The 4th of July in the Adirondacks — parades, cookouts, boats galore and fireworks tonight over the lake.  For the “good old fashioned 4th” feeling, nothing beats the celebrations in the small towns and hamlets of the North Country.  Even the loons are happy!

I came north to escape the heat, but alas, even the back woods are baking in this heat wave.  The big news up here was the fact that all the fans were sold out everywhere — air conditioning is rare in homes here since it’s usually cold, so the sweltering few days has seemed eternal.  But I go into the back woods and find cool delight among the wild things.

Although I’m trying to ignore the news at least for a few days, this lone merganser on a rock in Tupper Lake seemed to me a symbol of the trying times.  At this time of year, the female common merganser usually is leading a brood of chicks along the banks of the lakes or across the ponds.  I see this lone female atop the rock and wonder what happened to her chicks — it seems too early in the season for them to be grown and gone.  Were they stolen from her by a fearsome power? Did a predator steal them away? Perhaps they never hatched at all.  She gazes across the lake, perhaps with longing for the chicks now gone, or perhaps with anticipation of a new brood to come next year.  Whatever the story, we know that the wild moms are fierce protectors of their chicks…just like human moms.

This mom duck led her brood to the safety of the marsh grasses…

Food is a constant occupation for wild things… the hummoth, below, a cross between a hummingbird and a moth, has a long straw for sucking the nectar from flowers:

While a real hummingbird has a long beak for sipping …Meanwhile, less elegant but apparently effective, this beaver dragged a tree branch all the way across the grass to have some dinner at his lakeside cabin: