Aug 13th: An Up-River Nature Tour!

I don't think I have sufficiently expressed just how awesome it is to be out here on the Brule River. So, let me make up for it by sharing the up-river canoe trip my parents and I went on this morning.  Paddles were in the water by about 8:30am.  We figured that was the best time to head out to see a good amount of animal life before all of the down-river traffic started up and scared everything away.  And were we ever right!

The first sighting took place within the first 10 minutes of the trip when we found a river otter swimming past us.  I've seen otters in the river before, but not for several years, so this was a definite treat.

Not long after, we rounded another bend and found a doe and fawn feeding.  The fawn seemed very nervous by the fact that we were there and kept looking at us to make sure we weren't a threat.  Not willing to find out if we were, the fawn left the premises fairly quickly.  The doe, however, was completely unphased.  She was fully aware of us being there, but felt confident enough that we were not there to attack her or the fawn, so she just kept on feeding.  We stayed to watch them for a VERY long time (the longest deer sighting that any of us had ever experience on the river) and then eventually decided to leave her alone and went along our way.

Then we made our way to Lucius Lake where we were hoping to see an eagle, and we were not disappointed.  Fortunately my Mom has no problem seeing things at a distance and managed to find the eagle in a manner of seconds.  It took me a little while longer, but I found it eventually and got my photo op.

Then we made our way under Castles Bridge ...

Under "the grotto" ...

To find our second eagle sighting.  The eagle is the black blob in the dead tree.  We got much closer but I thought that having the one eagle close up was sufficient.

We then continued into Big Lake and found the two eagle nests which we estimated were each a solid 6 feet tall.  

Then after seeing some Merganser and Wood Ducks, as well as some Kingfishers hovering in the air (looking like they were treading water without the water) then dive-bombing into the river to get their food, we decided to head back.  

On the trip back we were finally able to capture a picture of the one thing we all wanted to see - the eagle soaring!  I think my Mom ended up getting the better photo, but I still got the job done.

It turns out that there was another eagle that was also soaring high above the trees at the far end of Lucius Lake that this one went to join.  I guess hunting is easier when there are two of you.  Then as we got much closer to the cabin, we found another two eagles soaring VERY high above us.  We figured that these other two had to be the down river eagles (as we knew the next closest nest was down river of our cabin) because there was no way that they were the same eagles that we just saw.

So to sum up, this morning's up-river trip included:

1 river otter

1 doe

1 fawn

2 perched eagles

2 eagle nests

4 soaring eagles (2 of which were previously perched)

A number of hovering hungry Kingfishers

And a bunch of ducks!

All in all it was one of the most successful up-river trips I have ever been on!  What a way to start the day!