Life at the Lake


The lake at twilight last night


Lake Ketchum Art Galleries is another website of ours: Click on  Art Gallery to go there. Be sure to visit it, if  you enjoy contemporary art.
It features  painting , drawing, digital graphics, and photography.

 
We also have a literary website, Kingfisher Journal, which you might enjoy. Go to  Kingfisher Journal.
 Its content changes regularly. It is published in four issues per year, but an issue may have several editions, so please keep coming back. The site emphasizes poetry, fiction, movies, and literary criticism. There is usually a fine painting on its masthead. Often the art is by a regional artist.

NEW: And now, a Flyfishing website, with books and used tackle for sale. Please visit Classic flyfishing gear and books.

 Please note:  Life at the Lake is archived. (See below, lower column right.)  Click on the hyperlink to visit some of our older entries.

 

 

 

Some Representative Views of the Lake and Its Environs


The sun has not yet set, but already the moon has risen in a  scudded sky


A pair of wood ducks on our porch rail, where we have  a feeder placed specially for them. The only duck with prehensile feet, they can (and do) perch in adjacent cedar trees. These shy ducks will not be approached and feed only when left entirely alone.


Facing West, a brilliant October sunset holds the eye long after the sun is gone to bed


Nearby tulip fields of Skagit Valley. Actually our lake straddles two watersheds, the Skagit and Stillaguamish. But the former is more famous

.
Four domestic geese arrange themselves in eye-pleasing fashion


Ah, my boat and dock, though I used the motor
 rarely and prefer to row, especially when I fish


Early moonset on the lake, a pretty time of day



Yes, it is I, with a bigger-than-average rainbow. Most our trout are planted small, but grow an inch or so a month during the summer, and by fall are of
 respectable size.  We always let them go.

 

Life At The Lake

577

"Black is one of the primary colors." It isn't? You could have fooled me.

Lake has posted possible toxic algae warnings. It is alive with clotted green algae and streaming yellow-green filamentous algae. No longer do I dare to swim the dogs each day.

That's okay. They seem to want to stay away from the stuff.

576

There are three bluegill redds (that is, nests) at the foot of my dock; this is usually the case in early June. The water if very clear, the tiny stones very clean and shiny. In all three instances, I believe the adults have spawned and now it is the job of the male bluegill to protect the redd from all intruders.

Since the water is less than a foot deep and the nests are very near to the shoreline where my dogs go swimming daily, I am careful (but probably not careful enough) to protect the nests from being trampled by eight big, black paws. A couple of times in the past hot week the dogs have individually returned to land via the nest. This causes me to cringe. But shortly afterwards the nest look undisturbed and the male--a small dark shadow--is back on duty.

Soon he will be gone and the sparkling redd will be silted over. There will be no way to tell what it was or what it produced. But I think bluegill redds are quite productive and will yield many tiny bluegills, fish that will forage aggressively on plankton, then insects, and put on considerable growth this summer. And next year, with a little luck, I will catch a few of them and look closely at the flanks, and their black (not blue) spots, and think paternally of them as I carefully unhook them from my small fly in their tiny mouths and watch them swim away.

The children of my old age.

 

http://www.birdnote.org/uploadedImages/Birdnote/2008/Oct_2008/Great Horned Owl Paul Bannick 490.jpg

575

 Today we salute Paul Bannick and his excellent book, The Owl and the Woodpecker. The picture of the great horned owl above is from the book. It lists for $28, but can be bought a bit cheaper at a number of online booksellers sites.

It is full of sharp photos that are a job in themselves to come across and marvel over. Here are two examples. The nice thing about picture books is that they can be returned to, time after time.

What a pleasure it is! Go buy it!

 

574

A year ago, the State Department of Ecology and the Snohomish County Surface Water Management utility was in the process of daily monitoring the lake. They came up with the following measurement for total phosphorous on that day:

Phosphorus - total     759 ug/l 

What does this mean?

Well, it means that they found 759 micrograms per liter of phosphorous suspended in the water.

Is that a lot?

Depends on what you want the lake to contain of this super nutrient that produces water plants and algae.

Pure water (try to find some) would have none, no phosphorous in suspension. We have 759 micrograms.

