Welcome to my view of the world, as seen with my own eyes, or my camera, around the lake, from the sky, in my mind’s eye, or, occasionally, in the media.
You’re welcome to share what you find here, as long as you give me an attribution or link back here.
I try to post something about once per week. Now, on with the show…
These pictures were taken back around the end of September, and I’d been meaning to post them, but I got a little busy with something called Helene. I’ll have more to say about Helene later, after the dust settles a bit more.
This Kildeer was operating along the top of the dam:
I can’t help but wonder if this is one of the Canada Geese that was rehab’d and released after encountering a industrial sludge pond. And, more kildeer:
I don’t see Crows along the lake so much as in the woods:
Turtles were out that day:
Spotted one of our Bald Eagles. In fact, he gave me a pretty good look as she flew by:
A Great Egret making a nice full-stall landing:
And, of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron pictures. I saw several doing some airframe maintenance:
And the payoff for that maintenance:
So, where have I been? It seems like I’ve been in catch-up mode all summer, and I’ve been doing some volunteer work at a nearby wildlife rehab, the PAWS Animal Wildlife Sanctuary. Really, it’s all volunteer work, as the organization is all-volunteer. Mostly it’s been maintenance work, like pressure washing and clearing vegetation from flight pens and such, but I did have one Suptertastical weekend releasing two owls and two hawks that had gotten all better. There’s some videos on their facebook page.
Anyway, on to the lake. First, let me get this UFO-quality photo out of the way. I was heading up a narrow inlet when a Bald Eagle came down the inlet and flew right past me. I had milliseconds to grab the camera and, well, this was the best I got:
I’d been fooled by these guys before, thinking I was looking at Egrets, but I believe these are Little Blue Herons. They’re all white when they’re young, like the one on the right, and the one on the left I’ll bet is starting to get his adult plumage.
I got some neat shots of this Great Egret (yes, this one really is an Egret). As you can see, there are trees dropping leaves already, probably due to the lack of rain we’ve had for most of August.
“Climb at Egret’s discretion.”
That’s a Killdeer in the background getting lunch. The foreground bird looks like a sandpiper, but I couldn’t really match him up to get a decent ID. Most possibilities have a line across the eye, but this one didn’t have any such marking. Maybe a Solitary Sandpiper?
Two female Mallards. “You watch that way, I’ll watch this way.”
And, of course, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:
I’ve been busy lately, but that hasn’t stopped me from noticing the world around me and occasionally whipping out the camera. Here’s some random pictures from the last couple of months.
This little snake was patrolling around the house:
Deer end up on the side of the road with distressing regularity around here, but we do have efficient cleanup crews.
This patch of spring flowers attracted lots of butterflies:
Even this Green Anole was showing a fresh “coat” for spring:
The cicada rush is about over here now, but for a while we had a lot of these “cicada shell casings” hanging around:
Now this is a “bloomin’ onion”! There’s a bumble bee under that left-hand bloom having a ball (my front yard is more “meadow” than “lawn”, and I like it that way):
I’ve seen Tomato Hornworm caterpillars like this, but not one of these caterpillars. Those white things are the eggs of a parasitic wasp that is a friend to our tomato plants.
On the lake early one morning, I got way closer than usual to this Heron before I saw him. I wondered if he was ok, but I came back this way about half an hour later and he was gone, so maybe he was just waking up (the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture).
It seems that ever since I got back from my epic road trip I’ve been in catch-up mode. So, I’m not really surprised that it took this long to get my kayaking season started.
I actually got out last weekend on a sunny, if slightly cool, bright puffy-cloud day. The lake level was about 40cm above normal, which I always like because that lets me get into more little feeder streams and backwaters. This included one that I never could get into before (that’s not the actual route, just a little place along the way through the woods):
which led to a really beautiful little pond.
Shroonchyaa!
