conclusion.....

As I was about to head west along the shore, I noticed a big stone on the marsh grass near the passage to stringer bay. WHAT???? A stone in the marsh grass? I paddled nearer and saw that it was a Sandhill crane on a nest!!



I eased in a little closer. She was on the nest with her head down almost in the water. Perfectly blending colors nearly let me go past without noticing her. I was being really quiet and moving slowly, but she got nervous and flew off a few yards.


This gave me a really good look at the eggs. They are quite camoflaged as well. The nest really was just a little high spot surrounded by water. Amazing.






Hiding in the reeds.......






Moving on, the west side of the lake has a long dike that holds the lake in. A road goes along the top and is part of the cranberry business. I could just see the top of sprinklers on the cranberry bog side of the dike, so I held the camera over my head and got this pic of the bogs.



Blackbirds were in abundance.






And ducks were constantly flying up. I managed to get this pic, but should have had the shutter setting on high.... maybe next time.



I stopped at quite a few places that looked like they were harboring mass quantities of huge blues. This was the all too frequent outcome of that.....






Another cool looking spot on Cranberry. Tree city.



I finally made it back to the big bay to find Porcupine fishin' away. He had some fish, but not many. Bad weather.... I had almost as many fish as the others had and I had spent 90% of my time paddling. Oh, well.....



I got back to the landing just after Chuck and Ivan and Ivan's grandson had beached their kayaks. We went back to the pumphouse and cleaned the dozen fish that had been kept, had a few refreshments and headed home. Another great evening on the water.





I'll post some pics and info on the start of garage construction. Just doing the prep work now for concrete pouring..... should be fun.