Lakeview Wildlife Management Area, Part Two

Welcome back to Lakeview Wildlife Management Area.  We're still on South Sandy Creek, paddling with the current.  I love the reflections in the photo, especially of the trees dark branches.

As we got closer to the open area of the creek, the water level diminished considerably.  You can see it in the photo below of Brody.  There was less than 6 inches in the creek at this spot.

But a little farther downstream, the depth of the creek increased.  Brody has actually turned his head to look at me while I'm capturing his photo.  He does that so rarely that I have to post this photo!

Lots of cattails line the banks of the creek as we get into the flat ponds area.

This is what the creek looks like once we're completely out of the alders.  It's wider here and most of the plant life is tall enough that you can't see over it as you paddle.

We saw a lone female common merganser on the creek.  She was paddling contently and didn't seem to mind us invading her quiet.  I recently learned that male common mergansers's coloring is nothing like the female.  They have a lot of white on their bodies with a bold black back!

I think this tree trunk has lots of character, don't you?  I am not sure what type of tree it is, but the knobs on it are interesting.

On some of the sandy banks of the creek (not too hard to figure out where the creek got its name!)
we saw killdeer.  They are striking with the ring of black on their necks.

Brody, as always, was intrigued by the killdeer.  We've paddled on, but he is still interested in them.

And here he is, looking out at Lake Ontario, as we've paddled to the spot where the creek, ponds and lake meet!

At the spot where all of these bodies of water meet, you can paddle up different creeks and channels or into some of the ponds.  There are a couple of large ones, and we are told the fishing is good.




We paddled out on the lake a short while to beach our kayaks and walk around.  Here is Brody being "Beach Dog."

I'll close this post with a heartfelt "Hurry up Spring!"  We are buried in the latest snowstorm here in Northern New York and it feels like we'll have snow in our yard 'til June. I sure hope not!

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