I followed that up with a little dawn outing on Monday:
This morning was a very different day, again cool, but low overcast and breezy out of the northeast, enough to create some chop on the lake near the dam and Osprey nest. Prepare to land! Gear down!
The dreary-looking conditions seemed to have a lot of the wildlife laying low, but of course, the Geese are (almost) always here:
And ducks:
And, finally, the obligatory Great Blue Heron picture:
As you might have gathered from my last few posts, I’ve been indulging my avian side’s migratory tendencies with an epic (for me) road trip. While driving doesn’t appeal to me that much, that was the best mode of transportation for this journey.
I had several objectives for this trip: visit my Parents niche in the Columbarium at Arlington National Cemetery, visit family in Pennsylvania, and visit an old friend in Massachusetts, which would include looking around the area where I fledged and hadn’t been back to in some 40 years.
Planning this trip was no small feat in itself (I’m definitely in the “measure twice, cut once” camp), and I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I broached the idea of my taking two full weeks off from work, and Oh by the way, I’m not going to be very reachable. But my manager was supportive and said they’d make it work, so the planning continued.
I decided that I didn’t want to go much past 7 hours en-route in any one day of driving. Since I’m an early bird and would start out around sunrise, that would get me to my planned destinations by mid-to-late afternoon. I’d have no problem meeting check-in times and have no reason to rush, and could travel in daylight. Knowing what I know about “human factors” from aviation, I knew it’d be a good thing to not put myself in the position of having to push limits.
What to take? Traveling by car makes this a lot easier, as I don’t have to fit everything into a carry-on that fits in the overhead bin. That said, my car isn’t all that big, so I gave this a lot of thought. Priority, of course, is any prescription medications or medical supplies. Beyond that, I told myself that it’s not like there won’t be 18 big-box stores along the way if I missed something. So, climate-appropriate clothes, of course. Plenty of snacks to keep handy in th car. Hiking gear (backpack with appropriate 10-essentials, trail shoes and socks…), personal and work laptops (just in case), a few diversions in case I ended up idled someplace (crossword puzzles, book to read, tongue drum…).
What about the house? I’d be leaving it alone for just about 2 weeks. While I have no reason to expect something to go Horribly Wrong, that Mr. Murphy is always lurking around. If a pipe broke the day after I left, it might be a long time before anyone noticed the house sliding down the hill with the flood. To mitigate this, I shut off the water just before I left. I didn’t leave much in the refrigerator (N.B. with a bird in residence, there are no leftovers), but had some stuff in the freezer. I loaded up the freezer with a bunch of ice packs I’d accumulated so that, maybe, if the freezer failed a day or two before I got home, it wouldn’t be a total loss. Of course, no point in keeping the house any warmer than necessary to prevent something from freezing if it got Cold. Everything else should take care of itself. The network and servers have UPSs to ride through any transient power issues. I put the trash out just before I left, and, of course, filled the bird feeders to capacity.
I ventured forth from my home range in upstate South Carolina, USA and headed to Lake Anna State Park, Virginia. The day started out kinda misty/foggy, and the fog got almost thick enough to affect travel at times, but the impact was minimal and I just had some on-and-off light rain on this leg. I planned a day off from driving at Lake Anna to spend in the woods, which you can read about here. That route was mostly Interstate highways for a little over half, then US highways. Interstates are good for getting there quickly, but the US highways are, IMHO, an easier drive. You get a break from “highway driving” occasionally at intersections and towns, and there was a long stretch of US-360 that was divided 4-lane through very rural areas with little traffic. The disadvantage of roads like that is there’s not a lot of places to stop: you won’t find a Love’s, QT, or Bucky’s at every interchange. At one point I was starting to get just a bit concerned about my fuel status and wondered if I should ask Google where the nearest gas station was, but I spotted one before it got to that point.
