So it turned out that Fern Lake is a good place to test out our new lens. Two of the three days over the holiday weekend presented perfect weather with all sorts of winged visitors. 

Whiteface mountain is the peak with rock slides on the left. Downhill skiing competitions were held here during the both of the winter olympics held in Lake Placid.

We invested in a new 200-500mm lens for this trip. We’ll give it a try this weekend so we are used to it before we find whales. What follows are a few of the better shots from our experiment.

This is the first time we have seen a Bald Eagle on Fern Lake.

The eagles must be doing okay, as a juvenile Bald Eagle flew right over us.

Closer to camp, the local chipmunks were happy to pose as long as we provided peanuts.

Chipmunks are always alert.

Loons are summer residents that typically raise a couple of chicks each summer on the lake.

Loons are great fun to watch as they are totally comfortable in just about any position on or under the water.

The variety of sounds coming from these birds is amazing. Here’s a short video showing just one of the calls they use.

The loons disappeared when a resident seaplane used the lake as a runway.

Here’s the plane returning later in the afternoon. With clear skies, it must have been a great day for flying.

Tracked down the owner and learned this is a 1947 Seabee.

Posted an album of photos for him over on Flickr. Click on through if seaplanes are your thing – Seabee Album.

Drove into Plattsburgh to take care of laundry, do some grocery shopping, and visit an old friend. Couldn’t get that close to the big lake without stopping at the City Marina and seeing what boats were in town.

There is plenty of parking between the marina and the old Delaware & Hudson, now Amtrak, depot.

The battle of Plattsburgh, one of the first Naval Battles of the nascent United States was fought just offshore here. The tiny US Fleet defeated the British in this War of 1812 engagement.

The city has built new walking trails and installed some memorials along the way. This ship’s bell is from the USS Lake Champlain, the last “straight deck” aircraft carrier built. It served from 1945 through 1966 logging over 60,000 aircraft landings. In 1961 it recovered Allen Shepherd, the first US Man in space.

After Plattsburgh, we followed the lakeshore south to AuSable Point State Park so we could dump our waste tanks. Damaged from high water, the park roads are in bad shape.

This view shows the Green Mountains of Vermont from the mouth of the AuSable River. Placid and shallow here, further upstream the AuSable drops over a waterfall and through a canyon at AuSable Chasm.

After bouncing through AuSable Point, three idiot lights illuminated on our dashboard. These are the same indicators that we’ve seen before when wheel sensors had failed. We’ll see if they go out on restart or if we need to find a Sprinter service facility.

Labor Day was cool and rainy, so we started a fire in the wood stove and enjoyed being inside.

The rain eventually cleared and the mountains re-emerged from behind the clouds.