July 17, 2011

It looks like July of 2011 will go in the books as a great summer month at Lake Wicwas;  the beautiful weather keeps on coming.  Thankfully there has been enough rain in the thunderstorms to keep the lake level full.  It's only starting to go down a bit now.

All the animals are growing rapidly, including our new loon chick, although the parents are still watching out for it very carefully.  When a boat approaches at all closely, the adult still swims out to the opposite side of the boat from the chick and puts on a good display.  When one boat came into the cove, the parent put on a ridiculous porpoising show, lifting its body high out of the water, diving down forward, and repeating multiple times.  There's no way someone could ignore that show, which is just what they want!

I watched one parent and the chick for quite some time one morning this week.  They were fishing quietly until the parent saw a boat come into the cove,

 at which point the parent told the chick to keep its head down while it went out to do its job,

 which junior obeyed quite well.

 The adult put on its show,

and when the coast was clear, the parent returned, and junior said, look dad, I can do that too! 

Dad then spent the next few minutes giving a grooming lesson (I think junior saw me on the dock!),

 with junior following dad's every move.

 

Once they were clean and well fed, they headed out down the lake to see what mom was up to.

The water spiders are growing as well, as proven by the exoskeleton that was left on our dock.

Water Spider

And today, a heron flew off the shore - I just love how these prehistoric looking birds spread out their giant feathers to get enough lift to fly.  They also seem know know they get more lift if they fly low against the water until they pick up more air speed.  (Do you recognize anyone in the background?)

Great Blue Heron