What a summer of weird weather, family swarms, distractions of every kind with house and car …. Like I said, weird, but nothing impossible. Can’t beat the charm of family gatherings!
After watching hurricane Henri come and go, I escaped the house today, 8/25, and sped down to South Cove.
High time to get in there. Picked up where I had left off a week or so ago in Zone 10 (second cove south of Boynton Island, grid 465.) I completed the entire east side of that zone as well as all of 11 and then up the west side of 10 to grid 417.
Highlights:
· There were about 3-4 amazingly huge mounds of bladderwort swirled into round clumps of roughly 3 ft in diameter in that cove, grid 424 and 425. See photo below.
· Further south, the floor of Greely cove was layered with REALLY long strands of bladderwort and the occasional pond weed that could break through.
· As I came to the tip of the peninsula at the top of Smith’s cove I looked for the large field of Native milfoil (in grid 264) of past years and was initially disappointed… and then hit the bonanza! Right off the Smith’s dock the plants just glowed with their gentle red hue (where grids 223, 224 and 263 intersect.) So pretty. My photo below doesn't do it justice but can hopefully encourage you to go find it! And I will post another better one next time.
· Zigzagging south along the rest of the cove, it proved amazingly difficult for me to see anything because of the turbid water (!) – I had never seen that before. But then it was apparent how the current coming out of Snow Brook into the lake was strong after the stormy days we had and that would have caused the water’s change of clarity. That said, I was still able to see tips of bladderwort and identify several bushy Water Marigolds.
· Moving past where Snow Brook flows into the lake's channel, the water cleared and I was able to see the cove’s floor. Just north of where the boats put-in I found a lot more Water Marigolds this year than the Water Naiads of last year. Otherwise I found the familiar array of plants we have all seen this season throughout the lake.
· Climbing north up the west side of Zone 11 in grid 218 I found sizeable entangled clumps of skinny Water weeds (Elodea) nestled between 2 large rocks.
Family plans cut into the time I had to continue up the zone … but I will be back!
Whirled mound of Bladderwort Field of native Milfoil (w/close-up)