[ValleyNature] Little Lake & Cornwallis River

[James W. Wolford]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Andrew Steeves <andrew at gaspereau.com>
> Date: April 28, 2009 8:46:24 PM ADT
> To: naturens at chebucto.ns.ca
> Subject: [NatureNS] Little Lake & Cornwallis River
> Reply-To: naturens at chebucto.ns.ca
>
> TODAY: LITTLE LAKE
>
> It was a warm day today, even when I got up at 5:00 AM, my  
> instruments at the house were reading 9 degrees already. I hatched  
> this (crazy?) idea this winter that I would visit and paddle all  
> the named lakes or otherwise significant lakes in Kings County this  
> season, or at least see how many I can get to. There are something  
> in excess of 102 that I have identified. Many are a bit off the  
> main road, as it were. This morning I headed out to find 'lake  
> number five'.
>
> Lake five is a tiny one in behind Greenfield on Gaspereau Mountain  
> called Little Lake [20 T 394756 4984100]. It was about a 1 km carry  
> in to the lake from the road, but the woods road and ATV trail I  
> followed were fairly dry so it wasn't bad. I spent a lot of time  
> while carrying thinking that one of these days I'm going to buy a  
> lighter canoe. (Though I'm kind of fond of my old Chestnuts.)  
> Anyway, there were a number of  Hermit Thrushes singing and ruffed  
> grousedrumming along the road which kept me distracted until I  
> reached the lake, which was a pleasant woodland little lake, less  
> than 800 m to circumnavigate. Peepers were peeping. There were five  
> black ducks on the pond and black-capped chickadees in the  
> evergreens. The real birding highlight was a male hooded merganser  
> that landed on the lake while I was preparing to sling my canoe on  
> my back and head home. The sun was just coming up by that point and  
> it was a splendid sight to see its erect hood in this sharp, low- 
> angle light. There was also a red-winged blackbird singing in the  
> stillwater beside the road on the walk out, and I stopped watched  
> him chat for a while too. I got home in plenty of time to hand the  
> car back over to my family for their various activities and then  
> bike the 13 km to work in Kentville.
>
> LAST FRIDAY: CORNWALLIS RIVER
>
> I should also report that Gary Dunfield and I escaped the printshop  
> for a few hours on Friday and ran the Cornwallis River from South  
> Bishop Road to behind the old roundhouse in downtown Kentville.  
> There was a lot of water after the heavy rains mid-week. The top  
> part of the run was twisty and quick. In the lower part, we were  
> able to skip many of the meanders due to the flooding which turned  
> what would normally be a 15 km run into a 13 km one. There were  
> innumerable ducks, mostly black ducks and mallards, though we also  
> saw a pair (M&F) ofwood ducks on the upper part. Just after passing  
> under Highway 101, we pulled into a quiet backwater to watch a  
> muskrat grooming and discovered a dozen or so good sized eastern  
> painted turtles sunning themselves. We saw a couple of muskrats,  
> but no sign of beaver at work at all. We also saw what I believe  
> was a pectoral sandpiper, a small flock of tree swallows, and a  
> bald eagle. Chickadees, ringed-neck pheasants, and song sparrows  
> were frequently heard. The silver maples that line some sections of  
> the river were in bud.
>
> Well, that's enough out of me.
>
> Andrew Steeves
> Wolfville, NS

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://blomidonnaturalists.ca/pipermail/nature_blomidonnaturalists.ca/attachments/20090429/ac0f8457/attachment.html>