Lake Springfield – August 2024
/We set out to the Clay Henshaw Memorial Access on Lake Springfield since we had not viewed the lake from that perspective before. It was a little too late in the morning for birding, but I took a few pictures of flowers growing in the area.
There was a large (lotus?) leaf on the water surface that had interesting patterns of green in the deteriorating leaf that curled upward at the edges.
The sun was very bright, and we could feel the temperature rising.
We headed over to the boathouse…. which is our favorite place on the lake. The area around the building is full of native plants created by the area Master Naturalists…some with seed pods already.
As we started toward the meadow, I noticed that that the purple martins have already left. There were a few birds near the feeders…and the moon was visible in the nearly clear sky.
I took pictures of dragonflies that landed on the paved path or in the grass long enough for me to photograph. Most of them didn’t…they were on the prowl for breakfast.
The thistles were attracting skippers, but I didn’t see larger butterflies feeding in the meadow.
The sunny meadow had a lot of tall vegetation…not as colorful as earlier in the season. Many of the meadow plants are producing seed now. The goldenrod has not started blooming yet.
As we got to the far side of the meadow, a bird flew into a tree. I got several reasonably good pictures: a Great Crested Flycatcher!
There are two trenches made by storm runoff in that area…and both are dry right now. It’s been a dry August here.
We turned around and made our way back to the car…pleased with our morning activity before the heat of the day became overwhelming.