Speaking of fuel, have a good idea of your range and how far you’re going. I was able to do most of my legs and refuel towards the end, leaving me in good shape for the next leg. I use one trip odometer to track miles-since-fueling, which combined with the “miles to go” on the navigation app let me manage the fuel stops. Of course, fuel stops are also restroom stops, but don’t think you can’t stop until you need fuel. Take advantage of rest areas every hour or two and just stretch out, have a snack, get some fresh air.
After Lake Anna, my next and most challenging destination was Arlington National Cemetery. When I was there last year for our ceremony, I remarked when I got to the hotel front desk “I don’t want to sound like I’m some yokel from rural South Carolina who doesn’t know how to do things in the big city, but I am a yokel from rural South Carolina who has no clue how to do things in the big city”. I planned a route that would let me dart in to Arlington from the west, avoiding Washington DC and all that, and then dart back out to the west. Getting in there went pretty well, and I found the Columbarium with no problem.
Getting out was a different matter. I couldn’t make the turn I needed to because of traffic, and Google rerouted me, yeah, up towards Baltimore and I-95. Alright, let’s go.
There’s something I learned on that leg. I know in that part of the world toll roads, bridges, tunnels, and whatnot are a lot more prevalent than in my home range, so when Google told me to take the exit for I-895 (note to the highway planners: you’re about to run out of “95’s”) and I saw the toll warnings and “no exit before toll” I wasn’t concerned, I had cash at hand. It wasn’t until I was on the exit ramp and turning off I-695 that I saw a little note on the exit ramp sign: “NO CASH”. WHAT?? How am I supposed to pay this toll? It was far too late at that point to abort the exit without doing something that would have probably closed the highway for hours, so shrug. Apparently all the toll collection these days is automated and a transponder or car tag bills the toll to your online account (which I didn’t have at that point).
Having gotten through that toll tunnel, I got off the highway and re-planned the route to get me away from I-95. From there it was mostly US and state highways up into Pennsylvania, and I got to my destination about an hour later than originally envisioned. Fortunately, my planning was conservative (see above) and I still had a good bit of daylight left over.
I spent a non-driving day with some family in Pennsylvania. While there I got online and created myself some “pay-by-plate” toll accounts for the states I had already run tolls in or expected to encounter going further north. I’m told that they’ll just send me a bill, which is fine, as long as it doesn’t include a ticket. My research showed that there’s just no place to cross the Hudson River without paying a toll unless you go all the way up to Albany, which would have added at least 2 hours to my ETE to Massachusetts. With accounts created, I considered that a solved issue.
Next was a short leg (just 5 hours) to Massachusetts. This is the area where I did a lot of growing up and fledged back in the 1970s before taking a job in South Carolina in 1980. I’d been back a few times in the early 1980s, but hadn’t been there in some 40 years.
I used to work for Digital Equipment Corporation at “The Mill” (as we called it, the complex used to be a woolen mill back in civil war times). Back then, in Digital’s heyday, this parking lot would have been full.
Digital is long gone now, having been bought by Compaq, then by HP, and spun off into HPE. The running joke is that no one would have thought that Digital, at one time the 2nd largest computer company in the world, would get bought by a PC company, which would then get bought by a printer company. I wandered around the town a bit, which seems to have recovered from Digital’s demise, and got a pizza that still tasted like it did back in the 1970s.
I visited Minuteman Field, where I learned to fly/fledged. Of course, there’s more gates and fences these days, but the field is basically the same and seemed to be doing well.
My non-driving day involved a hike with that old friend at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. That area had been used by the US Army until 2000, when it was turned over to the US Fish & Wildlife Service.
Then it was back to Pennsylvania, where I had planned three non-driving days to spend with more family. Did some walking around the neighborhood and the woods behind the house, including one walk in a bit of a snow squall. That was the only snow I encountered on the whole trip, in spite of a chance of snow on the way south from Massachusetts.
