Saturday at Lake o' the Pines

I slept better than the night before, despite having gotten the shivers before bedtime; it took a good while before I got warm enough to sleep.  Guess I got chilled somehow.

In the morning it didn't seem nearly as cold as predicted, but still I needed gloves, hood, and heavy jacket. I managed to see the sunrise--I was determined to get up and enjoy the morning before all the kids started running around. It wasn't much shakes as a sunrise, but still, as always, a sunrise.

While Ed got hooked watching a Castle episode, the dogs and I took a early morning birdwatching walk. I was barely out the door when I saw a woodpecker in the top of a dead tree--and it wasn't in the book!

Okay, it probably was. It had a dark head and dark back, maybe some white on the wings but not much, and no other markings. It was almost certainly an immature red-headed woodpecker.

We didn't see much else other than three very annoying birds at the very top of this tree--





Yeah, I should have nailed 'em, don't ya think?  We went on down the same route we had the day before because that's where I've always seen birds. There weren't much any this morning--just jays, bluebirds, and a pair of cardinals in the bushes--but then I had the sun in my eyes. I did identify the camping spot we need to occupy next time--E410. It's right where I've ben seeing all the little yellow birds.





On back and we found a spot where the black vultures hang out; then saw a medium-sized bird (probably Kingbird) and a little bird at the very top of the adjacent tree.  Then it was time to start the day. (Sigh) There was a whole sink full of dishes to do, then a trip to a nearby bait store to get minnows, then fishing.





Few fish and even fewer birds. We fished some underwater "structure" for a while and then went into the dock for a bathroom break. (I may have this next sequence out of order by a bit) At the dock, Ed talked to a guy who had caught a whole bucketload of crappie; Ed got the location from him and marked it on his phone.

Then we took the boat south for a bit and found a stand of dead trees sticking up from the water. We tied up to one and right away I caught a 12-inch crappie. Lovely! Assuming we were into a big flock of them, we fished on. And on. And on. It appeared that this was a one-fish stickup.

So we went upstream to the place Ed had marked but it's a big lake and the guy might have been off on his directions. We passed several places where drowned trees stick up, plus a lot of very expensive houses on the Eastern shore.  On the way I saw three terns and a bird perched on a boat dock that could have been many things but was probably just a great blue heron with his neck drawn in.

No more fish, though. Just a small crappie and a lot of little catfish that kept stealing my minnows.

When we returned, the party across the way was in full swing, with stupid top 40s music playing to our left and big groups of adults talking to the right; kids fishing on both sides and just a lot of general hullaballoo. Not what we were looking for, as you can imagine. We retired indoors and watched old British comedies recorded from PBS.

Is it significant to note that I haven't cracked a single book so far this trip? I packed three plus the kindle!