Learning the Ropes - New Surroundings

We've been getting to know our new campground and its residents, which right now is just us and some critters.  We have about 10 more days before the park opens to the public and it is quiet and serene in here behind locked gates.  The campground has 75 improved campsites but there are only 72 that are available to campers.  The closed-to-the-public campsites are the ones used to house contractors for the campground and day use area that is adjacent to the campground.

As one would expect, we have a large number of squirrels making these thick woods their home.  But we have spotted one squirrel in particular that is distinctly identifiable.  He, or maybe it is a she, almost has no tail.

With it being so easy to identify, we have named it.  Stumpy is a frequent visitor to the cast-off area under the bird feeders.  And it looks like he needs to be, in addition to a highly abbreviated tale he is one skinny squirrel.

This is a lake campground and as such we have a number of campsites that are at water's edge.  One evening I was doing a little walking therapy for my still healing broken heel.  As I stepped out of the interior sites to the lake's edge I was greeted to a sunset I haven't seen since we were in Texas this past summer.

Also while at this spot I was hearing some pretty loud screeching sounds.  It did not take long to find the source - two ospreys were soaring above and then diving down to the water to snatch up fish.  They were then carrying the fish to a nest, a really big nest, and dropping them in to waiting chicks in a tree just above my head.  It is not my best bird of prey shot but I was able to get one of them on the wing when it got high enough to catch some of the fading light.

And while I'm on the subject of birds, I had gone to the back of the camper to get our bicycles out of their cover and off the rack so we could do a little riding.  As I unzipped the top of the cover it exposed Cyndee's bike and her handle bar basket.  To my surprise there was a well formed nest in the basket and a clutch of eggs.

Carolina Wren nest and eggs in Cyndee's bicycle basket.

Somehow a little wren had found its way into one of the drain holes in the bottom of the cover, hopped all the way up to the top where the basket is and had done this countless times to build the nest and eventually lay the eggs.  Whew, makes me tired just writing about it.  Needless to say that there will not be any bicycle riding until those chicks are grown and gone.  I just zipped the cover back up and walked away.

With us being so close to the grand baby now, it is also convenient for them to come to us.  Not to mention there is a really nice playground and sandy beach.  So we had a visit and after a hard afternoon on the climbing panels and slides we took a moment to relax and watch Daniel Tiger.

Since I mentioned watching TV I guess I should say that we found a hole in the sky and were able to put a dish on a pole.  It took about 130 feet of coax cable to get the signal from the dish to the receiver but we now have satellite service.  We are also owners of a second dish, pole mounting kit and SWiM LNB.  I have no idea where we are going to carry all that stuff when we leave here.  I've got until the end of October to figure it out so I'll just let my thoughts simmer on this for awhile.

But at the moment there are more pressing matters.  We have been having some unauthorized feeding at the bird feeders during the night.  In addition to our seed feeders we also put out a suet cake.  The seed feeders are "smart" and will close when the wrong pressure is placed on the perch.  But the suet cake is in a simple wire frame.  Normally one of these cakes will last a couple of weeks but we have been replacing the cake daily for the past three days.  It is definitely happening in the wee hours of the morning but we do not know what it is that is doing it.  It could be deer, we have about a half dozen that frequent our campsite or maybe it is a nocturnal tree dwelling animal, we don't know but we are going to find out.

My DSLR camera has a time-lapse feature on it and I set it up on a tripod on top of the dining table, aimed out our heavily tinted window at the bird feeders.  Not an ideal set up but it should be good enough to identify the culprit.  I programmed the camera to take a 3-shot burst every five minutes all night long.  The next morning a quick review of the nearly 500 pictures told the story of what was happening to our suet cakes.

Not an ideal setup for low light photography but good enough to answer our question.

The pictures were barely discernible, despite using the highest powered setting for low light there was almost no image to see.  After the first scan through the pictures there were a handful that were obvious that something was there.  These were loaded into my PaintShop Pro software and I used all the buttons I could for image enhancement.  Slowly a shape emerged and then distinctive alternating black and white rings on a tail.  We had a raccoon.  And he was not quick about his work either.  He showed up in shots starting at 2:00 am and kept showing up until 5:00 am.  So that is the end of our suet cake feeding.  We'll withhold it for a month or so and see if the raccoon moves on.

Training has started.  We drive about 20 miles to the main office that sits adjacent to the top of the dam in Cartersville, GA.  From 8:00am to 4:00pm (for five days) we are going through the 130 page operations manual line by line.  It is mind numbing and disturbing at the same time.  Mind numbing because each thing on its own is so simple, disturbing because there are so many things that we have no idea how anyone could be expected to remember everything.  We have been doing campground hosting for almost five years at a variety of agencies but never have we seen a campground operation with so many "moving parts".  There are so many steps to checking somebody in that it is a wonder you can get the process complete before their stay expires.

There will be one day between our last day of training and the opening of the park.  It's about to happen.