Loons are true creatures of the wilderness, inhabiting back country lakes, hiding in coves, diving underwater when potential threat loom on the shoreline, like a photographer or humans in general.   Loons are beautiful, regal in bearing, with that mysterious red cast to their eyes and haunting mating cry.

The wonders of modern photography technology… increasingly long lenses available for amateurs like me… make it possible to capture wildlife like loons from a considerable distance… these loons were playing on Bear Pond in the heart of the Whitney Wilderness tract…

The loon above was stretching her wings while the one below was shaking off droplets after diving underwater…

Read more about loons here.

While watching the loons I spotted another wetlands inhabitant, the elusive Belted Kingfisher that perches on branches near water and then darts about catching fish… this bird is fast and does not hang around for portraits…

Not a second later the bird took off across the lake and I turned back to loon watching…

Ferocious thunderstorms are a hallmark of Adirondack summers, and this summer the rain and thunder have been amazing… keeping the nights cold, days cool, and breeze on the lakes (makes it hard to kayak, but otherwise it's a delight)…

Living this close to nature provides endlessly fascinating glimpses of how the wild things really are.   While many seem wise, instinctive, and perhaps even possessing a sixth sense, not all are smart.  In fact, a few local birds seem just plain.. stupid.  Consider this grouse standing in the middle of the road:

That's no defiant "I dare you to run over me" look… it's the "how the heck did I get here and how do I get away?" glassy stare…

Blue herons, on the other hand, are very canny, haughty, and disdainful of humans.   This one could not get away fast enough…

Loons are hard to find since they hide in the back country lakes, but every so often they like to preen…

Turtles, on the other hand, are just plain slow…

I'm on a conference call with one of the boards I sit on so I'm working out of my Tupper Lake office today…  what's that, you say, the president has an office in Tupper Lake??  What's going on here??  Calm down, folks, here's my office:

Pretty grand.   Lakeview, air conditioned all the time, plenty of sunshine, beautiful sunsets, the most stress-less office I've ever had!

Lots of wildlife activity up here… just this morning I saw a fox, racoon, blue heron, turtles, dragonflies, ducks galore…

The wild turkeys are busy producing the next Thanksgiving dinners:

Maybe we'll go vegan next year…

Dragonflies and damselflies are all over the place…

And the bullfrogs make happy music every night at sunset…

AAAaaaahhhhh!  Back to the cool nights, rain on the roof, sleeping late, breathing in that balsam-scented air, listening to nothing but the call of the loons…. it's Adirondack season again for me, and a return to the Adirondack Chronicles…..

Easy enough to pick up where I left off last year…. my friends Jackie and Joe left the cabin open for me, and by late Friday I was watching the sun set over Long Lake… heaven!

Nature's rhythms are so clear up here…. it's the season for birthing and raising the chicks again, so all over the place there are wee little furry things scampering after clucking mothers…. the common mergansers take care of their broods with the sixth sense of mothers sensing danger approaching, hopping off rocks and swimming away even though the photographer was at least 50 yards away….

Snapping turtles don't appear often, except when they burrow through the sandy soil to lay their eggs, which they then cover up in the hopes that some will hatch by fall…. this mother turtle happened to poke up near the road at Little Tupper Lake, and not even an hour later she was gone and the hole filled as if nothing had happened….

Birds abound, none so greedy as the cedar waxwings who love their berries…

Time for lunch!!

I need to start by saying that if friends and colleagues don't see me around for the next two weeks, I have NOT disappeared to hike the Appalachian trail or thrill-seeking in Buenos Aires.   I will be escaping to the woods, yes, to the Adirondacks where the loons have feathers and a haunting call that echoes from the lakes through the forests.   (And yes, fans, the Adirondack Chronicles will be returning to this space!)

I was trying to resist writing about this, since the general theme is so worn out it's hard to think of anything new to say.   But when I just read that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford said at his press conference this afternoon that he just spent "five days crying in Argentina" I could not resist.   Was he crying because he had to leave his honey to go back to the state capitol to attend to business?   Was he crying for the wife and children he has just disgraced?  Was he crying for the end to all of his political ambitions?

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