Water!

Chilly breeze, lots of sunshine--at first! It was a super pretty day and while walking on the drive, I found this gem sparkling in the dirt. Cleaned it off and WOW! You can't see too much in this first photo, the second one has 'agate' lines! 

 I was trying to sneak up on the pair of mallards  near the bird feeder. There were 3 and one got spooked...which startled the other two and off they flew. I had no idea I captured flight on the cell phone!

Since it was so nice and the breeze was light enough to make tiny waves on the lake, I opted to pull the kayak out from where I stashed it 6 months ago.

 After I got it out and hauled it to the lake, it got COLD and cloudy and super breezy. I prefer a bath pond to kayak on. Thankfully, it grew calm after 8pm. The mossy bits in the lake are still frozen and there was a very slight 'edge' of ice on a bank or two. It is all gone this morning.  The earth is still stiff.

 This is neat, am not sure  you can tell, but the ice is reflected in the water like a shelf.

 I was a little miffed. As the kayak glided over the water, I noticed the lily pads starting to grow down below. I tried to get photos of them, they were super creepy looking!!!! The dead stalks arrayed around the center where new crinkled growth was reaching out to the surface. But, the camera only captured clouds!

 New growth in the water weeds, too.

 The mallard pair from a different point of view! The lake- I am a bit concerned. The other day, the neighbors had taken a drive around the lake on their 4 wheeler. I noticed a spot with some disturbed down and not a single sighting of the golden eyes. I hope they didn't leave for a less disturbed lake and I really hope their nest didn't get bothered.

 About 830 pm I was floating around and heard the craziest noise. I sounded like monkeys!!!!!! I paddled over to the darker side of the lake and took some really blurry photos of a bird paddling as well. I focused on the noise and managed to get another bad photo of a bird  high on top of a tree. When I got back to shore, I looked it up on the Cornell University Birding site. Yup, it was the Bonaparte Gulls! They are back. I hope they stay! They nest in the trees, so it should be out of the danger zone.

 840 pm shot of the sunset. Well, not exactly, but it was getting pretty chilly on the water and I didn't want to wait another hour or more! Sunset today should be just after 10 pm. One of those wonderful Alaskan things!!!