Kayaking Palmer Lake

Yes believe it, today I kayaked in Palmer Lake and up Shingle Creek! I've been considering it for years now but had put it off for some good reasons. The basin itself is shallow as hell. Also, being a swamp that's smack dab in the middle of a large city, it's not necessarily the cleanest water. I don't even want to imagine what diseases I could catch if I capsized. But with almost a week's worth of rain, the water was noticeable higher and I figured I'd go for it. I put in right by the main parking lot around 8am. Thankfully I was the first vehicle in the lot and I could avoid any embarrassment if I didn't succeed in launching. Surprisingly I made it in without getting too wet and I was off and paddling across the middle basin. I tooled around slowly, getting a feel for the depth as I really didn't want to get stuck and have to get out! I headed for the mouth of the creek and thankfully found the water to be much deeper there -maybe 5-6 feet? As I headed up the creek I came upon a large group of deer right on the banks. Seeing them there in the middle of the park in the early quiet was amazing. In addition I was so frickin' close, I could see steam coming off their warm bodies. They stared at me like it was something they'd never seen before -and that's probably true :) As I headed closer to the foot bridge on the north side I saw birds aplenty including an Owl, hawks and lots of Wood Ducks. The most amazing part of my trip is just how far I made it upstream. I got past the old Lazaroff's farm and even past Xerxes Avenue by way of a cement tunnel under the road. Shortly after I finally ran aground and could see I was in about 6 inches of water. Luckily, there was somewhat of a current here and it was easy to back up and turn around. On the way back I paused to snap a picture of the same tall cottonwood I remember from January when I first walked on the frozen creek. Just for fun, I've put both pictures together here. Also on the way back I paused to watch a female Red-winged Blackbird that darn near came right up to me as she was collecting twigs for a nest. Being this close I could even see the slight yellowish tint to the head that I've only seen before in photos. Upon coming back off the creek I veered right to explore the left basin which was even more shallow than the first. Everywhere around me the water errupted into a swirl from carp. I swear I could even feel them under the bow of my kayak. Here I snapped this pic of a Great Blue Heron before heading back to explore the eastern basin. This is the largest body of water in the park and there were actually small waves on it. I'd recently talked to a passing walker said someone told him there was a depth of 18 feet somewhere on the lake. I'm highly skeptical of this but I figured if it existed, it would be here on the east side. Though it was for sure deeper than the other basins, I could touch the bottom with my paddle everywhere I ventured. I decided upon the south side overlook for my point of exit and I performed a trepidatious full body roll-out onto the railroad ties. With a handful of new sights and no diseases, I'd actually call it a great paddle!

Spring Soaker

Our rainy weather has been continuing but when I arrived at the park Wednesday evening it was only somewhat overcast. Stupidly I left my rain jacket in the truck, opting for only my hooded sweatshirt and baseball cap. On the first wood chip trail I noticed a small speckled egg that was more or less intact. After searching the closest pine tree for a bit I found a nest with another similar egg still in it. Not sure if it would it make it or not but I added the egg back into the nest anyway. On the north side a bright orange bird caught my attention as it landed in a tall, thick tree. This was only the second time I've seen a Baltimore Oriole in the park and I waited around forever trying to get a picture. As it hopped around in the tree I noticed a second one but neither of them ever came out into plain view. While I'd been standing there for a while I noticed the southern sky getting darker and darker. It had a definite look of rain and I realized at that point I was probably going to get wet later. I hurried along quickly and stopped only once when I noticed a couple of deer about twenty minutes later. I got one decent shot of this young buck before it disappeared into the cattails. And then came the rain. Harder than I've ever seen at the park for sure and I was getting soaked fast. There was nowhere to go but in the woods. I found the most dense trees above that I could and stood there for a good 15 minutes while it just poured. When I moved just one foot to either the left or right I'd get even more wet so I just waited it out in the same place. By the time I got home I could have wrung out my sweatshirt like a sponge.

Rainy Monday

Monday rained pretty much all day long. It was still raining as I head home from work but for some reason I was still itching to visit the park. I guess I like when there's fewer people there. The things you see are for sure seen only by you. Nearing the north side I spotted an unfamiliar looking bird as it flew by. It was slightly larger than other birds of it's shape. It landed a ways off from me but I could still see a bright red patch on his head. I zoomed in, got one shot and he flew off. I guessed it was a Flicker and my bird book confirmed that it was a male due to the black mustache. I was pretty glad I'd worn my rain jacket as soon after it started coming down harder. Up ahead some deer were crossing the path and they hesitated one by one as they spotted me. A short while later I saw a group of 4-5 of them that stayed on that side of the path and were eating foliage from trees hanging above. The longer I walked, the harder it rained and after a while my camera lens was even getting spotty. On the south side there are these little plants growing so fast they are carpeting the ground in large patches.

Turning colder in May

It's steadily gotten more cold and damp in May which is really strange considering the very warm April we've had. It was easy getting used to 70 degrees in April but extra hard adjusting to mid 40's again in May! Tonight was a little better and the sun had finally popped out showing how green everything has become. On the west side I sidetracked into the woods to retrieve some garbage when I noticed this rather large and colorful snake. I'm sure it was just an everyday Garter Snake but it was close to three feet long with bright specks of orange on it. I got in real close for a picture and it got kind of pissed at me and looked like it might lunge at me. Later I spotted a Bald Eagle perched way out across the park in some dead tree tops. I've been seeing him here for the past few visits but never seem to get close to him. I'm also seeing about 9-10 deer almost every visit lately which is really unusual. It's much harder to catch pictures though now with all the tall grass and foliage. I'm also noticing a lot of them with "nubs" lately which is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure that the majority of young ones in the park are actually bucks. On the south side near the very spot I saw the Coyote last week, I watched this family of geese for a bit. The young ones, still yellow and fuzzy kept walking up underneath the female and she would kick them away with one leg. I couldn't figure out what they wanted until she sat down. Then all of them came barreling into her from behind and tucked themselves under her feathers for warmth.