Nature settling into summer

Greetings from our cabin on Lake Tetonka. Had major problems with water lines at the cabin this spring. A friend, Ron Koble, also known as the handyman, fixed all of the leaky lines. We fired up the water heater, started the window air conditioner, and with some food and clean bed sheets we are all settled in. 

At the lake cabin, it's time for me to sit back and observe some of the wonderful things happening in nature. 

After outfitting several of our birdhouses for his wife-to-be, our little wren finally called in his mate. She chose the house that I have never had a bird build a nest in. I was overjoyed and so was my buddy, the wren. He sits every morning on a post next to the bird house chattering away with joy, waiting for his family of little fledglings to arrive. 

Swallows have built a nest under the canopy of my boat lift. I’m amazed at how they build a perfect clay pot made out of mud in a corner of the lift. They are welcomed guests and never leave cream stains on the carpet of the boat as they fly in and out hundreds of times a day.

No wood ducks in the wood duck box this year: A squirrel decided to raise her family in there. The box is attached 12 feet up on a light pole which I keep wrapped in tin with the plan that squirrels or other intruders won’t be able to climb past. 

A limb of an oak tree is located about four feet from the box. To establish her nursery, the mother squirrel has been jumping from the limb onto the box to enter the hole. A few days ago there they were; two bushy-tailed young squirrels running around the box, trying to get up enough courage to jump to the tree limb where their mother sat chattering away and flashing her tail.

After a half hour of commotion and baby squirrels running around the box, one by one they jumped to the tree. The good thing from my perspective is that they can’t get back into the box and so have moved on to a new neighborhood. With them gone, I decided to get on the ladder, clean out the box, put in new cedar shavings, and hope for a wood duck family next spring. 

Lisa shared with me that a friend of hers–who will remain nameless–rescued a baby squirrel she found on their deck, and then contracted fleas. They had to come from the squirrel. Guess what, the box will remain just as it is until next year. 

A bird feeder hangs just off our deck and I hang a couple of plastic dishes filled with grape jelly in holes in the feeder. We have a half dozen orioles, along with sparrows, catbirds, and grackles emptying the dishes daily. I’ve observed nest materials stuck in the empty dishes when I go to fill them. One of the birds must be a great engineer, using jelly to stick the materials together, to form and shape a nest. 

A mud turtle was swimming under the dock; I observed a largemouth bass following it wherever it swam. This went on for a couple of days. Either the bass was feeding on food the turtle stirred up from the bottom, or it thought the turtle was another beautiful bass looking for a place to build its nest. Speaking of turtles, I’ve picked up two painted shell turtles off the road on my way to downtown Waterville. I’ve returned them to the water; I know our late, beautiful daughter “KT” would be oh so proud. 

Every once in a while hundreds of cormorants are joined by a handful of pelicans to hunt for fish on the lake in front of our dock. When a cormorant comes up with a fish too big to swallow, a couple of pelicans will mug him and steal the fish for a tasty meal. I was fishing on Big Stone Lake with my family; we were catching big bluegills and perch along with a few sheephead. Sheephead are a large rough fish and undesirable for eating. When squeezed, sheephead croak or make a “baa baa” sound; thus the name. A couple of pelicans were swimming close to the boat waiting for a meal. My grannies fed one of the pelicans two sheephead; the bird swallowed both of them head first, very entertaining to watch. We figured the pelican flew away with six pounds of fish in its belly. 

We have a shed on our lake property. I observed a woodchuck standing behind it. After investigating, I found he’d burrowed a nice tunnel under the shed. The woodchuck could become a real problem, especially with our dog Sammy running around. I didn’t see him for a couple of days, but was planning on buying a live trap. My neighbor came over from a couple cabins down and asked me what I knew about beavers. She said that they had one burrowed up in rocks down by the lake. I replied, “Don’t think it's a beaver, probably a woodchuck.” Good riddance to the woodchuck, glad the neighbors can deal with it!

In closing, just heard on the news this morning that the average wedding in Minnesota costs $25,000. Baby Boomers, guess we paid for weddings for our children during the good old days. Might not be a bad idea for a couple nowadays to elope. Mom and Dad may consider giving them $10,000 to do so! Enjoy your summer, enjoy the heat.