The month of July was rainy and the lake rose to higher than normal levels with water going over the dam in Crescent Lake at a huge rate. In July, 14 inches of rain fell. It started over the 4th of July weekend and then just kept coming, ending with an inch on the 31st. The birds have been surviving and some of them aren’t bothered in the least with the rain as they are ducks (it has been nice weather for them) or loons. The lake now seems to be going back to the mandated “summer level” and we can hope for no more rain.
Clouds like these produced cloudbursts while other storms were just frontal rain with one giving more than 3 inches of rain in 12 hours.
Boating around the lake is always fun and many of the birds can be seen as you motor around such as cormorants, loons, eagles, mergansers and mallards. However, people on kayaks and canoes can get closer to shore and sometimes get to see birds like the cedar waxwings as seen in the picture below. These were eating berries in the bushes and seemed to be quite busy at it. They are very good looking birds.
Juvenile robins are also seen along the shore. This one was also eating berries. It is sort of between the speckled stage and the adult red breasted stage.
The eagles are still around and this series of shots were taken after the territorial pair told another adult eagle that he/she was not wanted in the area. Unfortunately, our pair again didn’t have any chicks to see but we can hope for next year.
Other babies are around, some more grown that others. The following pictures were taken with a 1200 mm lens and then the photos were cropped. It may look like I am close to these birds but I am more than 50 yards from them. Please don’t get closer. Cell phones can’t get good pictures of loon chicks without stressing the birds.
The common mergansers are growing and catching fish now on their own. They start life eating bugs but soon start diving for food. Unlike loons that feed their chicks, the merganser chicks feed themselves on their own after they hatch. These must have found good things to eat.
