Long Lake Yarns

You have to look closely. It’s not a log. It’s not a a dog. It’s a white-tail deer, taking a swim late in October, when Long Lake was already very cold. An internet search (do deer swim) reveals what apparently everyone but me already knew, confirmed by many youtube videos. Yes, deer swim. They are [...]

Meet the lowly meadow vole. Microtus Pennsylvanicus. (And I have no idea what Pennsylvania has to do with it.) The meadow vole can birth up to fifteen litters a year. Litters average about seven pups. Female offspring are ready to birth their own litters in three weeks. (That “three” is not a typo.) A mother [...]

That’s me paddling with five, yes five, loons. We had no loon chicks hatch on the lake this summer. Early rumor was one hatched, but we think not. We know at least one pair was nesting on Belly Button Island when a major tornado-like blow blew through. Shortly after, the nest was abandoned. It is [...]

“If you have a good defense, being smart or fast is overrated.”  Steve. Porcupine: “This is a DEELICIOUS downed branch I’ve happened upon here in the middle of the path.” “Yipes. Trapped like a rat, whatever a rat is. I don’t know what that big ugly thing is but I better boogie to cover.” “I’ve [...]

Steve paddled into Ghost Bay early one day last week and was able to watch a mother raccoon and her three adolescent kits. These are two of the kits. Mom clambered up the bank at Steve’s approach. But the three kits continued their clamming and hamming it up as if oblivious to the approaching kayak. [...]