Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Locust Lake State Park (2-Sept-2015)


Another day hiking and a bit less trash than yesterday. I had to keep it short today, there are around ten scientific journal articles I have to read this afternoon to start putting together a presentation I will be helping with in October. I will write a little more about it as it gets closer to the presentation date. Locust Lake was nice, still on the hot side and Penny is now wiped out on the floor. The park itself gets a A from me for cleanliness. Yes I did find trash, but compared to other parks or other natural areas, it wasn't that bad.  


Just a view of the Lake. Locust Lake is man made and really isn't that large. There are campsites all around the lake and on weekends it can get kind of packed. It is a nice place to go fishing or boating and there is even a small swimming area.


A paved trail encircles the lake and being nice and shady made the trash clean up go a little easier.


Pretty sure this is a young Red-Tail Hawk. It was hanging around the campsites and didn't seem to mind Penny and I sneaking up for a photo.


I believe this is the same hawk. You may have to blow up the photo to see it. It flew into this tree not far from the other perch site and then there was a bit of commotion in this old pine tree which drew my attention. Walking over I watched a squirrel scurry up the side of the tree facing me. The hawk hopped over to a closer branch and started looking up. I think he was trying to hunt the squirrel, but very unsuccessfully. I have never seen a hawk try to hunt in this manner before, at the least it was something new.


Another new item today were red Indian Pipes. I have seen many white Indian Pipes, but none like this before. If you are wondering, Indian Pipes is the common name for this type of fungus. I do not know if the red and white are the same species, but I think they might be different.

I do not know if I am going to be taking out a whole lot of trash tomorrow or not. I will try for a good amount, but I am going to be doing another hike tomorrow and will not be on the river. Friday I will be back on the water, but I probably will not be able to post until Sunday or Monday.

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