Gene Williams, who heads the utility, explained this to me in an email by using a time analogy:

For explaining micrograms per liter (which is parts per billion), I like to use the comparison that 1 ug/l or 1 ppb is equivalent to 1 second in 32 years.  So, these are incredibly small numbers for the amount of phosphorus that should be in a healthy lake (perhaps around 20 to 30 ug/l).  And, in Lake Ketchum and in the stream coming from the farm, we see much larger numbers than this.

So this would equate with 12 and 2/3 minutes in 32 years. Not much, is it? Still it is more than any other lake in Snohomish County and perhaps in the state, with the possible exception of a few, including Lake Steilacoom.

Coming in second is not bad, when you are talking about pollution. Or is it?

 

573

Okay, so the tulip season is about over and we are into rhododendrons and azaleas, with a sprinkling of poppies in bloom. And, yes, the big red is out of focus.

Want to see it in sharp focus? Okee-dokee. Is it better? I thought not.

I vow to keyboard in more entries this summer. Yes, I've been sadly negligent.

A vow is not quite a promise, you understand. But it is more than a pledge.

Fishing, by the way, continues good, with about every tenth fish a holdover of 16-17 inches--a bright rainbow that must weigh about two pounds and fights as though he is an apprentice steelhead.

 

 

More views of the lake


An artist's view of the lake, with the island to the left, scattered conifers overhead, a ruddy sun, and of course a rainbow trout swimming free


 

 

 

Visit some of our recent journal entries

2008
Blog 118, January-March 2008
Blog 119, April-July 2008
Blog 120, August-October 2008
Blog 121, November-December 2008
Blog 122, January-May 2009




2007
Blog 108, January
Blog 109, February
Blog 110, March
Blog 111, April
Blog 112, May
Blog 113, June
Blog 114, July
Blog 115, August-September
Blog 116, October-November 2007
Blog 117, December-May 2007
Blog 118, June 2007-March 2008
 Blog 119, April-July 2008
 Blog 120, August-October 2008

Blog
Blog 94, January 1-January 22, 2006
Blog 95, January 23-February 10
Blog 96, February 10-March 10
Blog 97, March 15-31
Blog 98, April 1-20
Blog 99 April 21-May 12
Blog 100, May 13-June 15
Blog 101, June 16-July 29
Blog 102, July 30-August 14
Blog 103, August 15-September 8
Blog 104, September 8-October 2
Blog 105, October 3-25
Blog 106, October 26-Dec 10
Blog 107, Dec 11-31


2005

Blog 73, January 1-21, 2005
Blog 74, January 22-February 10
Blog 75, February 11-28
Blog 76. March 1-20
Blog 77, March 21-March 31

Blog 78, April 1, April 27
Blog 79, April 28-May 7
Blog 80, May 8-May 15
Blog 81, May 16-31
Blog 82, June 1-5
Blog 83, June 6-20
Blog 84, June 21-July 14
Blog 85, July 15-July 30
Blog 86,  August-24
Blog 87, August 25-September 5
Blog 88, September 6-September 28
Blog 89, September 30-October 23
Blog 90, October 24-November 12
Blog 91, November 13-December 8
Blog 92, December 9-December 26
Blog 93, December 27-December 31,
2005

 

2004
Blog 45. January 1-11
Blog 46. January 12-22
Blog 47, January 23-31
Blog 48, February 1-7
Blog 49, February 8-15
Blog 50, February 16-23
Blog 51, February 24-March 1
Blog52, March 2-9
Blog 53, March 10-20
Blog 54, March 21-April 4
Blog 55, April 5-19
Blog 56, April 20-30
Blog 57, May 1-7
Blog 58, May 8-21
Blog 59, May 22-June 6
Blog 60, June 7-14
Blog 61, June 15-22
Blog 62, June 23-July 9
Blog 63, July 10-17
Blog 64, July 18-31
Blog 65, August 1-20
Blog 66, August 21-September 12
Blog 67, September 12-24
Blog 68, September 25-October 4
Blog 69, October 5-November 10
Blog 70, November 11-December 1
Blog 71, December 1-December 23

Blog 72, December 24-December 31, 2004

See our blogs from 2003

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