Eagle Watch 2013

Here's the thing....

We like the eagles.  And its not just because we'd be feathered and tarred if we didn't (is that too ironic, perhaps?) but we genuinely like them.  I think they are quite moving really.  Such a regal creature.  Its not too surprising that we see a fair amount out at the lodge - I mean its call EAGLE Falls Lodge!  Many eagles are viewed daily, from out in the boat and from on the deck back at camp.

When looking out onto Parker Lake from the main lodge you will commonly see several on the first point to the left.  This is not by chance.  These birds may or may not be used to finding some fish scraps out on those rocks.  Here is the view I'm talking about....

Not a bad view from the office, huh?

Anyway.  The point on the left is where we see our friends the eagles.  Bald eagles.  GIANT bald eagles.  Here is that point a little closer.

See the eagles on the shore there?

So a common string of events goes as such:  

eagles fly over the water 

eagles circle closer to the point

eagles land on shoreline

they have secret eagle meetings

eagles finish secret eagle business

other birds are then allowed to come in to land.  

The eagle rules the roost up here so to speak.

This guy must have forgotten something in his office.

Oh good, he made it back before the snacks were gone.

This year there has been a ripple in the eagle SOP (standard operation procedure - as Travis likes to say).  There has been one eagle that we have yet to see fly.  Remember: birds = flying.  This said eagle prefers to either swim (again, remember: fish = swimming) or walk (various other creatures, i.e. NOT eagles = walking) to the point.  

The first time we saw this eagle swim was incredible.  Its wing span seemed to double in size!  Here is the point in the story where I remind our readers that Cosmo likes to make the trip out to the point.  Cosmo also has great interest in any stick, rock, beaver, etc. that he sees in the water.  What was that you say?  Oh, no big deal.  Just Cosmo jumping out of the boat and swimming towards a BALD EAGLE!!!!

Yea.  That happened.  More than once.  

Luckily, Cosmo is an excellent listener and we called him off.  Not before he and the eagle had some sort of deep animal world face-off that was simultaneously terrifying and unbelievably cool.  

We don't have any pictures of this, unfortunately.  But we do have some pictures of the eagle on land.   

We have tried to respect this eagle's space and not disturb him too much, but we are getting a little worried.  Why won't this eagle fly?  Is it having some sort of animal identity crisis?  We wish we knew so that we could do something.  At first we assumed it was sick or hurt, but it seems to walk and swim no problem.  Very odd.  

We will continue to monitor the situation for you and if anything radical happens we will let you know.  

Also, if I am able to get my hands on any secret eagle meeting itineraries I'll be sure to leak them on the web.  

Happy Tuesday!

Moose sighting just between Vermillion Bay and Red Lake

Good morning all!

These pictures come from Ethan in Missouri and were taken on his way up to Eagle Falls Lodge last month.  We wanted to share these incredible pictures with you guys and give a quick reminder about making sure you are on the lookout for moose crossing the road as you are driving in Canada.  

If you have made the trip up before you have probably seen a sign similar to the one below, which warns of moose crossing the road.  They tend to be nocturnal and it can be dangerous when traveling at night.

Doesn't the picture above almost look photoshopped?   Absolutely incredible!  

They are amazing creatures, both on land and in water.  

Moose are the largest of the deer species and can weigh up to 1,800 pounds (820 kg).  Because of their giant antlers and long faces they prefer browsing in higher grasses because lowering their head can be difficult.  I wonder if they are able to give each other neck rubs?  Despite their large stature they are incredible swimmers and can swim several miles at a time and can stay completely submerged for 30 seconds or more. 

We have seen several from the camp already this year, including some calfs.  Female moose give birth in the spring to calves weighing about 30 lbs - can you imagine?  Just five days after birth the calves have grown enough to outrun a person!  

*The fun facts shared in this blog post were found on the National Geographic website, more information can be found here.

I think moose are my favorite of the wildlife creatures we get to see up here in Canada each summer.  What about you?

Oh - I almost forgot....

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!  You better believe we are celebrating tomorrow out at the lodge.  Hope everyone has a great holiday and safe travels!

Black bear sighting in camp!

Good morning everyone!

We are well into our 3rd week of guests (which doesn't seem possible) and they are having a great week so far.  Weather has stayed very nice, but we had an overcast day yesterday and we've gotten a little bit of rain in the evenings.

Travis' family is up here so he is finally making some time to fish with his siblings and dad while they are up this week.  Yesterday he snuck out for most of the day, so Mary-Jane and I had fun preparing the meals and hanging out around the lodge.

While we were busy making these.....

This guy (or gal) meandered into camp...

Yikes!  Before watching the video I need to do a little build-up for you all.

For those of you who don't know myself or Mary-Jane we have a TON of fun together.  Pretty much any mundane or undesirable task we face at Eagle Falls Lodge (or anywhere else for that matter) we can make fun.  So after our mountain of dishes yesterday morning we launched into pie making.  Mary-Jane was busy finishing the meringue on the coconut cream pie and getting it in the oven while I was battling a wasp in the hallway.  We have had our fair share of wasp battles this week for whatever reason.  Remind me to get Travis on that.

Anywho.   I had just swatted another wasp to death and opened the door to dispose of said wasp.  At this point I remembered I should probably do the cabin checks, so I start to leave the main lodge and head over to the big cabin.  I get just outside the door and I notice this big dark mass in front of me a little to the left.  My thought process is this: "How strange for Cosmo to be milling around outside.  Maybe he got stuck out here when everyone was leaving for the docks.  Waaaaaait a minute, my sweet puppy boy is yellow - not black.  Black = bear.  Bear = danger.  Oh crap, get back inside!"

