August 2001

Week of August 27th written by Peg Toliver

New migrant visitors came to the lake this week. On Tuesday evening, August 28th, we spotted two dark cormorants with long gold beaks and white throats flying together over the lake at suppertime. They are larger than a duck but slimmer and somewhat smaller than the Canada geese on the lake. They have been staying here for three days now, swimming and diving in the lake and perching on dead branches high up in the trees. Perhaps the two cooler days/nights on Monday and Tuesday prompted them to come visit. On Thursday Aug 30th, during a 6:30 a.m hike, I saw two great blue herons, both who spooked as I walked by and flew off squawking. The second heron flew low over the lake and scared a cormorant who had been peacefully gliding alone on the glassy surface of the water. The cormorant dove under as the wide wings of the heron flapped gracefully overhead, and it resurfaced several yards away, golden beak catching the morning light.

Another lake visitor has returned this August -- the swallow -- swooping and gliding in choreographed turns over the lake. Their back is a metallic bronze in appearance with a light underside feathers. It is their movement that is most attracting, so swift and elegant in its tight arcs of twists and turns. They come in large numbers in the spring and migrate north, then return again as fall approaches and they fly to the southern winter retreats.

The biggest surprise we found is that there are birds still actively mating or raising young families. We found a broken white egg on the ground in the pinewoods about the size of a robin's egg. On the lake, a mallard mother can be seen with 4 young chicks. And Mike filmed two flickers performing courtship gestures this last week of August!

It's still quite warm here and today (Aug 30th) the humidity seems to be returning after a respite of two cooler calm days. The rains of last week drenched the earth and encouraged lots of growth in flowers as well as grasses and mushrooms. Surrounding the lake's edge is a rich variety of flowering plants -- clover, chicory, mint, blue vervain, evening primrose, impatiens, a smaller version of thistle, and milkweed of two types, the tall broad leaved species and swamp milkweed which has more slender leaves and smaller fuchsia colored umbrella-shaped blossoms. We've seen several other species of flowers that are lovely and abundant, but which we have yet to identify. One striking example that is abundant on the north shore of the lake has bunches of small white and pink flowers on long slender stalks with pointed slender leaves. A friend who saw the picture of it said it was very like a flower called Whorling Guara that is used in butterfly gardens. This version is known as Bienniel Guara. Another plant has a flower so tiny it is barely visible among it's larger rounded leaves along the lakeshore. We saw the lovely bell-shaped yellow and maroon flower of the ground cherry which grows along the shore and is starting to bear its green balloon fruit which will dry into little white paper lanterns as autumn commences. In past years, we have spotted the flowers of the arrowhead plant that grows along the lakeshore right around Labor Day weekend, but this week, we see no evidence of flowering arrowhead, though the plant is very abundant on the north shore and fills the north wetland area next to Davidson Woods Road.

Away from the lakeshore, on the path to Davidson Woods, the thistles are growing tall, sporting large purple flowers, and some have sent out the silvery thistle down with seeds to take root elsewhere. A lovely stalk about 24" in height with small purple flowers is growing along the edge of the wetland among grasses and goldenrod. We were unable to identify it, but recall seeing it previous years. In the woods and along the edges of the woods there are many plants that are in their fruiting stages -- hickory trees sporting green hickory nuts, honey locust spiraling seed pods are beginning to turn from yellow green to brown, and several bushes are bearing bright and dark berries.

Grasses are as abundant as ever along the lakeshore. We found several monarch caterpillars on the milkweed, and other active insects mating.

On the grassy areas of the lake mushrooms are sprouting up, some as large as a women's size 7 shoe! These are called puff balls -- they begin smooth white and round and eventually their surface crackles and they send up spores when they are cracked open in this way.

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