Finding Lodge #6

I turn the point, coming in off the big lake and heading toward the big lodge, which I tempted to pass by because I was there two days earlier, but I am also tempted to explore behind it because something might have happened. It is a piece of bare blonde wood that I do not remember back in the green of the beaver forest that draws me in. I catch the scent of death in a different place than before, most likely a beaver. Closer to the lodge is a pile of a half dozen limbs all cleanly stripped of bark and scattered about a grassy hummock. Something always happens.

two swallows doing a mating thing

The day is grey and at times a few tiny drops of water land on bare skin. But, it is only bad enough to keep most of the people off of the water. Anyone that ends up here will find it to be a fine and peaceful day.

In the south lagoon I stop briefly to talk with a family in a rental canoe. They are watching goslings and I tell them where the nest was, on the workbench lodge. They are surprised that the beaver lodges are active...people are always surprised. They came looking for birds, but now they know there is much more.

I find a new lodge on the east tip of Marsh Island. It is small, only 3 ft high and 15 ft across, but I had seen activity in that spot last fall and the brush pile is new. I'll have to watch it for awhile to see if there is a colony established.

The nest on the Rockpile has hatched. I think that it is the last nest, so I then paddle through the break in Broken Island, but I find one more tended nest in the center. Fortunately, she stays put because I am too close when I spot her.

the last nest

I paddle the outer edges of #1 and #2 islands looking for missing cattail masses. There is a cattail berg blocking Ravenna Creek and I have wondered where that "berg" might have come from. #1 island looks as I remember it, but the east side of #2 may very well be missing some bogstuff. With one more close look at the "berg" in question, it does look to be about the right size to have come from #2.

The male marsh wren at #2 island is nowhere to be seen or heard. That is three trips in a row when he has been missing. I think that he has gone off to find a better nesting spot.