Friday at Lake O' The Pines

It set in raining around 2am. Or so I guess--I woke up and heard raindrops, then checked my phone for the time. Several times in the night I heard it raining again, but when I got up (awfully late, after eight o'clock) the pavement had mostly dried up. Just a few puddles remained when the dogs got their morning walk.

It wasn't all that cold, but the wind had shifted to the north without lessening any. So we hung close to the RV all morning. Weather Underground predicted showers at eleven o'clock and sure enough, they came.  Then it predicted clearing, with a possibility of more showers coming through later.  I voted for clearing.

The dogs got a short walk in the rain. I found if you're wearing a rain jacket with a hood, and you try to look at birds up in a tree, the hood funnels all the rain onto your face and down your back. So...no birds for a while.

It quit raining--or pretended to quit--at about 3:30. I played with the camera for a while, trying to photograph six mallard ducks that swum up in close formation. Of course, by the time I got a shot, they were leaving.

Then three little birds that might have been brown-headed nuthatches came by the window, but they left too rapidly to get glasses on. Then a Carolina chickadee moving at light speed...after that, I had to get outside.

So at about four, with streaks of blue sky showing to the north, and dogs and I took the same walk as yesterday--over to the E4 campground near the fenced-off boat ramp. Aside: I don't get this at all. There are two boat ramps "in" this park. The one at the north end is connected to the park, but the one at the south is separated by a four foot chain-link fence.  It goes alongside the E4 campground and all the way down to the water. To get to the boat ramp, you have to go back to the front gate and exit the park. I assume the reason for this idiocy has to do with the gate being locked after hours. Fishermen who aren't campers can still access the lake there. But I found it inconvenient.

The little yellow birds were still there--that's when I decided Pine Warbler for sure. On the way back I saw ten White Pelicans in formation--magnificent! Plus bluebirds and blue jays and a couple of annoying woodpeckers--probably Downy--that I couldn't see. When I returned I was planning to drop Zack off and take Izzy for a long, fast walk uphill to the northern boat dock, but Ed was ready to launch the boat. So we did.

While waiting I saw a pair of adult Bald Eagles circling over the water.



Sadly, when we were done, traffic at the campsites was starting to pick up. There were at least three cars at the tent camping area and more coming in--they were making an awful racket. So when I walked the dogs, instead of going by the ten camping we went downhill again, toward the "out of park" boat ramp. Third time for the same walk in a place with so many wonderful walks!  We were going to go on out of the park and down to the boat ramp, but there was a crowd of deer eating the grass there, so we turned back rather than scare them off.  The deer don't seem to mind me, but the dogs alarm them.

This is the spot in the E4 loop that I wish I'd reserved--it's off by itself and that whole camping loop seems to be occupied by older people. No kids, bikes, or motorcycles. Ideal for me!

Back at our site, things were on the downward slope. A family with at least four kids moved in right next door. Across the drive was a trailer with a dog. They kept it on a long rope but still my stupid dogs had to bark and get all aggressive. It's my fault that they're not socialized, but still annoying.  And then the electricity went off. It turned out the water had been off earlier--we'd noticed that our water pressure was abominably low so Ed had filled up the fresh water tank. That way we'd be able to use the water pump for showers.  But it appears that the water had been completely off for most people.

We ran the generator for a while, but within an hour the electricity came on. Did I mention that after the sun came out the temperature climbed to mid-fifties, which was quite pleasant. I was comfortable with just a tee shirt and flannel shirt. Excellent weather!