While there, I noted some things that you just don’t see in my home range, like this lawn appliance:
It took me a while to figure out that this is to show the snow depth. I also got to visit the world’s largest Shop-Rite supermarket:
My Sister keeps a well-provisioned bird feeder, which provided some photography opportunities:
While there, the weather forecast for my next stop, Powhatan State Park, VA, began to gel. Before I left, I looked at what forecasts were available (a forecast almost two weeks out is pretty much in tea-leaves territory) and climatological data and decided: Virginia in early March? I don’t need to bring shorts. Wrong. By the time I was headed that way the forecast for my hike day was 78F degrees. Remember how I said there’d be no shortage of big-box retailers along the way? A stop in Culpepper, VA resolved the shorts issue as well as doubled as a fuel stop.
The hike day at Powhatan was almost perfect, just a bit chilly starting out.
Finally, it was time for the last leg and homeward bound. More US highways, then onto I-85 in North Carolina. It was about half-way down through NC that I encountered the worst weather of the whole trip when I ran into a big area of moderate to heavy rain. For a while it was heavy enough that the windshield wipers were just keeping up with it. Keeping pace with highway speeds in those conditions wasn’t much fun, but I knew I was going to be on I-85 for quite a while so I just picked the next-to-right lane (to avoid exiting and entering traffic and exit-only lanes) and followed the vehicle in front of me. Coming out of Charlotte traffic slowed way down, almost to a crawl at times, which was actually a bit of a relief. Traffic kept moving and eventually resumed normal speed as we came out of the rain.
Arriving at home, I found everything in order, just as I left it. I padded my mail hold a bit so I didn’t have to worry about that for a couple days. My main priorities were a) getting a grocery pick-up order placed for the following morning, and b) unloading the car so I could pick up those groceries. Refilled the bird feeders, took a walk around the neighborhood to reacquaint myself and see if anything changed.
Reflecting on the trip, I think I can say “mission accomplished”. I hit all my objectives on schedule (having slack in the schedule helps that). Saw new things, learned useful things. I can say with assurance that I’m now “current” on highway driving (pilots will recognize that phraseology). Everything worked out very close to plan. A flip of the crest to my co-workers who kept everything going and didn’t feel a need to call me. I think alternating the driving and hiking (or whatever) days was a good strategy to avoid getting too “road weary”.
I probably will do this again at some point, it was a pleasure seeing those distant friends and family members in 3D for a change and not in a Zoom window. I would like to take more time and make more stops along the way, but as long as I’m working, I think two weeks is about the most I can reasonably “PTO”, so the basic itinerary would be the same. One thing I will change: I love and miss my parents, but I think I’m going to skip Arlington next time. I’m a woodland creature, not a city bird.
The biggest take-away to me is that I can do this, and I now have some experience, which is always useful. And I now have one of those E-Z Pass toll transponders.
Some statistics:
Statute miles driven: 2084
Fuel used: 55.229 gallons
Most expensive gas: 3.699/gal, Lancaster PA
Cheapest gas: 3.089/gal, Laurens, SC
States traversed: 9: SC NC VA MD WV PA NY CT MA
Statute miles hiked or walked: 51 (that I recorded)
Unread work Emails upon return: 5781
On the flip side of my recent road trip I stopped on the way home to spend a day in the woods at Powhatan State Park in Virginia. As at Lake Anna, I opted to for a yurt, which again was completely as described on the park’s web site. More than a tent, less than a cabin, but pretty nice.
The park is bordered on roughly three sides by the James River.
which, yes, was visibly flowing, so the warning seems well-advised.
I like to get an early start. A lot happens in Nature at dawn, and I’m no exception.
Trails were well marked with signposts at intersections and blazes on trees.
I should have brought my Good Camera, as cellphones make lousy wildlife cameras, but you can see a couple birds in this tree.
That was on a trail that followed the border between an open area and the woods. At one point I was almost engulfed in a flock of small birds that bolted from the open field into the trees.
Some trails followed border areas like that, others went right into the woods. All were pretty easy hikes, although there were numerous wet/muddy areas from recent rains. That was actually kind of fun, with my waterproof shoes.
