I watched him for a few minutes, took a couple more photos, and contemplated taking on of the kayaks down. Then I noticed something odd. Check out the water line in the photo. This morning, the water in Springwoods Lake was down about two feet from yesterday's water level. I headed down to the dock to investigate. Here's a shot of the lake. I'm standing at what yesterday was the water's edge. Everything that you see on the bank is usually at least partially submerged.
You can clearly see how far up the water usually comes on the dock ladder.
Another strange thing is that when I go out on the lake, if I see a white egret at all, I only see one. I've never seen more than that on any given day. Today when I looked down the lake, I saw seven all hanging out together.
I guess it's a flock form a nearby lake, and maybe with the drastic change in the water level the fishing was particularly good here today. There was also a hawk soaring about all day, so I reckon there may have been a few tasty morsels stranded on the bank.
Naturally, I decided to go for a paddle to see what I could see. The low levels brought in the birds, but also revealed a lot of trash that has been hidden, submerged a foot or two from the bank.
That part was quite distressing. So was the part where I ran up on something, probably an old tree stump, and very nearly flipped the kayak. I nearly lost it again as I was "ungrounding" myself. I never did see the submerged obstacle or figure out the mystery surrounding the sudden low tide, but I got to spend some time with old friends:
And I got to meet some new friends. As I was paddling I saw three small ducks ahead of me. I didn't pay much attention to them. I assumed they were young mallards, as there are quite a few out here, and the glare of the sun kept me from seeing them clearly. As I approached, they tucked their heads into the water, rolled their little backs, and were gone! They can't have stayed under long, but I never saw them resurface...very unmallard-like behavior. I saw them again later this afternoon from the shore. I wasn't able to get any good shots of them, but decent enough for me to make a conjecture as to what they are. I think they are Pied-billed Grebes, a small, diving waterfowl that I have never heard of, but that is known to frequent these parts.
Finally, I mentioned previously that I thought I had a kingfisher living on the lake. Today I was finally able to get some photos, and am confident identifying it as a Belted Kingfisher.
This one likes to stay on the other side of the lake, so it's tough to get a decent picture, but this is descriptive enough. Last weekend when I was out with Gayle, I was pretty sure that there were two of them. This was confirmed when, while I was photographing this critter, I heard the very noticeable, shrill trill of another over my shoulder. It seems that the other likes to hang out in the cover of the trees, but the call teased its mate off of his (or her) perch, and I was able to snap an action shot.
Again, not great photography, but I do what I can. The other Kingfisher darted by a few minutes later, but this was all I could get:
Eventually I had to come to terms with the fact that, despite my good intentions, I was not going to get any studying done sitting out on the dock, and I made my way in. A good day for birding. I'm pleased to finally ID the Kingfisher. I've seen him around from time to time since my first day in town. I'm still curious about the water level. I know they control the levels here. The lake wall abuts a drainage ditch in one part of the lake, and there is a big, square, re-bar covered concrete pit in the far end of the lake that is about 15 feet deep and opens into an underground drainage system, and some type of pump or other mechanical device housed in a metal cylinder coming up out of the water. This might be something that they do every now and then. When I see my neighbor again I'll ask him what he knows about it.
UPDATE (10/10/11): The next day the lake was down another half foot, and there were 10 white egrets!
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