Piney Z Lake kayaking again!

The 3:30 CSX freight train.

" You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows!"

It was just too nice today to do any work, which included a six inch pile of papers to read through...so I jumped into the truck and drove to Piney Z Lake. I kayaked around the lake in under two hours. There were no wood storks so I guess they have moved on. I saw many cormorants, anhingas, great blue herons, white herons, more than one osprey, and even a lone redwinged blackbird. I didn't see any ibises.

The song of the red winged blackbird is very distinctive and reminds me so much of my childhood. I lived on the back dock of the lagoon at the DYC during summers, and there were scores of redwinged blackbirds which nested around the dock boxes in the thickets. I adored their song. Now I can reliably hear some singing and watch those red wings flutter in the cattail thicket near the YMCA pool. I love to listen between laps when I swim in the summer.

There is a long thicket in the middle of Piney Z Lake which appears to have grown up on some dredgings. It is used for fishing and lots of small birds fly among the trees and plants. There are also lots of blackberry bushes which I intend to visit in June. The poles you see above mark some cuts in the dredging that runs through the middle of Piney Z Lake.