Crane Lake Nature Blog

Junction Bay Waterfalls

There’s a beautiful set of Waterfalls way down at the end of Junction Bay on Namakan Lake. They’re flowing very nicely right now with all the rain that we received back on July 3rd.

Johnson River Falls

The Johnson River flows into Namakan Lake at Junction Bay. Johnson River flows out of Little Johnson Lake and Johnson Lake. These two lakes are in the backcountry and can be reached by portage from Forest Road 203 (there’s actually 3 lakes when you include Spring Lake). You can use ATVs to portage a small boat into Johnson Lake - there’s no road. There are 7 Back country campsites on the 3 interconnected lakes. It’s wilderness-style camping without the wilderness permits and regulations.

Namakan Lake thunderstorm

On the way back from Junction Bay, we were being tailed by this enormous thunderstorm. The views out on the big lake can be spectacular!

Pine Warbler

Here’s a picture of the Pine Warbler I saw last week. There were still singing Pine Warblers at this late date in July. This was right before I saw the Bear Cub shoot out of the bushes on the trail in front of me as I was trying to sneak up on a tree full of adult Nashville Warblers feeding babies. I didn’t stick around to see if Mama Bear was in the area!

Northern Flicker family by Kris Hoyt

Thanks Kris and Dave for the awesome shots of the Flickers feeding their babies!

Northern Flickers by Dave Hoyt

They found this nest at Nelson’s Resort right behind 2nd Beach cabin. When the babies are at this stage, the nest hole can be easy to find - just listen for the begging calls of the baby woodpeckers - it can be quite noisy!

Flickers by Dave Hoyt

Thanks to Kristin B., from Indiana, for sending the photo of the nest that she found hidden among the Blueberry Bushes up on Lac La Croix. These tiny birds are perhaps only a day old, or maybe just hatched a few hours ago.

Nest hidden in Blueberry patch

Song Sparrow Nest ?

Herring Gull

It appears that even the Gulls are enjoying the bountiful Blueberries this year!

Osprey

There’s a baby hiding in this photo. Can you see it?

active Osprey nest

There the young bird just hopped up to see what’s going on. He’s pretty big, but not big enough to fly yet.

This is the 4th year that this nest site has been used. I’m not sure if it’s the same birds from year to year, but the first year they had a successful nesting followed by two years when the nest failed. I hope all goes well this year - I’ll be watching…

Astrid Lake Bog Trail

If you go, make sure to wear your “Swampers”. After the 4+ inches of rain that we received July 3rd, the trail was flooded. In some places I was afraid the water would come over the top of my boots. I had on my trusty LL Bean WELLIES and they kept my feet dry. It was a rather warm day in the woods and the ankle-deep water felt nice and cool. And believe it or not, there really weren’t any bugs out, I never had to apply bug repellent.

Winter Wren

Winter Wren Fledgling

Winter Wren juvenile

Winter Wren fledgling

Black & White Warbler fledgling

I managed to capture a photo of this little Black & White Warbler baby. He was making a constant peeping that I didn’t recognize but knew had to be a baby bird begging. I watched the trees and found the adult bird foraging in the branches. When she had gathered enough bugs she went to feed the baby. Boy, did the baby bird make some weird noises then!

This is the time of year when there are lots of baby birds out and about. It seems like when they are straight out of the nest they’re still naive and ignorant of the dangerous world out there. The babies will show themselves and make lots of noise until they’re old enought to learn to be quiet. It’s a fun time, but short lived, the young birds learn quickly.