In another avian encounter later in the day, I was walking along a trail in the woods when a Blue Bird appeared on a tree branch bordering the trail. We watched each other as I approached, then he flew down the trail a few meters and waited for me to get close again. This repeated about four times until the trail went out of the woods. It was like he was leading me along, and probably was: leading me away from something like a nest area. I was happy to play along.
This area looked to have been intentionally burned, as the edges were very defined.
Plenty of flowers were up and taking advantage of the warm weather:
With a lot of flowers blooming, insects were also out and about:
There is a rather large snake in the grass. I saw him crossing the trail but she was into the brush before I could get the photo (did I mention that cellphones make lousy wildlife cameras?).
A raccoon had recently been here:
Another failed attempt at a crop circle, like I saw at Lake Anna? Come on aliens! Get your act together!
I knew I was running out of trails faster than I was running out of day, so I inquired at the park office if there were other trails that you had to ask about, maybe some trail maps they kept under the counter (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). They denied any such trails, but I did find an unmapped “Overlook” trail off the side of the campground, rather inconspicuously marked with a small signpost. It was just a short, <1km trail that lead to a couple of overlooks up above the river.
Once again, I was blessed with great weather. Actually, when I left home almost two weeks ago, after looking at forecasts and climatological data, I figured naw, I didn't need to bring shorts. As the forecast developed, it became clear that was a mistake, which I rectified with a brief stop at a big-box retailer along the way to the park.
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/10959939750
That same road trip that took me to Lake Anna, VA also carried me to the vicinity of the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts. Of course, I can’t pass up an opportunity to wander in the woods.
As you might expect from the name, there are wetlands here, although the trails did not go all the way to the Assabet River itself.
A rather complicated passage to get out on the fishing pier.
The trails were pretty easy fare, and adequately marked. There weren’t any blazes, but most of the intersections had some sort of signage.
Maybe it’s just the way they do things in this part of the world, this is the only example of trail sigh graffiti I’ve seen in my travels. For the record, I did not see any nude trails, they all had decent coverings of leaves.
This area used to be part of the US Army’s Natick Labs before 2000, and there are numerous old bunkers around.
One thing that is different in this part of the world from my home range is that the towns are all shoved up against each other. There’s no leaving one town and going 15 miles to get to the next one. This marker along the trails is where three towns come together.
This is the smallest area I hiked on this trip, but any time in the woods is worth it. Again, the weather was perfect, starting off chilly but warming up nicely in full sun. A nit to pick: I didn’t find a printable trail map online. I always carry a paper map (or two), just in case all the technology falls apart.
I thought sure that I’d see some snow on the ground in Massachusetts this time of year, but that was a disappointment. Another sign of climate change.
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/10918279753
On a recent road trip I made a stop at Lake Anna State Park in Virginia to get a break from the road and do a little hiking. I had to plan this well in advance, and not knowing what weather to expect, I booked a yurt, which was just as described on the park’s web site.
Which included a nice kitchen table:
The subject lake:
The trails were well marked with sign posts at intersections:
and blazes on the trees:
There were some muddy areas on the trails due to recent rains, but were still pretty easy fare.
A couple of historic sites of interest were along the way.
Trails included a number of stream crossings.
Most all had a bridge and a horse crossing. I usually took the horse crossing just to make it more interesting.
There were a couple of little picnic areas along the lake with a place to land a small boat. I ranted on this earlier, this is another example of human recklessness. Yes, those were beer cans.
A failed attempt at a crop circle? Those aliens are getting lax…
Parts of the Pigeon Run and Gold Hill trails ran along a power line right-of-way. And yes, there were some serious ups and downs along the way.
I was horribly disappointed at not finding a hill of gold after climbing that Gold Hill trail. Just a pile of gravel. Sigh.
Just a kind of interesting formation in a tree stump. The way the wood decomposed left a deep pattern embossed in the stump.
