Our Neighbor, the Sandpiper

One of the neat things about our job is getting to be so close to nature. Here at the Freeport/Durham, Maine KOA our neighbor on the next site is a momma sandpiper tending to her eggs. She so patiently sits on her eggs, with her body all fluffed out to keep them warm. If one should come a bit too close, she immediately skitters away to lead you away from her eggs.

Can you spot her eggs? There are two of them and they look like large 'stones' about an inch to the left of her.
She has chosen this campground each year, but always before it has been in a grassy area. The owners would just rope off the area with 'caution' tape and have a 'watch party' to see who would be the first to spot the new babies when they hatched.

The problem this year, is that she chosen the gravel parking pad of the RV site in which to lay her eggs. Up till now, it's not been a problem, for the camping business hasn't really kicked off full steam for the season. But with the Memorial Day Weekend coming up, every site will be needed.

When we returned from our trip to town last night, the owners had moved the eggs, and the stones around them, over to the grassy area, hoping that she would find them and return to her nest. By nightfall, she was still frantically looking. Hopefully, by morning, we'll find her settled in again, keeping her babies warm. We'll keep you posted. Sometimes moving a nest works, but sometimes it doesn't.

We also met the 'rest of the family' of the new owners here in Freeport. They are Cosmo, Carmen & Callie, three very friendly German Shepherds. Cosmo is the 'old man', on the quiet side and always ready for lovin'. Carmen is younger & very jealous of any attention given to Callie, the 6-month old pup. Beautiful, well-behaved dogs that reminded us of our own four-legged granddogs.

With the owners busy making supply runs to stock up for their weekend, yesterday was spent doing a walking tour of the campground, snapping pictures of all areas, work in progress, etc. Had time to visit with the work kampers, and Roger showed them how to disassemble the dump station water tower and repair it.

A bit of free time and we decided to run to town. Roger is a bit short on 'long pants' and it's still too chilly to break out the summer shorts. Even though Roger's 'trust' in his new navigator "Sylvia" (the GPS) was shaken a bit in Pennsylvania, he faithfully decided to give 'her' another chance. Right off the bat, he turned left out of the campground, instead of right - and she quickly 'recalculated' and took us on quite a 'scenic tour' of the back roads on our way to Auburn. She did indeed lead us right to the WalMart, Big K, and the mall (right through the middle of town, but at least we didn't have the trailer!) After no luck in 3 stores, we decided to head back to the campground. Roger programmed the address of the campground and . . . "no results". Great! (Goes to prove that these gadgets are only as good - and up-to-date as their software!) Luckily I remembered the name of a neighboring campground that was listed under 'lodging' and I knew if we got there, we could find the KOA. And we did.

I also took the opportunity to once again remind Roger that, although I might 'occasionally' dose off while on navigating duty, that this was the second time I had saved his hide when "Sylvia" let him down!