the Way of the Turtle

1.6 Mile Walk at Buckingham Lake
Saturday, August 4, 2012

After spending the afternoon in a series of half-hearted and unsuccessful attempts to get out on the bike, I finally managed to get over to Buckingham Lake this evening for a walk. Two fairly pleasant surprises greeted me when I got out of the car - the fountains are running again (they're a bit noisy, but I still like them, both for the visual and because I think they improve the water quality by aerating the water) and there was a heron hunting along the shoreline just past the parking lot.

Quite a bit of work has been done at the park this year - they've put in a couple of trash/recycling bins and a water fountain, and it looks like they recently added fresh stone dust to a couple of spots and are resurfacing the ramp down to the water with crushed stone and eventually what looked like wood chips.

For the third day in a row - no blackbirds at a spot that earlier in the summer was loaded with them. I definitely have to research their migration habits.

Not as many people as I would have thought - mostly parents and kids at the playground. Maybe the heat was keeping folks away, or maybe most folks think they have better things to do on a Saturday evening than walk around a pond on the outskirts of Albany. Their loss - Buckingham Lake is a wonderul little oasis in the middle of all the so-called "civilization" around here.

JMH