Lake level

Last November this is what the south end of the lake looked like. The Canada geese were flocking for the trip south. Ordinarily, the south end of the lake does not have a wide beach but the water was quite low after the dry spring and summer.

This afternoon, April 28, 2008, the higher water level is quite evident. There are many birds but not too many in the water. We saw eagles and pheasants on the way to town this morning. Friday night we spotted sand hill cranes in a field on Cty Rd G. There are woodpeckers, warblers, and many others chirping noisily.


For sake of comparisons, here's a photo of the culvert last November:
You can see it's pretty dry. The optical effect is looking from one side of the opening on the north side of 205th Ave to the south side opening on the other side of the road.


Today, at noon, there is a bit of water starting to flow into the culvert. Bob thinks it was being blown in rather than flowing in. Could be...it has been plenty windy.

Looner Landings

We arrived at the lake in the early evening. It was still light. Watched a pair of loons landing just to the south of us. Bonnie and Charlie are here too. They had seen the loons earlier in the day. It snowed last night and off and on today. Seems late for this.

Loons lounging in the Twin Cities

Check out this article in the Star Tribune: flock of loons

Pipe Lake was still mostly frozen as of last weekend. We'll be at the lake on Saturday afternoon. It's been weeks since we have been there. We thought we'd missed most of the thawing action but, in fact, maybe we've not missed much at all. Will let you know.

Pipe Lakes Newsletter & Web Site

An email from Dick Hollar today announces the April Newsletter.

Dick says, "Please review the newly redesigned format and send any comments back to me.
Also take special note of the following:
A little history
Turf grass vs. native grass
Opportunity to participate
New laws regarding bass fishing and rentals."

The newsletter has a link to the Pipe Lakes Web Site. I've put the website in the side bar links too.

In the Featured News section of the Pipe Lakes Web Site are links to all the newsletters that are online.

Carol and Dick have outdone themselves with such fine work!