By the way, I did pass the Night Navigation class, with flying colors, and I'm pleased I practiced because they weren't kidding when they said it was a tough course.
Today was finally beautiful and warm. The sun was radiant, the morning promised only gentle breezes and the temps were predicted to be mid 50's. You know what that means, paddles must get wet. I made the obligatory phone calls to see if anyone was available to join me, they weren't, so I loaded up the boat and took myself to a quiet little lake where the Sandhill Cranes are known to nest. It's an ideal spot for birding with all the cattails and wetland areas, plus the lake is in the middle of a state game area, which means no houses. There are water trails and creeks to follow which lead to other lakes with houses, but this particular one is undeveloped.
Look who I found, just a dancin' and a jigglin'.
He's clearly happy and having a good time. Yes, he really was jumping up and down like this. His girlfriend is just to the right of this picture so I'm sure he was showing off for her. This link lets you hear the call and see the jumping.
Such odd looking birds with an equally odd call.
Okay, so I went out to the lake to paddle, but I found that it was still nearly frozen solid. There was an open channel I could paddle to get to the lake, but once there I was only able to paddle a little ways along the shore before I ran into the sheet of ice. Apparently, 60 degrees doesn't melt the ice that fast. Something comical, the Goose in the back slipped and fell just after I captured this shot. I laughed, out loud. I hope I didn't embarrass him.
Clearly, I wasn't going to get much paddling in, but since I was also prepared for birding, I backed myself into the reeds where I could be out of the breeze, took off my shoes and kicked back to watch the scenery. I kind of liked that I was out there barefoot, not wearing a coat, and yet the geese were walking on ice.
Ah, welcome back, Spring.
Red-winged Blackbird keeping me company. I have a fondness for these birds as their call always reminds me of warm summer days spent outside when I was a child.
I happened to glance down while I was in the shallows and saw this. Could it be? Is it? It was frozen in the muck and even after digging and digging at it with my paddle, I still had to stick my hand in the icy water to retrieve it, and yes, it was a blue Mason jar. What the heck?
Oh, no, Goose, I don't see you hunkered down in there. I swear, you're totally camouflaged in the reeds.
I don't have pictures because they were too far away, but I also saw swans, Mallards, a couple of raptors and a few unidentifiable birds.
See, it was a Mason jar...and a green wine bottle also had to be retrieved. By the way, the water was so cold it made my fingers hurt.
Yep, fine day for paddling, for birding and for treasure hunting.
Above is the path at the end of my street where I frequently take hikes. It's inundated after the normally placid creek has overflowed it's bank - following the 4 inches of rain. I tromped out there to check the condition of the creek and by the time I returned, the water had risen another 3 inches on my boots. I admit, I was quite concerned about getting swept off my feet as the water rushed down the street, but I had my camera and this event needed to be documented, by me.
lol...this is my neighborhood once the creek finished spilling all it's water into the streets. You could have swam in here, in fact, I watched a huge opossum do just that across here.
The river meter on Saturday. I'm not sure if those numbers are full bank readings, which means the river would be 9.7' over full bank, but there's an incredible amount of flooding going on. It's jaw-dropping how much water there is. There is a benefit to all this water though, Lake Michigan will rise again after years of decline, and that will make my fishing and boating friends very happy.
The same river meter 24 hours later, submerged, although the river won't crest until 11 hours later, just short of 23'.
This is normally a viewing platform for the fish ladder and there is supposed to be a 10' dam off to the right. The ladder is completely submerged.
The delightful Miss M and her 'someday' iconic photo. To give you an idea of just how high this water is, Nessie, an 18' tall sculpture from Art Prize in 2010, floated gracefully under this bridge. She would be snatching little Miss M off the walkway at this rate.
Fish in the window. Talk about living in an aquarium!
Not every day a duck swims past your window like this.
This is normally about a 10' dam. The river is running nearly flat right now with some violent turbulence just there over the dam. I'm curious is anyone has tracked the volume of water flowing through here. 
CSX filled these hopper cars and parked them on the railroad trestle to keep it from getting washed off it's footings. It worked, but I was a little worried that it wouldn't. 
