canoe ride

Canoe trip out around the lake margins.

The fishermen were already out by the time we ate breaky, but we still had a nice quite, calm lake. It had been windy the day before in the afternoon.

Lots of birds at the lake edge.
-3 ducks, I think female or immature golden eyes. brown heads, greyish sides of body, golden eye. they didn't like us getting too close so flew off.
-great blue herons, maybe 2 which we kept disturbing and they flew off further down the lake then to the other side...by the time we reached the other side,they flew back to the other side again.
-loons, I love to hear the calls of the loons. There were probably 5 on our lake with 1 or 2 young and at least another pair on the lake behind us with a youngster
-osprey. they may have been nesting in the large ponderosa pine at the lakes edge. the adult who was out hunting got quite antsy as we approached the pine tree and was whistling to the one in the tree. the one in the tree called back.
-spotted sandpipers. quite a few, mostly solitary. all along the rocky north shore in the sun. they have spots on their breast, orange beak and that constant bobbing tail. we saw some fluffy ones too so I assume immatures maybe, no orange beak?
-greater or lesser yellow legs. we really saw his yellow legs, taller than the sandpipers, longer beak too a bit, and bigger. only saw one.
-red winged blackbirds, in the reeds
-brewers blackbird at the waters edge, white around eye
=eagles, one had caught a fish and the osprey was chasing him. saw this later in the afternoon. it may have been the osprey who actually caught the fish and the eagle stole it as eagles are known to do that.....
-hawks but i don't know which ones. they like to hover, as do the osprey.

we saw a beaver on both mornings that we were out. there was lots of evidence of chewing of the reeds. the reeds themselves were down in the water all over the place. the first morning we saw him we saw him floating chewing on one of the reeds. you could see his tail and it looked much broader than a muskrat. on day 2 we saw the fat head as well. saw him close to the same location both mornings on the north side of the lake.

-the reeds themselves were covered in exoskeletons of some of the insect larvae that had climbed to the top we assume before they emerged. I think mostly damsel fly, -bluet- as there were many of these beautiful small damsel flys about. they lined up with the winds when the wind was high, and when i was swimming when it was calm they were all resting on the twigs of the submerged shrubs. like little blue baubles for christmas decorations.
-boreal bluet, phosphorescent tough picks hovering in the reeds.

-other exoskeletons may have been the water tiger beetle. apparently quite ferocious in the larvae stage, they bite their prey and once impaled they inject digestive juices which dissolves the prey in its own body which the water tiger beetle then digests. starfish have the same method for eating.

- the damsel fly larvae have 3 gills at the bottom of their body when in the larval stage. one of the larvae landed on my arm and you could see those 3 little gills.

-lots of Blue eyed Darners too. a type of dragon fly- much larger than the damsel fly. The darners are important food source for kestrels and merlin. the young birds hone their hunting skills by capturing the darners.

damsal flys and dragon flys apparently will lay their eggs either in the soft water plants or on top of the water so as they fly they dip their abdomen into the water.Read more