Lake Iroquois

Here we are in March, in Vermont. It's still cold...like 20 inch thick ice on the lake cold. Perfect for another day of riding. Fred and I met up with Tanner and Brad. It was Brad's first time out on the ice, and as usual for these things, he thought he'd just screw some "ice racing" screws into his knobby tires and come out and have fun on his CR250 2-stroke motocrosser. Well, he had some fun, but it really started when he got on Tanner's 450 with real ice racing tires.

Anyway, here's Tanner, Fred and Brad. Fred looking cold.

 Fred reinstalling his header pipe after I rode his bike so hard it spit the header pipe off in protest.

 Gassing up.

 End of the session, bikes loaded.

We've done some riding on this lake in years past, but I don't have photos to prove it. This year we have access to the lake via private property, and Rees has done a superb job of plowing out a long road course linked to a good size oval. More to come.

Birding Lake Champain

On Sunday, I took a birding trip on Lake Champlain that was offered by UVM teacher Allan Strong, on the UVM research boat Melosira.

The idea was that we might get some better looks at species that would be difficult to see from land. Some of the rarer pelagic migrants that come down the lake don't hang around long, and often don't come close to either shore, so it sounded like a promising trip.

We left Thompson's Point at 7:00 am and motored north up the center of the lake to the "four brothers" islands, which are just south of the Burlington Waterfront. From there we turned south and followed the NY coast back down and then crossed back to our departure point by noon.

Right off the bat we started counting impressive numbers of common loons, with over 40 spotted in the first hour, mostly flying, though some were in the water. The really rare birds eluded us, but it was still cool to be out on the lake on a beautiful day, and I was able to add several species to my year list, which is shamefully low.

Here is a small flock of brant geese heading south down the lake.

No birding trip on or near the lake is complete without a look at a bald eagle. This one was remarkably tolerant of us motoring up for a closer view.                                                                                                                     


This is a map of the route with pinpoints for time and location on route..

Photos courtesy of Allan Strong and the crew of Melosira