I might think this the work of beavers, but higher up than I’ve seen before.
All in all, a very nice walk in the woods before resuming my road trip the next day. Weather was perfect, with the previous day’s rain gone and a hike day that started cool and overcast, but became sunny later. The rain waited to return until after I had roosted for the night, so perfect timing.
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/10889730943
Let’s say your Father gave you a car. A really Nice, high-end car. Maybe a Bugatti, with leather interior, W16 engine that purrs like a kitten and delivers instant power. A RRRRRREEEAAAAllly sweet ride. Dad toses you the keys and says “it’s all yours!”.
Now, yeah, it’s your car, you can do what you want. But how do you think your Father is going to feel when he sees you scraping the paint off on guard rails, your rowdy friends on the hood holding on to the windshield wipers, the oil Way past time for a change, fast food bags and stale french fries all over the seats, engine miss-firing because of all the over-revving, the beer stains… Maybe you don’t care what Dad thinks, but, come on, couldn’t you do better? Wouldn’t that be respectful of your Father and what He gave you?
Suppose Dad didn’t just buy you the car, but made it Himself? Wouldn’t you feel just a bit bad about trashing it?
And God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” – Genesis 1:26 (KJ21).
That sounds like we were handed the keys to a world. A RRRRRREEEAAAAllly nice high-end world. A world lushly upholstered with life that all works together like a well-tuned W16. Shouldn’t we be taking care of it? Keeping it clean? Keeping it running smoothly, as it was designed to run?
I was just out picking up garbage along a little ~0.5km stretch of lake shore.
Come on, can’t we do better?`
For various reasons it’s been difficult to get out much lately, so today was a trip to the forest of Croft State Park, a favorite place for a walk in the woods. Both me and my avian side needed to get out.
[bird] That’s for sure.
[human] Ahem. Anyway, Morning in the forest is always a good time.
There’s a lot more water in and flowing out of Lake Craig than last time I was here. Then the lake level was down for maintenance, but recent rains have filled it back up.
Lots of water for the ducks to play in now.
This looked a bit precarious, but it was to the side of the trail, so no concern.
[bird] Unless you land on the wrong part of it. Hey, you should let me write this, I know way more about forests than you ever will!
[human] All right, my assertive avian half. Start peckin’ the keyboard!
[bird] You don’t survive in the wild without being assertive, even aggressive at times. So here’s a tree that died some time ago but has turned into a veritable high-rise condo (as you might call it) for all sorts of forest residents:
How here’s another example of human nonsense, running this “road” right through the middle of the forest.
[human] That road is the edge of the forest.
[bird] No it isn’t. Look! There’s forest on both sides of it! This .. thing .. is right in the middle of the forest.
Now there’s a flight hazard, that TV tower.
[human] Guess we go on foot here, eh?
[bird] The sign doesn’t say anything about wings.
[human] Well, aircraft are vehicles.
[bird] A bird on the wing is no more a “vehicle” than you’re a bus when you walk.
The human had trouble finding the trail in areas like this, but I knew where we were going.
Now you’d think with a name like “Rocky Ridge Trail”, the trail would be up there on the ridge. But, No. You’d also think there’d be more rocks around.
Now here’s a nice little spot, with the water keeping things just a bit warmer and greener. I’ll bet there’s some insects there that’ll make a good snack. Let me…
[human] uh, no…
[bird] Wuss. Alright, where’s those peanuts you said you brought?
Deer tracks mixed in with the horse tracks that the human found reassuring when the trail wasn’t so easy for him to follow.
Down to the Fairforest Creek and more greenery. Got any more of those peanuts?
Clearly all that rain had the water up over this bridge. At least this one didn’t get washed away like that other one a while back.
I didn’t want to leave, but the human said I ate almost all the food we brought, and didn’t seem interested in the stuff to eat all around us.
[human] Are you done?
[bird] I guess so.
Strava link: https://www.strava.com/activities/10697234481