, and turns tail away and all the the rest start screaming and squaking as they turn tail and run. That would would have made a fun video.

This past weekend I was camping on Lower Saranac Lake at the mouth of the channel leading to Lake Oseetah. I got up around 4 am to use the facilities and sat down at the picnic table as I did not want to climb back into the tent just yet. As I was sitting there in the quiet darkness I heard a couple of beavers at work across the channel. Gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, gnaw, and after 30 seconds or so I would hear the soft "eee, eee" that beavers use to communicate, then more gnaw, gnaw, gnaw. If you have ever seen the IMAX movie "Beavers: The biggest dam movie you ever saw!", you would recognize the "eee, eee" sound. After about 15 minutes I heard the loud "CRACK..... CRACK, CRACK then a soft "shush". No loud "CRUMPH" of a tree hitting the ground. Rather it was clear that the tree was hung up on another tree. There was total silence for about 10 seconds, then louder "EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE" as if they were vetching at each other about how the job should have been done. Very funny stuff.

 

[Chip]

They are a very skittish duck, and I was glad that I was going to get a nice close look at them, but alas no camera ... There was total silence for about 10 seconds, then louder "EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE, EEE" as if they were vetching at each other about how the job should have been done. Very funny stuff.

You never would (or probably would never) have experienced these if you had a camera. I believe predators, including those with a camera, are at some sort of evolved Darwinian disadvantage in these situations. Hooray for you.

 

[Sunshine Chris]

I love having experiences such as these. thanks for sharing.