A walk at Homer Lake

[tigertoy]

So, instead of doing what I was supposed to do this afternoon, I went over to Homer Lake.

I started out in the Collins Pond area.  The pond was pretty:





I started to walk down the path around the pond, but it's rained a lot.  I shortly came upon:



Unfortunately, while I was standing on the east side of the pond, the glare of the sun reflecting off the pond started a headache that I didn't shake until I got home.  I went to the main park entrance and stopped in  the Environmental Education Center (actually, I needed a restroom) and looked at the exhibits there.  They have some live reptiles, and a number of stuffed birds and mammals, but I'd really rather look at live birds and mammals.  They did have a bird feeder, and I took this picture of a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, who was eating seeds like a regular bird:



I went out to the observation platform that overlooks a small prairie restoration area, and I ate my apple, but I didn't take any pictures there that I thought were worth sharing.  Then I went to the small area on the north side of the lake.  There was something odd in the water; it was moving around quickly and changing direction a lot, and I couldn't figure out what it was.  I took a bunch of pictures, and none of them were very clear; this was about the best I could do:



It looks like the tail fin of a fish, but it would be an awful big fish for a little pond like Homer Lake, and it wasn't acting like a fish.  It stayed on the surface, moving in circles, changing direction, but looking basically like this, for a good 10 minutes, and then it vanished.

I was hoping to stay in this area until the sun got low, because great blue herons like this area, especially at that time of the day, and I was hoping to get some pictures.  Unfortunately, the headache I'd gotten earlier was still going strong, and I was feeling really tired, so I decided to give up and go home.  As I was leaving, though, I did come upon a sign that spring really is coming, even though I know that the weather today was an aberration:

Comments

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised how large the senior predator fish can get in such a small lake.

I did a bit of quick Googling; the smallmouth bass's tail looks a lot like your picture (Largemouths tails are more rounded on the end).

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

YAY!!! flowers at homer lake...this gives me hope...

(great pictures)

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

Wow! Open water in February! What a concept. Nice shot of the flicker, there.