I have lived in this area for 10 years now, and that is definitely long enough to know not to listen to the weather forecast when preparing for a day on the water, but I think Saturday I can blame it on my "brain fog", because that is the first time ever that I went out and wasn't prepared. I was expecting upper 70s - low 80s, and it was FREEZING! Overcast with no sun and the wind blowing, and me in shorts! But I stuck it out for several hours, and had fun taking pictures of the seagulls and some families of geese. I did get outfished though, as my pole spent most of the time in the rod holder while I was busy taking pictures or sleeping!
There isn't much left of Rabbit Island ~ I hate to think of how many nests were flooded out as the water has been rising. We were out two weeks ago and there were birds nesting on both ends of the island, which have since collapsed and are now submerged.
This gull was flying so fast he left a jet stream!
A pair of killdeer were nesting nearby and were doing everything they could to try to lure me away from the area. This guy was hopping away in front me with a broken wing ~ poor thing! He recovered quickly enough to fly away and land 30 or 40 yards away with another broken wing though! I hung around long enough to get some pictures of the geese and then left them alone...walking very carefully through the tall grass because the killdeer nests are so hard to spot!
Not much room left at Gull Island!According the Bureau of Reclamation data, Belle Fourche Reservoir is currently 99% full. This is definitely the fullest I have seen it since moving here a little over 10 years ago. Water was still coming into the channel on Saturday, with fishermen lined up all along the channel trying their luck. Even with the irrigation season coming up, the prospect is looking good so far for maintaining a lake with some water in it through the summer! That would be great news after the 30% and 40% we have been seeing in the past summers!
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