Fort Yargo State Park: Shades Of Brown And Green. Part 2

The dam was the halfway point of this walk – to see what the lake level was.

The level was about a foot higher than when I last saw it in November. Water wasn’t gushing from the outlet pipe as it has been in November. Perhaps the bridge repairs are completed and the lake level is rising again.

Most of the gulls – Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis) - had settled on the water in this section of the lake. Periodically they’d take off, fly a few circles and come back in to land, only to settle for a second or two and...

Then fly off again. They’d repeat this several times before settling on the water again. I sat and watched them for a while before starting back to the car

*****

This Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) flew in through the circling gulls to land. It uttered a slightly strangled ‘urk’ – not the usual harsh call - as it negotiated its way in. It settled here for a while and then flew a short way along the shoreline to fish.

More shades of brown along the trail.

Mosses cover rotting logs along the trail.

At about this point, I left the trail and walked back along the beach (beige trail on map). Once the lake fills, the
beach will disappear under water again.

The fish attractors that were on the point between the dock and the beach have gone. They’ve been dropped into the lake in the last week.

Some of them were dropped out from the shore at the east end of Picnic Area #2..

A sprig of Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda). We had some windy weather last week and there were several sprigs decorating the trail.

Some Broomsedge (Andropogon virginicus) still held seeds that seemed to glisten in the sun.

Back at the parking lot. Looking back at the pedestrian bridge with the sheets of plywood laid across the bottom of the lake to allow the workers to replace the cross-braces without sinking deep into the soft mud-sand mixture. Soon this will be back under water.
Click on an image to view a larger image

Related posts:
- Fort Yargo State Park: Shades Of Brown And Green. Part 1
- Fort Yargo State Park: A Cold, Sunny Day
- Fort Yargo State Park: Déjà Vu
- Ring-billed Gulls (Larus delawarensis)