Paddle Log #18: Lake Winnipesaukee around Long Island

Monday morning was dark with heavy cloud cover and a light drizzle outside.  Those of you who know me well know that I have an aversion to sunlight, so this was PERFECT weather for a long paddle around the island. 

It was an AWESOME morning on the water.

I used my Kokotat paddling jacket, NRS pants, and my scuba dive booties.  With air temp in the high 60s and water temp in the low 70s, I didn't need a lot of warmth.  These jacket and pants are just a shell to keep the water off - protection against wind and rain.  I just wore a pair of swim trunks and a t-shirt underneath.

My eldest son graciously allowed me to use his waterproof North Face flop hat, and it worked great.

The winds were 8 mph out of the south-southwest when I got underway and turned south.  The wind created a little bit of a swell, and it was fun watching my bow crash through the swells.

I loved how each of the hills in the distance was a different shade of silhouette, and I loved the wispy rain falling from the clouds in the distance.  I had some light sprinkle on my head during the trip, but no steady rain.

There were three distinct phases of this trip difficulty and speed-wise.  During this first southbound leg of the trip, my average speed was about 2.8 mph paddling into the wind.  After I rounded the southern tip of the island and started paddling northeast, I was surfing on the swells coming from behind me and made it to a max speed of 4.5 mph.  When I rounded the easternmost point of the island and started paddling NW, I was in the lee of the island and it was glassy calm.

Mergus merganser americanus

 

Over on the leeward side of the island, I happened upon two families of common mergansers.  I couldn't get close enough to get any really good pictures of them though.  I think they're beautiful birds, and I've never seen them anywhere but in New Hampshire.  I don't know why all the local tourist shops sell wood decorative decoys of mallard ducks and loons but no mergansers. 

Also on the leeward side of the island, I spotted a beautiful blue jay flying along the shore.  My shutter speed wasn't fast enough to get a crisp picture of him, but I was surprised I was fast enough to get this blur of him flying past.

Here's where I could use some help from any bird experts in the audience.  This bird was teasing me.  He kept twittering away at me from a tree and each time I got close to him, he flew on ahead a hundred yards or so.  I never got a real clear look at him.  I thought he had a black head and wings with white spots at the end of his wings, a gray body and white under-body.  I was surprised in looking at this photo close up to see a splotch of brown in there, too.  I never noticed the brown with my naked eye.  Any ideas what type of bird this was?

Even though the pictures didn't turn out so great, I really enjoyed the paddle around the island and admiring the birds along the way.

Now, I use my handy digital camera on a philosophy of "electrons are free."  I take LOTS of pictures and hope that a few will come out nice.  As I returned to base, who should be waiting for me at my landing spot but another family of mergansers.  I said to myself, "Self, you're FINALLY going to get close enough to try an get a good picture of a merganser."  Right after I took this picture, my camera informed me, "MEMORY CARD FULL." 

Ahhhhhhhhh!

I tried to quickly flip back through the older pictures and delete some to make some room for new pictures, but they swam RIGHT by me and I missed it. 

This is my exasperated self-portrait back on shore looking back out to where the mergansers swam off.

Trip Stats from the 60CSx

Stats for the paddle log:

• Date: 16 August 2010
• Time In: 9:12 a.m.
  
• Time Out: 11:30 a.m.
  
• Elapsed: 2 hr 18 min
• Moving Time (GPS):  2 hrs 4 minutes 
• Stopped Time (GPS):  14 minutes
• Mileage: 6.55 miles by GPS
  
• Sea State: 1
• Winds: 5-8 mph SSW (from Intelicast)
• Air Temp: 66F climbing to 70F (from Intelicast)
• Water Temp: 73.8F digital / 72.3F IR
• Current:  None.
• Gauge Height:  ~503 feet (above sea level, not depth of water).  The lake level is about a foot or so below "full" right now (normal "full" level is just above 504 feet).
• Avg Speed (GPS):  3.2 mph
  
• Max Speed by (GPS):  4.3 mph
• Rapids?  None. 
• Hazards?  None.
  
• Kit: Ocean Kayak Malibu Two XL. My son's North Face flop hat, Kokotat paddling jacket, NRS pants, NRS paddling gloves, short sleeve shirt, swim trunks, dive booties.
• Configuration: Both boys stayed home, so I paddled solo sitting in the middle seat.
• Route:  Put-in at Jonathon's Landing and paddled counter-clockwise around Long Island.    
• 
  
• Other comments (such as wildlife spotted): Mergansers, Blue Jay, Sea Gulls.

Not so ugly anymore

I'm amazed at how quickly the baby bird in the hanging basket on our front porch is growing. I wish I had taken a picture of the baby last weekend to show you the changes.

Toward the end of last week when I took a peek, the baby bird was downright UGLY. It was transitioning from the skin-and-bones creature pictured in my previous post into something like a porcupine-bird with these little stubs of feathers beginning to grow.

Yesterday though, I caught a glimpse of the baby sitting up in the nest and watching her mom fly back and forth around the nest. The baby is actually really cute now with actual feathers. I grabbed LW's zoom lens and the step stool and tried to take a photo from a distance over by the southwest corner of the house. Even though I wasn't standing anywhere NEAR the nest, both the mamma and the daddy bird seemed to know what I was up to and were NOT happy with me. They took up guard positions on either corner of the roof and berated me with a continual angry string of chirping.

Mamma Bird on the southeast corner watching me "like a hawk." I focused the camera on the bird silhouetted against the white rain gutter in the background. The nest is in the hanging white basket in the foreground.

This was the Daddy Bird that was standing on the southwest corner very close to my head and angrily chirping at me. He sure looks intimidating with his feathers all puffed out like that, doesn't he? I don't know about you, but I'M scared (sarcasm). I'm guessing he's the Daddy because he's got bright red on his fanny to draw the attention of predators and lure them away from the nest. Looking at our Hawaiian birds recognition guide, I think this is a red vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer).

When I tried sneaking out the front door to take the picture, the Daddy quickly took up a new position on top of the flagpole to keep an eye on me.

Tonight though, I got another glimpse of the baby looking around outside the nest and checking things out. The mamma and daddy birds must have been off fetching dinner, so I managed to get a picture of the baby tonight.

It's the Baby!
(with feathers this time)