19 January 2012

Waterfowl Outing to Carter Lake Environs

Typical winter weather has descended upon the Missouri River valley, making it more an effort in timing ongoing visits to Carter Lake to view the fowl gathering. Temps were moderate on Wednesday, the 18th, so despite the winds, the bicycle route was taken about the oxbow.

View of the lakescape from a point near where a sign representing the Sandy Griswold Bird Sanctuary could have been placed.

The lake was mostly ice-covered, except for a small patch on the north-central section. There were hundreds of lively waterfowl. Most of the typical species that have been present were noted, except for the Lesser Scaup.

The dead coot carcass is along the side of the ice. Perhaps it would provide a morsel for a Bald Eagle?

Considering Trash

A visit was made to the northwest section of Levi Carter Park, to view the results of the trash removal.

It was nice to see that sometime between January 9th and 17th, the trash problem originally reported on November 7th was addressed. It was disappointing to see that the job was not suitably finished. When visiting on the 18th, the work done was obvious, then about ten minutes were taken to further the cleaning. The items shown in the attached picture were gathered together from the city parcel. Perhaps this will help to get the place cleaned up entirely? And so that the tires will be gone!

These logs were placed as a deterrent to further access by trashers.

This is a view of some of the trash present when the problem was first reported on November 7, 2011.