First, a few fall pictures of this living planet we have here. Cool mornings while the water is still relatively warm gives rise to early morning steam fog.


But once the sun starts to get up, the fog begins to dissipates and the sunlight makes the early fall colors stand out.

From the birds-eye view (if the bird is flying really high) the sun can make for some contrasting scenes and, combined with the wind, patterns on the water far below.

Now, back to the less-than-planet-sized creatures. I saw this large bird and grabbed the camera. I thought he was an Osprey, just because of the silhouette, size, and location, but I realized I was mistaken when I saw the photos.

Yes, that was the Bald Eagle. A bit later I found the Osprey, cavorting around the eastern side of the lake.


Have I mentioned how hard it is to get a good picture of a Kingfisher in action?

Nope, no Heron pictures this time. I saw a couple around, but maybe it was a bit early in the morning for them.
As usual, you can click on the pictures to get to a full-res version. I had to change photo sites because of problems with the previous one. Older pictures are still there, but henceforth anything new will probably end up on the new site.

So much of our universe runs in cycles.

Some cycles are very artificial, of our own making. Like the workweek/weekend cycle, or election cycles (and that’s all I’ll say on that topic).

Some of these cycles are so short that we hardly notice. Like the day/night cycle. It happens every day, and we take it for granted.

Some cycles aren’t so regular. It rains, then the sun comes out, until it rains again, etc…

The lunar cycle is a bit longer, although if you’re not out much at night you might not notice. The tail end of a full moon is visible in the morning daylight.

Some cycles are so long that we might not even notice that there is a cycle going on. Haley’s Comet comes around every 75 or so years, making it a once-in-a-lifetime event, but still it’s a cycle. Clouds of gases collapse to form a star, that burns for a while, explodes into a cloud, that collapses… A cycle that probably no one is going to see in it’s entirety.

This time of year the season cycle is very much in evidence. The lake is noticeably quieter now as the resident residents prepare for the winter, and the transient residents begin to migrate to their winter homes.

With all that going on, there’s still plenty to see out on the lake. Like this Kingfisher:

or this Killdeer caught in flight:

This time of year is when I see Egrets around the lake (another cycle). This one had just made a short hop of a flight. Almost sort of a literal “puddle jumper”.

As I was paddling up the lake, I saw a large bird coming towards me. I grabbed the camera and just held the shutter button. I wasn’t sure at the time, but the pictures confirm that this was a bird that I’ve only seen a few times over the years.

Yes, that’s a Bald Eagle.

Gotta throw in a gratuitous Great Blue Heron picture:

Finally, I had a chance to get out on the lake. It was a foggy morning.

During the winter I noticed that the osprey nest on top of the water system’s intake structure was gone, perhaps due to stormy weather. They’ve rebuilt and are back.

This beaver was swimming back and forth, seeming to keep an eye on me.

One of the ways these critters communicate is by slapping the water with their tails. Wait for it…

It makes a really loud noise when they do this. It sounds a lot like someone dropped a bowling ball (and I don’t mean candlepin bowling) in the water.