The most important change at the lake is that the water is now in the 70’s in places. But there are other changes, too. Some are actually hard to see, others are just changes in shades. 10 days ago, it was rainy and cold and fires were lit in fireplaces. Then, it got hot, touching 90 degrees. Now, on 6/15/17, it is back to highs in the 70’s.
In the Eagle Department, the chick seems to be doing well. This picture was taken on 6/15/17 and it doesn’t look a whole lot different from the beginning of the month. The feather coloration is a bit more pronounced but it still looks like an eagle chick.
The adults are spending less time right at the nest and the picture of the eagle in the tree at the right of the three picture spread was recent. Two years ago, the old eagle nest was active and there were two chicks in it, as shown in the left image. Then, the eagles moved to another tree and the nest started falling apart. The middle image is from last November when there were some pieces of the nest still hanging on. Now, there is nothing. (I wonder if the eagle thinks about this change or not.)
Other birds have come and gone. For a few days last week, there were hundreds of swallows flying over the lake. They seemed to arrive in large numbers and now have moved on with only a few still feasting on the bugs out over the lake. The ones on the left with the white chests are probably Tree Swallows and the one on the Right is a Barn Swallow. I guess that when there are bugs to feed on, different kinds of swallows join in the feast.
If you are at the lake, you know that the “pine dust” is coming down. It is really pine pollen and is a very inefficient way to make pine cones but every year, some pollen seems to find the way to make pine cones. However, there are places where this yellow pollen is quite thick as it floats on the water. Most people find it a relief when they pine dust stops falling so that they don’t have to clean it off every surface that they have. Oh, and it also coats screens, sometimes enough so that you can use a broom and sort of “roll it off” in big long stringy masses.
One other thing that has changed is that the new light green leaves on trees have changed to their summer dark green. The two pictures of Copplecrown show the light green trees and then the change to the dark green.
