There are some very interesting residents of the lake,
other than the fish. For many years we have had a pair of Great Horned
Owls living a few hundred yards from our house. We hear them hooting
almost every night. They also drive the dogs crazy when they come over
to our yard and sit on the power pole looking for varmints to eat.
I have wondered what the beaver do when the water
recedes in the Summer each year. We have two houses within a quarter
mile of home. Both houses are high and dry by August almost every year.
This photo was taken in the winter, while the lake was at it's low water
level.
In 2009 I purchased a remote game camera to see what was
wandering around the lake during the night. There have been many nice
buck mule deer wandering around over the years. I had seen this one
several times as he traveled across the road to feed in the farm land
during the night. In this photo he is about 100 yards from our front
door.
There is a well used game trail right in front of our
house. I set the camera up along that trail to see what might come
along. Note that these does came down the trail at 9:55 in the evening.
We were still up at that time.
Also note it was 43 degrees.
The next visitors along the trail came by a few hours
later. There are lots of coyotes along the lake. We hear their howling
many nights, and sometimes they howl right in front of the house. It
makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and really gets the
dog's attention.
The temperature has already dropped 6 degrees.
This appears to me to be the same buck as captured a
year earlier in the 3/13/09 photo. Regardless, he has wintered well and
appears to be nice and fat. This photo was taken about 50 yards from the
'09 photo. The '09 site is about a foot under water after a good water
year allowed for more storage for 2010.
Note that this photo was taken the morning after the one
just above. I don't think this is the same buck as the one above, for he
appears to have a narrower beam than the evening buck.
