SCENIC SUNDAY- Vacationland, Maine

View to south from Totman Cove, Phippsburg, Maine

So Hot the Deer Are Swimming! White-tailed Deer

White-tailed deer swimming in the Atlantic ocean.

This is the view from our house, looking south out to sea. See the deer near the mooring ball? The deer could swim straight to Morocco from here.

Deer have such fragile looking legs, it's hard to imagine them clambering on slick, sea weed covered rocks.

Deer swim like dogs. When they get out of the water, they shake like dogs do, too.

    This has been a hot, sultry summer with record breaking heat. That's not news to anyone in Texas, but we Mainer's aren't used to it. My husband installed an air conditioner in our bedroom. I was skeptical about the need for what seemed like a decorating monstrosity. Here on the coast, it's usually ten degrees or more cooler than inland and we have steady breeze off the water. However, we had enough days of ninety degree weather strung together to claim a heat wave and I had to eat crow. Even the deer took to the water!

     Deer swim well, but it doesn't look natural to me. They swim to escape predators and to find new territories for food and mates. In the photo above, the land mass on the left is the tip of Hermit Island.  "The Hermit" is over run with White-tailed deer as no hunting is allowed there. This was not the first time I've seen deer swimming the mile or so across the cove.  Hermit Island has more than 200 camp sites. Perhaps the deer object to the camper's noise, or choices in music. I start feeling a little crowded with summer people, too. I'm much too lazy to swim that far, though. Deer sometimes get into swimming pools, too which can be a disaster. Their sharp hooves tear up liners and if they can't get out, they drown. White-tailed deer weigh between 125 and 300 pounds. That would be a lot of dead weight to haul from a pool. Deer may seek relief in cool water from skin parasites, like ticks, Deer flies  and mosquitos. Or, they may swim just for the pure joy of it, like we do. This particular deer swam across the cove, got out, then turned around and swam back. To date, I've never seen a deer wearing ear plugs nor a bathing cap and, they swim in the nude. 

      Soon enough, before we even realize summer is really over, it will be cold and snowing. We'll be complaining about shovelling instead of the heat. The air conditioner will be gone and frost will coat the windows. I'll scratch a hole through the frost to look outside and shiver at the falling snow. Maybe I'll see a deer ice skating or skiing. I'll let you know.


(This post was chosen as Editor's Pick for Open Salon at http://salon.com. It is the ninth of my works selected as Editor's Pick.)

Fish Fight - Osprey And Eagle

Last evening, I was standing on my deck with a glass of wine when this Bald eagle came zooming out of the trees after this Osprey with it's evening supper. I don't know what kind of fish it had and my subjects were slightly far away for fantastic photos, but they'll do. This series of shots clearly captures the fish food fight. The Osprey won, by the way. It took for the cover of the trees with it's supper, and the eagle gave up. It went across the cove and landed in the top of a spruce tree to rest and I'm sure, to pout. I don't know what the numbers are, but my personal observations are that the eagles are not often successful with this approach to food acquisition. It takes an enormous amount of energy for them to zoom around acrobatically after the more agile osprey. Their best bet is to get the osprey to drop the fish where the eagle can get it, for example, on the rocks versus into the water. Usually, in my experience, the eagles don't keep after and osprey as this one did. They usually only try once and the Ospreys rocket straight for cover. It's a fascinating and magnificent event to witness. 

I took this a few years ago on the rocks in front of our house on Totman Cove. I have never understood why the Osprey had seaweed in it's talons. Did it think it could slap the eagle senseless with it and take back it's Striped bass dinner?