Evening at the Lake

Our community has four lakes.  We live near Lake Atagahi, the largest of the four.  [Our house is only half a million dollars away.]  I often go down to the park on Lake Atagahi near sunset.  I especially love it this time of year because I rarely see any other people.  It's too soon for the evening picnics and late swimming that will fill the park later on.  I'm happy that so many people enjoy the lake and the park, but it surely will disturb my solitude.  But at this time of year the lake is all mine.

I'm always thrilled to see the Barn Swallows as they go about building their amazing mud nests.  The netting you will see in the photographs was put up to discourage the swallows from nesting under the roof of the cabana.  Fortunately, the clever swallows use a gap in the netting to anchor their nests.

This swallow stares at the intruder with her camera.

Another flies up to assist.

They become more suspicious of the clicking and fly over to sit on a beam.

Finally one of them returns to the nest.

I put down my camera and watched the swallows skimming along the lake for insects and grabbing mud by the shore for nest building.  It is an amazing sight to see such large numbers of these beautiful birds flying around.  After a while my presence went unnoticed.  Oh, what a treat.  I sat there for quite a while until a pair of geese caught my attention.

A pair of Canada Geese pass by.

When I looked up at the sky, I saw the dark clouds heralding a storm.

While I was looking out over the lake I failed to notice the darkening sky.  I quickly headed for home before the storms began.  Once safe again at home, we sat on the screened porch and watched the lightning streak across the sky.  We had some rain but were spared the really bad parts of the storm that did severe damage throughout the state. It was a lovely evening.