Emotional Roller Coaster

Porter Bay, Vermont
44 13.82 N 073 20.60 W


What a roller coaster.  The Champlain Canal was reopened for less than 30 hours before it closed again.  The culprit is more rain.  They say it is part of Tropical Storm Lee.  I don't understand that, Lee was far away on Monday, but it sure did rain.   Now, they say two more days of rain and flash flood warnings.  No idea when the canal will open after that.


We could go up Otter Creek to wait in Vergennes, but not with flash flood warnings.  It's much nicer here in Porter Bay.  We are the only people around.   


Enough of the negative, let me describe the wildlife here in Porter Bay.


Osprey are the current top of the heap here.   Years ago we never saw Osprey here.  Now there are plenty.  There are two families that live on Otter Creek just south of us, and two more families to the Northeast.   They like to ride the updraft on the windward side of tree line near where we anchor.  That means we have lots of time to watch them and to listen.   We learned two things.  First, they are extremely effective fishermen.  They appear to typically need only 15 or 20 minutes of soaring to make a catch to take back to the nest.  Second, I believe I can tell the difference between two of their cries.  One is directed at us and means "get away from here."  The other is directed at family members soaring nearby meaning "I'm over here."


Last week I watched an Osprey doing battle with a big carp here in Porter Bay.  They were in the shallows where the water is only six inches deep.   Obviously, this carp was far too heavy for the Osprey to lift in the air.  But he didn't want to give up.  The two of them thrashed and rolled for about 10 minutes.  Eventually, the osprey gave up and flew away.  The carp got to live another day.  However that poor carp must have a hundred or more puncture wounds from those long talons. He might not have lived long.


Eagles.  In past years there were two or three families of bald eagles around here.  Haven't seen them this year.  ???


Turkey Vultures also soar along the tree line near us.  They are so graceful in the sky and such skilled at flying.  They are so ugly and clumsy on the ground or on a branch.  Of course we see them all up and down the coast (as we do ospreys).  I don't recall ever seeing a turkey vulture catch a meal.


Great Blue Herons.   These are perhaps our favorite birds.  They are so beautiful and so graceful.  They are fun to watch wading in the water and fun to see flying.  They seem to each have a favorite place to spend the night.  We see the same birds heading for the same spots just at sunset each night.  Their cry sounds like graaaak.


Kingfishers: We don't see them often but there are several here in the bay.  Very fun to watch.


Cormorants are birds we hate.  There used to be a huge flock of several thousand cormorants in Porter Bay, but now there are only a few.  The state has been trying to kill them as pests.


Gulls.  Normally we are not fond of seagulls either.  We have grown deaf to their distinctive cries.  After six years, it is so familiar, the sound doesn't register.   Yesterday I saw a gull who caught a fish too big to swallow.  That's fairly unusual.  They aren't like pelicans that seem to be able to swallow anything of any size.  So how to make a meal of the fish without swallowing it.  The gull worked and worked, and eventually his beak cut the belly and exposed the intestines.  Then it started taking bites of the entrails.  But as each bite broke from the fish, he dropped it.  Then the gull had to scramble to catch the carcass before it sank.  It was quite a juggling trick for the gull and obviously something unusual at which the gull was not skilled.  But it was hungry and persistent.


Deer and sometimes moose come to the shore for a drink of water. There are bears, but we never saw one.  At night, we are serenaded by crickets.   To you landlubbers, that's normal, but to us living on a boat it is a rare and special treat.  Normally we are too far from shore to hear crickets.


Last week, after the passage of Irene, we started hearing angry and anguished bellows.  They were very loud.  At first I thought it sounded like a cow overdue for milking.  Then we thought it might be a moose caught in a trap.  After an hour or so, Libby and I agreed.  It was an angry anguished cow.    Checking on Google Earth, I see that behind the veneer of trees and wetlands we see, there is a farm close by.


Finally, we have some kind of swimming mammal.   We see it swimming around the bay before sunset.   It could be an otter, but I think it is a muskrat.  I know its not a beaver because they slap their tails and we would hear it.  In any case, it is too far away to identify.


One night I saw a really big animal swimming across the bay.  I got all excited watching it come my way.  What could it be?   When it finally came close enough, what a surprise.  It was a woman.  She had a swimming cap and a racer's type swim suit.  She swam all the way across the bay and back.  Oh well, I can't count her as wildlife.


FIsh?  Lots of fish.  Big ones too.  In the early morning and late evening they leap out of the water.  Makes me wish I knew how to fly fish.  I know that record size lake trout and salmon have been caught nearby.   


p.s. Earlier blogs about Porter Bay:  Porter In the Morning   North Versus South and many more.  Searching my archives, I found almost 30 previous blog posts about Porter Bay.  Obviously, this is a place that inspires.