Lynx Lake breakfast #2

The Thursday morning breakfast crew went back to the Lynx Lake Restaurant this morning. Glad that we did, too -- I was able to reshoot a pair of pictures.

One retake was the mounted bobcat in the act of catching prey. The javelina and deer from the previous visit were acceptable...

...but the ghostly buck, light by a window below, is today's image.

The mounted trophies -- and this elaborate hearth -- emphasize that the restaurant is operated by a couple from Germany, as does the whatnot cabinet below. I've got a date set up for a German dinner next weekend. As a Chicagoan, I've missed food with a mittel Europa flavor here in the west, where the exotic comes from Asia and Mexican food is mainstream..

However, the big news is that the restaurant's humming bird feeders are now filled with sugar water and customers are showing up. I could sit by the window all morning just watching those ferocious little birds. There were no battles this morning; the reason, I was told, is that the feistiest species hasn't arrived back from the south as yet.

For the birds!

I had gathered critter pictures of all sorts for tonight's post; lo and behold, there were enough bird pictures alone. Let's start out at Lynx Lake again, with my youngsters, both of whom had cameras working. The south end of the lake is where the water birds have learned to expect their rations from us suckers. But with all that ice, how do they handle things? The crowd hangs out at a hole in the ice, way off. As soon as likely marks show up, a parade of birds forms up, heading toward the shore.

As the drakes and their ladies near their benefactors, they leave these curious trails in the ice.

The wrong move and they take to the air. Thanks, sson, for this great shot!

In the meantime, a little Oregon juncos steps out on the ice to get his share of goodies.

The juncos tend to hide in the nearby trees and shrubs.

And here's the prize picture from the outing -- a nuthatch hanging upside down either to get a drink of water or perhaps to catch a juicy critter in the mud. If you ever see a small bird climbing down a tree trunk headfirst, you can be sure it's a nuthatch; it's our only bird that does such a trick. Mud? Water? Yes, there was a small margin that was melted at the lake's edge.

Elsewhere at the lake, this raven played hide and seek with the sson, who finally got a nice shot of Roscoe taking off.

GrannyJ finally got her own bird shot a couple of days ago. A fleet of sparrows was around and about; this pair sat still long enough for me to take their portrait.

Linkage: Earlier today, I received one of those email posts with a bunch of wonderful pictures attached. This particular lot consisted of fabulous paper cut-outs done by one or more artists. Of course, I passed the email on to friends, receiving a grump from my dotter in return. Not directed at me specifically, but at the very bad habit people have of harvesting pictures from web sites, then passing them along without any credit whatsoever, jumping copyright protection in the process. Bless her, she passed along the website for artist Peter Callesen who actually created the cut-outs. Do visit the site; he's done some remarkable work.

Patterns on water

Send a rushing stream down a steep spillway; one of the results is a beautiful set of bubbles and of foam. These are pictures the dotter took on our day out Lynx Lake way; she had my camera and I must say she knows just the sorts of pictures that grab me! Note sson also at work.

The bottom of the falls: here's where the bubbles build up.

And foamier patterns made by eddies accumulate in a backwater.

Wonderful bubble baubles.

I really dig the patterns made by the swirling foam.

Signing in at Lynx Lake

On our family outing to Lynx Lake, the kids went off climbing, leaving me behind at the parking/picnic area at the north end. What to do ... rather, what to photograph? As I scanned the scene, what struck me was the inordinate number of signs. To the left. To the right. Instructions, permissions, no-no's, information -- everywhere I looked. What better subject for a post. (Just FYI, I took one of those maps and it was a very nice topo of the area. I heart topos.)

We'll start off with a no-no. None of the local lakes are OKed by officialdom for swimming.

A trail marker, with its own list of what's allowed and what's not. On the alligator juniper in the background, a sign acknowledging a volunteer who cares for this trail.

These two signs refer to some sort of improvement to the area or the lake --with full credit to where the $$ are coming from. At least they passed through the hands of a designer or two.

The side of the loo provides a good, broad expanse for posting a good collection of signs.

As one starts out on a walk down to the lake shore, an admonition.

Some instructions get a "please", others are strictly orders. However, at least this standard Forest Service sign is of a less intrusive design.

Now these colored reflector signs carry a message for those in on the secret. You can see them almost anywhere out in the countryside that there's pavement; the LH and I used to try to figure out what was meant by the different combinations of colors and number/size of reflectors.

Naturally, the dumpster is plastered with its own special messages.

And the lawyers get their say on the subject of garbage.

Here's a call for volunteers. Unfortunately, I suspect that any potential volunteers would be suffering from sign-fatigue by the time this catches their eyes -- if it does.

This series of three does tell us something about the lake (a man-made) and its impact on the local wildlife. Nothing ordering us to do this or that. And nicely illustrated, to boot.

The subdued Lynx Lake sign in the background tells the history of the impoundment. Quite a contrast to the demand for fees in the foreground. That's the lot of them --- except for one no parking sign. All in an area of about an acre. That's a lot of reading material, but perhaps it's just as well to have it all concentrated in one spot so that once one ventures out on a trail, there is no need for any more of this printed noise.

A pretty little dam...

...sits astride Lynx Creek upstream from the south end of the lake as you drive back out toward the Walker Road. Usually, there is a only small amount of water a couple of inches deep behind the dam. Thanks to all the welcome rain/snow we've had, water is pouring over. If you look closely, you'll even see the miner panning for gold on the near bank.

This stretch of Lynx Creek has been dedicated to the casual gold prospector -- unlike most of our public lands, which may be claimed for exclusive use (and most of them are, already).

At this point, I should confess -- not feeling up to the climb down to and up from the stream, I handed my camera to the dotter to take these pictures. She did a neat job, I'd say.

The water was making bubbles -- when it wasn't freezing.

I guess everyone -- well, at least some others -- were out looking at water cascading over local dams. After all, this is drought country and water over the dam is not a casual matter. In any event, on Sunday Tombo, Sadira and Rich all took pictures of Granite Creek topping the big dam at Watson Lake. And on the weekend, our little family of three couldn't resist photographing water-over-the-dam at Granite Basin and Lynx Lakes. I find myself wondering what about the Big Chino out at Sullivan Lake.

Note on Mom: Please take a moment to read the dotter's blog about missing Mom. She has expressed my feelings (and those of my bro) so well -- I couldn't begin to wrap the words around the subject as sensitively as she has. Thank you, OmegaMom!