July 28, 2005

• LIFE ON THE LAKE

  Sorry about the long delay in updates. Here in Maine I have to communicate over a rusty fence wire and by the time I've checked all your blogs, I'm timed out.

  For the past couple of weeks, we seem to have been the only cool (well, mostly cool) place in the U.S. but even DownEast has its warm days and weird weather. We had a line squall/thunderstorm yesterday and all of the area down east Bangor to Bar harbor lost power for five hours. there was a time when this would not have bothered us, but, like everyone else, we are now dependent on electricity and we don't really miss the days of kerosene and pumping water.

  Our lake is very high this summer and this has apparently affected the loon population. I suspect some of their nests were washed out. We have only one or two chicks this summer, which our resident Bald eagles eye with hungry interest. Loons are big, quite aggressive birds but seem terrified by the eagles, at least judging from the alarm calls. Most of the other water birds (mergansers, cormorants, ducks) stay well away from the loons, who will not hesitate to attack and kill them. Only the seagulls and crows ignore them.

  • 10:11 am
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