Herons nesting in a tree 3-30-2015

I like to go walking with my dogs.  There's a tree we pass under on our walk.  For the past couple of years we've noticed some bird poop around this time under the tree.  It can be quite voluminous at times.  I've see the birds that are the cause of it but never really could get a good shot of them.  I tried again.  Not the best pictures but at least I got something more than just a head sticking out of the nest which is what I normally see.
   As you can see the nest is quite up there in the tree.  At least they make new nest every year but it usually is in the same tree and near the same area.  This time it was more noticeable than before.. 

 I cropped it so you can see it better.  There is one bird in the nest and one to the left of it.

 I walked around to the other side and took this one.  The sun was glaring and made it more shaddowy.

 Here it is cropped again.

I went walking again and tried getting another picture. Again it is cropped.  This time you can see both birds sitting on the nest.

As I was trying to take these a neighbor came by and told me they were a certain type of heron but I couldn't remember what he said - it was something about golden but I couldn't get it exactly.
Here's the Wikipedia link to herons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heron

I've been gone on Spring Break.  But right before I left I went walking again and as I was walking I was able to get these images.
   This is a cropped image I like this one the best.

 This is what always alerts me to their presence.  What got me was with all the rain we have it doesn't stay long.  One good storm and its gone. 

I'm glad I did take them because when I got back the birds were gone and even there poop marking was gone.  That didn't surprise me because we've had some very heavy rains lately.
  In the past I noticed they didn't stay very long but I didn't know how long they would stay.  

Lake Bistineau on 3-28-2015

Last November we visited the lake and it was so dry.  It's been a wet spring and so we decided to go see the Lake again.  I was so happy to see it had filled up again. 

My dogs just having so much fun running around.

This is how the area looked in November

   This the inlet that was so dry.      And over here you can see the water in it.


My dogs were so eager to be able to go out and play in the field, but every once in the while they had to come check in.  Then they couldn't wait until I said okay to play.

 Here's the area in the front yard filled in with water.  This is how it normally looks.  .

 The same direction in November

  Here's the boat dock at the end of March

The boat dock in Nov.

Last Nov. I could walk under the boat house.

In March there is no way I could.

This was looking from the boat dock in November
 
I thought this was a pretty tree  and have taken some pictures of it.
 
Here's that tree in November

 

Here's some more to give you a better idea of how the water has risen.since November 2014.

 The water in March 2015.  You can't even see that barrel anymore.

I guess because the lake changes so much it makes it so interesting to go see it.  You never know what to expect.

With all the rain we've been getting I'm now appreciative that the lake was so low.  It makes me less worried about our area flooding.

Lake Bistineau - Nov 28, 2014

I finally got around to downloading my pictures from my cell.  Trouble was when I did it my computer/cellphone acted up and downloaded everything 5 times.  I had over 10,000 picture downloaded.  It was too much work to pick them out and so I deleted everything that I would normally use in this blog since it ate up all my computer space.  I've finally got that problem fixed and was able to download them again.

These were taken last fall of Lake Bistineau when there was a draw down and then a drought on top of it.  I had never seen the lake so low.  We've had the camp since 1994 and so had 20 years of observations of it.

Here's some of the images I wanted to share.
This one just simply because I thought they were so pretty yet I wasn't sure what they were.

 Here you can see how the roots grow for the cypress trees.

 This cypress tree since it was so magnificent looking.  This is looking south/ southeast.

 Here's a similar image of the same tree taken on 3-28-2015. And this was normal water levels.

**Added 6-14-2015 The lake is flooding. This was the closest I could get of the southern neighbors boathouse.

And another one, the duckwed is really bad.  It floats on top of the water and in these pictures looks like grass.

 I've never been able to walk under our boat dock.  I just thought this would make an interesting picture.

 I liked this image because it showed so well where the water level is normally - the greenish ban on the cypress trees and how low the lake now was.

Cypress trees showing where the normal water level is and how dry the conditions were.

 The boat house is totally dry in this one. 

 And here's actually being under the boat dock.

 We went back in and here's what it normally looks like.

Again here''s how the lake normally looks around the boat dock.

This inlet is normally full of water but today it was bone dry.

 Here's how the inlet normally looks.

I just thought this was such a pretty picture it needed to be included too.

Lake Bistineau during drought time  Nov 28 2014

I do have some pictures of when the camp was flooded and will add them one of these days.
  I will also add that with all the rain we've been getting lately my husband and I were worrying about the camp flooding but was relieved when the other day my husband was able to check it out and see that it hadn't hit flood stage yet.  I think it just goes to show how severe some of these droughts can be.

6-14-2015 NB:  I didn't  have to go looking for flood pictures.  Lake Bistineau is full again and the lake is flooding, ie it is higher than the dam at the south end of the lake and the waters have no were to go but up.
Here's a couple of images of it. Thats the dock to the boathouse and you can't even get near it.

2015 Was not a good year for the Tulip Tree in my yard

Every year I like taking pictures of my Tulip tree when it is in bloom because it can be so spectacular.  Unfortunately this was not a good year for the tulip tree.
   On February the 18th I notice there were some blooms in the tree.  My heart sank, because I knew freezing cold weather was being predicted.  I wanted to tell that tree - don't bloom now its too early.  Here are the images from that day.

 In this one you could actually see the pink blossoms.

 It was so pretty against the blue sky. 

 Well on Feb 25, the snow did come as predicted and here it is falling onto the tree. Since it didn't stick I was hopping it wouldn't do too much damage. 

After that snow nothing much happened with the tree.  It went dormant.  On March 17th I was noticing it had finally gone ahead and bloomed.
Here are the pictures from that day.
It did not get near as spectacular as it had in the past. 

 Spots were still pretty but the petals were not as wide as they normally were, and there was a brownish tinge to them.

Notice the brown spots on this one. 

 I almost didn't take the above pictures but was glad I had because 2 days later on the 19th this is what my yard looked like.

 And here's how the tree looked like. 

Here's the link for a post done in 2012.
http://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-tulip-magnolia-is-in-bloom.html
Here's a picture from that year taken on 2-21 2012. 

It was interesting to note the date this picture was taken.  So the tree starting to bloom when it did was on schedule.  We normally don't have a deep freeze like that during this time of year. 
Now I just have to wait for another year.