Life On the Lake 

Dedicated to the Joys of Waterside Living

469

Mid-rhododendron season, which means about half are bloomed out, while the other half is just coming on. It was a bad winter for those on the North side of the house, and their blooms are reduced about sixty percent and are late in coming on.

Meanwhile, the lake has remained providentially high, thanks to good management practices, and the amount of nuisance weed and algae is low. But with warm weather ahead, they are certain to increase soon. And there is some duckweed still and the mallards and wood ducks are doing their level best to reduce it. It won't be until mid-July that the pesticide applicator will be allowed to apply fluridone, which will quickly destroy it. It has been a big nuisance in years past--say, ten years ago. And once, according to legend, a visitor at a party looked out from the end of a dock, decided the carpet of duckweed was a meadow, and walked out onto it into six feet of slimy water.

Wisteria on the make in May

468

The wisteria is in full bloom now. It is beautiful, but a big nuisance in that it doesn't know when to stop growing.

Years ago there was a famous New Yorker cartoon on  the subject. The wife says to her suburban husband, "Duck, here it comes again." And those who are in the know smile to themselves. For it means a summer of pruning every day or two, or else you will be choked by the overpowering purple stuff.

It may come creeping in the porch door on a warm night when you leave the screen open for maximum cooling, and if you aren't on guard it may strangle you in your bed.

But sweetly. Overpoweringly sweet-smelling. Damn stuff.

A brood of twelve, I think. But our first brood this year is eight. Only a pair are needed to survive to maintain the current population, which seems to be expanding

467

We are with ducklings! At least one brood has been hatched, and was first sighted (at least by us) on May 9th. It numbers eight and sends us back to our bird book. The hen will lay an egg a day during her fertile period and requires an enormous amount of protein in  her diet, which will be mainly insects, when formerly she dined on nuts and seeds.

She will spend about a month on the nest and covers the growing number of eggs with down from her body; it is what kept her warm in winter, of course. The down protects the eggs and maintains their temperature when she is gone from the nest to feed. So that is what we've been seeing all month as she arrives and feeds and the male stands in close guard. Of course he is mating to produce the next egg, as well. Then she returns to the nest, usually in a duck box on a tree, or in some natural cavity in a tree, lays another egg and settles down to keep them warm.

They peep inside their shell, and she peeps back in order to imprint the chicks with what they need to know. (Who of us can understand what this might be? Not I.) And when they hatch and dry their bodies and wings, they are amazingly mature, compared to, say, a mallard duckling. This takes from 24 to 36 hours, according to my textbook. Then she nudges them out, and they flutter to the earth, and almost immediately become little semi-independent creatures, able to swim and feed. They stray from her surprising distances (say, ten or fifteen feet) and poke around, here and there. Already they can  hop up on to my dock and off again--a height of eight or ten inches. Amazing, or so it seems to me.

The first-sighted brood is of eight. Two days later, it has shrunk to six. (Best not to  dwell on the particular form of attrition.) But it is a heart-warming sight. And the mother is teaching them to hang around where she obtained most of her food, in the previous month and in the month before that. And that is our reward for buying all that bird food and watching so closely.

Couple of disconsolate opening day anglers

466

Well, they did it again! Years ago, some wag scheduled opening day of lowland lakes for a Sunday late in April. It just happened to be Easter. No,  he wasn't fired for the gaffe. I suspect he was promoted.

The Saturday past (they changed opening days since from Sunday to Saturday, so the dedicated would have an extra weekend day in which to indulge themselves) the lakes all over the state opening to fishing, after a winter hiatus. And most produced about 3.5 fish per angler. Not our dear lake. It went alacking. That is because the resident trout biologist told the hatchery's rearing ponds, "Hey, that's okay. Monday after will do nicely." Or words to that effect.

And I agree. Monday morning my friends from the McGovern Street Rearing Ponds outside of Arlington arrived in mid-morning and dumped in the lake three thousand small rainbow trout. I saw them and caught one that afternoon--a disappointing eight incher.

Still, with fewer fish caught out on opening day, there are no many more to last through the season. And with so many modern day anglers fishing catch-and-release, the fish stretch out to a much longer season. This allows them to grow, especially during the important autumn months. And that, in part, explains the superlative winter fishing here last year for two-pounders.

Thanks, F&W. Your error is a big gain for some of us.

465

And here is how the male woody truly looks. Note the prehensile feet: they can both paddle effectively and clasp a rail or the limb of some  handy tree. The feathers are incredibly beautiful. As a fly tyer, I bought small packages of those black-tipped brilliantly white breast feathers for Atlantic salmon flies. It did not much matter to me the price I paid or the price the wood duck paid (his life) for them. Birds and ducks don't willingly or readily give up their plumage to milliners or fly fishermen. And a shot gun blast often destroys the greatly sought-after feathers, a number of which even otherwise are not perfect enough for the cheeks of exotic flies.

No salmon or steelhead ever refused a fly just because it was lacking in these or other special feathers.

Our eight pairs (or more) of wood ducks are now on the nests incubating their eggs. The males congregate nightly and often dispute each other's mock sovereignty. I think they are breeding still. Occasionally a hungry female woody is seen along the shore line or approaching the feeder. And she is protected from human predators by the simple fact that her feathers are drab and useless. Still, they keep her dry and warm.

Thanks for the visit,
Robert C. Arnold, Editor