Lake-related snapshots (with cats)(and eagles' nests)

Dwight Peck's personal website

Summer 2025

A photographic record of whatever leapt out at us

You may not find this terribly rewarding unless you're included here, so this is a good time for casual and random browsers to turn back before they get too caught up in the sweep and majesty of the proceedings and can't let go.

Lake-related snapshots (with cats)(and eagles' nests)

Late August 2025

We arrived here on 2 June 2025, and lo! we're still here. Still having fun, to the extent possible.

Returning from a daily hydrobike ride, we find Melvin waiting to greet our arrival.

-- You're a good boy, Mel; many thanks.

Not infrequently there's a competition for the best catbed, not always pleasant to watch, but when it's working out, they're awfully cute.

Sleeping Choupette can be awfully cute on her own as well.

Under the highway bridge into the South Bay, for another look at . . .

. . . this thing, which looks very like a beaver lodge. Could it be? Without a beaver dam to go with it?

The South Bay's involuntary monument to Nature's seasonal devastations.

And another, on the way back north

Meaning that it's time for another 'Crossing of the Bar', between Ryden's island and the mainland.

We've always done this regularly, and it's enormous fun. When successful.

Hyperpedaling now, super-speed, ready to pull the propeller up!

Damn, and blast. We're stuck on it.

Lower water levels, and a head wind from the north -- not my fault!

Rocking the bike back and forth is completely useless.

We're going to have to walk it off the reef. This is potentially so embarrassing . . . but no one else is on the lake today.

This guy's hydrobike has its own little shelter from the elements. We're lucky to get our stashed away for the winters.

That's presumably not a single-family residence.

Choupie's leaping out of the clothes closet, so that . . .

. . . Melvin can come out now, too.

That's a dreadful wake boat, made to create huge wakes so that thoughtless showoffs can drop their towrope and surf the wave as if it were part of a Hawaiian championship. There's a bladder below the stern which, when filled, sinks the stern lower, and two flaps at the back which, when extended, raise the wake even higher. Up to four feet high, it's been said, though we've only seen them up to about three feet.

The damage to the lake's conservation and fish communities, and the dangers to others on the lake, like canoeists and kayakers, are very serious (not to mention to property values), and the political responses of organized normal people are beginning to have an effect. There appear to be five or six of these nasty beasts on our little lake.

Baby Leigh, Wisconsin's own tiny bit of property on the lake (many years ago,
someone forgot to pay the property tax on it).

That's a photo of Changwon, South Korea, in 2008.

Choupette is astonished, and chagrined, that anyone in this family would be caught reading the Daily Mail, but this is a special occasion: the headline is 'Mysterious 'Jesus boat' found in Sea of Galilee linked to walking on water miracle'.

More skeletal remains down by the South Shore Drive Bay

And a spooky arboreal Praetorian Guard formation, and . . .

. . . the newish eagles' nest . . .

. . . to compete with our well-established eagle family on the main island up north.

A second little sailboat has appeared on our lake, here by Point o' Pines, and it's having a terrible time getting sorted out.

The sailors are waving, we must know them, and now that they're out of the lee of the Point,
matters are proceeding more smoothly.

We later learned that it's crewed by Ihor and Bert on their first try at it.

Melvin is the calmest and most dignified cat, possibly in the world.

We've finally got our 'new' car out of the collisions shop. Thank the Great Lord Harry for automobile insurance.

The Mussent Point Harbor, under . . .

. . . Choupette's careful watch.

Mussent Point's got its own generous contribution of tree carnage, and this one's pretty special.

At least once a year, we like to take the old Grumman canoe out and paddle into a few of the swampy places that would tie the hydrobike propeller into permanent knots. Soon we'll have a go at it.

The traditional walk up Adjidaumo Island

We've regularly liked, once a year, to march up the island to photograph the eagles' nest from closer up, but two years ago we nearly got hornetted to death, and since then have been having some misgivings.

But enough of that feeble excuse -- it's time to get this done. The traditional path up to the high point, where in the late 19th century there was an overnight cabin for the family of the sawmill owner, starts from this stony reef on the northeast corner. 26 August 2025

Trees have fallen onto the entrance to the path often, and that one was the hornet house the last time we came. But we'll try to scramble lamely up around it. That's our plan, anyway.

Okay, that's out of the way.

That's the ancient path, now nearly unrecognizable.

Nearly there; mind your step.

That's the high point and the site of the former cabin, and . . .

. . . all that remains now is, perhaps, the base of a fireplace, or something.

Now to go looking for that eagles' nest.

It's around here somewhere, along the southern side of the island.

It took more than a few minutes, but there it is.

A few little 'cheep, cheeps' seem to be coming out of it. But no adults or growing juvies around at the moment.

We always think of it as looking like an upsidedown Volkswagen Beetle.

Now to find a way down

That's not good.

After a fair amount of pushing our way through the shrubberies, we're nearing the shore.

But it's on the wrong side of the island. Worse luck!

We tramp round on the rocks, in our awkward tiny water shoes, and finally come back to the crescent cove.

We're pushing our way along, whilst looking for bail-out routes that might have been much easier. None so far.

No worries, we're here now. Pretty scratched up, but apparently no ticks.

Since we're here, we'll have a closer look at the reef. Beneath the surface, it extends about half the way to the far shore, and has got a great lot of propeller scars across it from the old days.

Until a few years ago, it was crowded over by tag alders from the years of lower water levels, and all round the lake they're still dying off in Nature's good time. Those are all dead, but they can have some very obstinate roots for pulling out.

-- Stay there, we'll be back in a second.

In quite a few years here, we've never walked out on the reef before. Why would we?

All right -- all good. 'You have done well. Home then, bike; home' (paraphrased from Virgil's 4th Georgic).

The Lake in the Wisconsin Northwoods

Mussent Point is at no. 12.
The text overlays are updating a few names to our current understanding.

Coming soon: Dispatches are awaited