Quaker Lake 6/24/07

A Sunday afternoon at Quaker Lake
in New York State's Allegany State Park.
Nice that you can launch from near the spillway
without entering the park and paying the entrance fee.
Several kayaks on the lake.
But we had just about decided
that there wasn't much wildlife on the lake
and were heading back to the launch
when we came upon a pair of osprey
perched on a tall old dead tree.
They were reasonably cooperative
and allowed a bunch of photos
before moving on down the shore to a new perch.
On the drive back to Little Valley
we noticed an osprey nest on the edge of the park.
For better versions of the photos
go to my Picasa site
and use the slideshow button.

Rocky River

Late afternoon - early evening near Cleveland
on the Rocky River where it empties into Lake Erie.
And then dinner at Macaroni Grill.
A nice way to celebrate the day.

Findley Lake on a Friday Night

You can tell when summer is really really here
when we start kayaking on days other than
Saturdays or Sundays.
Here is Findley Lake on a Friday evening.
Human numbers were low.
A few boats but not a crowd of fisherpeople.
And barely any picnicers.
Lots of great blue herons.
We counted as many as 8 in the air at once.
A few green herons
And a Baltimore Oriole bathing on the edge of the lake.

Findley Lake 6/10/07

Findley Lake 6/10/07

This weekend has had beautiful weather
- perfect for kayaking.
So back to Findley Lake and chasing the birds.
I'm think we should start naming the birds.
We're pretty sure they are starting to pose.
Very often the herons take off acting annoyed
and then circle back for another shooting session.
More often than not they tolerate us
and rarely do their dinosaur sqawk anymore.
And the geese could care less if we join the family.
We even left the kayaks up on the Honda
in case we want to go back out tomorrow.
Parking around Oberlin
with the boats on top is a sign
for the town that summer has truly begun.

Windy and Cool on Findley

Great day for kayaking.
Windy which gave Findley Lake a little chop,
going one direction was a bit of a workout
but of course the other direction was a breeze.
Did a couple hours in the late afternoon
before we decided it was getting too cool.


Saw a couple Great Blue Herons,
a lot of geese,
and a couple of our usual exploding carp.
Also were a lot of swallows skimming the lake surface,
hadn't seen groups of them doing that before.
There weren't any bugs in the air
so we're not sure what the swallows were hunting.

First of the Year

Finally on the water.
Two hours on the water
at Findley Lake
at Findley State Park
Only one great heron
but a lot of geese and turtles
and none of them seemed to mind
our coming very very close.
No photos.
My camera decided to not work.
Keep running into people that
want to try the kayaking thing.

River Run We Didn't Do

We should have unburied the kayaks from the garage.
It was a beautiful Sunday -
sunny, comfortable temps, low humidity
but with too much to do around the house.
We should have taken the challenge
and did the Keel Haulers 2007 Vermilion River Race
It would have been our first time
but we weren't really ready
for what might have been a strenuous start
to the 2007 season.
Watch this space -
maybe next week?

February Cold

9 degrees
not even counting the wind
f r e e z i n g
lakes with a brittle glaze
for walking not boating
water too threatening to test
plastic kayaks would shatter
into a million pieces
if bumped on the surface
not going out there
too cold

Mid-Winter Blues

Driving through Western Pennsylvania
on a wet yet warm early January day
we did see 2 kayaks on Meander Lake
highlighted in a spot of sunshine
doing what we should have been doing