For a timeframe reference, that entire conversation I had with myself took place in about the time Mary-Jane placed the pies in the oven to bake the meringue.

Panic and hilarity ensue.  Not once were we actually afraid.  I ran back inside yelling for the camera.

Sidenote:  Here at Eagle Falls Lodge the top of the refrigerator is a dumping ground for all random papers, screwdrivers, lures, pens, etc.  Naturally there is a camera waiting for us there for such an occasion.

We spend the next SEVERAL minutes taking photos and videos of the bear.  Where is our bear defender puppy, Cosmo, you ask?  Sacked out in his bed.  So much for that.  We didn't even start to think about having to deal with this bear situation until everything was adequately documented and discussed.  We were just getting ready to formulate a plan to get him/her out of camp when we realized THE PIES!!!  Drop the camera, oven mitts on, and swing open the oven door.  Whew, pies are fine.

Okay, back to the bear.  Mary-Jane did an excellent job scaring him/her back into the woods.  Oh, the adventures we have here at camp.  So much fun and excitement.  The best part was when Cosmo finally woke up and was outside he clearly could smell the bear.  With the hair on his back raised he quickly went into defensive mode - looking at us like "uh ladies, we should head back inside.  Seems we have a situation here - never fear, I will protect you!"  About 30 minutes too late, Cosmo.

You can hear us giggling in the background of the video.  Too funny.

You will be happy to know that the pies turned out beautifully!  Everyone seemed to enjoy them as a nice ending to the Monday night fish fry.

Did anyone else have unexpected guests yesterday?  We haven't had this type of unexpected guest in at least two years.  Sheesh.

Until next time.

Red Lake & Parker Lake Fishing Update - Lots of Nice Northern Pike

Good Morning!

I just finished helping our first week guests load everything up (in the rain and upper 40 degree temps!) for the ride home.  I'll be in town today making the usual stops to get our supplies for the group coming in tomorrow.  It looks like it will be pretty wet and fairly cool through the weekend but should be nice as we get into the work week.  By work week I mean fishing week, of course.

We will see what this brief cold snap does to the fishing, I guess that is why they call it fishing - right?

The first week ended much stronger than it started out.  The walleye are starting to turn on in their usual early summer spots in shallower water.  The water temperature keeps rising from the brisk 49-52 degrees I saw when I was out before guests arrived.  What we heard from our guests and the MNR officer that stopped into camp it didn't sound like anyone was having outstanding walleye action on Red Lake last week.  He was out checking fishing licenses, fish in camp, etc. and had already visited a few other lodges earlier in the day.

Plenty of walleye out there to keep you entertained and to enjoy a shore lunch if you choose!  What do you think - shore lunch or sack lunch?  The age old question of whether you take a mid-day break or are you one to fish hard ALL day?  I haven't made it out to a shore lunch yet this season, but they are definitely part of what makes a memorable Canadian fishing trip if you ask me.

We did have some guests catch some beautiful northern pike this week.  Josh caught this 44" northern pike on Red Lake on Wednesday afternoon.  He barely made it back for supper, he said the northern pike action was that good!  

Kim caught this 40" northern pike on Parker just yesterday.

Another nice sized northern caught and released this past week.

We are excited to see what happens in the coming weeks.  I think it should shape out to be a really nice month of fishing in June!


Oh, and then there's this.....

But, I'll let Travis tell you about his adventures another day!

Busy Beaver with Video!!!!

Travis and Travis and our friend Clyde were out catching a delicious walleye dinner just after season opener last week and they came across one of several beavers out on Parker Lake.  They managed to get extremely close to the beaver and captured some incredible pictures.  Apparently he wasn't too concerned with the audience he had while munching on a tasty birch log.  In the video you can hear the beaver eating, I kind of love it.  I can't decide if I think this beaver is cute or terrifying.  What do you think?  He/she is giant, for sure.

Did you know that beavers are Canada's national symbol and they can weigh up to 30 kilograms (or over 70 pounds)?  Beavers are North America's largest rodent.  Their teeth never stop growing, which is why they are always gnawing on logs.  They can be pretty dangerous in the water when threatened, which is why we keep Cosmo out of the water when we see one swimming by the docks.

Hope you get to see a beaver in action when you are at Eagle Falls Lodge this summer!

Into the Wild...

In addition to some great fishing this season, we've been fortunate to enjoy plenty of wildlife around the lodge.

A ruffed grouse hen has been running around camp since we have arrived and now has a large following of chicks. She gets pretty defensive when Cosmo gets too close to investigate. Mother grouse pictured below.



Here is one of the chicks making a break for it.



We have also enjoyed watching two baby eagles grow in the nest on Parker Lake. This is the 3rd season for the new nest and the 3rd season for two eaglets to hatch out. They are now learning to fly which is really fun to watch. The nest and young eagle can be seen in the lower part of the picture below and notice the mature eagle in the upper right.



There are also several bunches of ducklings on both lakes. A few have fallen victim to Northern Pike as snacks, but several have survived and they are growing fast.



Several loon nests have been spotted on both lakes. Here is a picture of the nest on the island closest to the lodge on Parker. Both eggs have since hatched and the chicks have already more than doubled in size.