2 Explosions-Millions Dead

On the 14th of June I was down working on the beach at sunset and as the evening progressed a humming sound became audible. In the back of my head I was hearing it, but not noticing it. When its real quiet, you know how sometimes you can hear your blood pulsing in your ears? It was just outside of my attention, but then it began to get louder and it became clear that the sound didn't originate in my head. Like a dynamo it increased its intensity and even changed frequency. I just assumed it was some insects up in the woods on the bluff, but at some point I looked up...

The evening sky was absolutely filled with what must have been Mayflies. Zillions of them. I've never seen anything like it. They were along the beach as far as I could see and hovering about 15 feet off the ground. Hmmming as they floated and shifted about, layers and layers of these ephemeral little bugs. I'm assuming that the whole phenomenon was mating related. One grand orgy of desperate winged lovers. Out over the water some of them would tire or lose focus and drop to the lake surface where they would become meals for fish whose lips would kiss the surface, leaving a ripple and a love affair abruptly terminated. Living along the lake one gets used to huge populations of various bugs with the coming of warm weather, but this explosion would be hard to match.

A second explosion that is familiar to natives of the area is that of the Poplar/Cottonwoods. Late May/Early June brings a snowfall of poplar fluff. It can be really annoying when you are trying to bike through a wave of them. In the sky they are as dense as paratroopers at D-day. On the ground they eventually become amassed in drifts. The fluff also clings to trees giving the feeling that you are in a southern swamp where the trees wear Spanish moss. It can be quite beautiful.

Sometimes it will clump together on the ground in snowballs. When the wind blows these guys roll along like the ghosts of tumbleweeds.

I did a little sketch this weekend. I found a nice gnomon so I planted it and ringed it with sticks and then white cobbles and finally with some small squarish flat stones.

I had hoped to continue playing with this sketch next trip down.

But somebody had built a fire in the center of it over night, so that plan went by the wayside.

It had the potential to be interesting I think....

Quick look at the left side of the Stonewave as the top starts to come together...

Saw a turtle on the peninsula yesterday while biking around . It was about a foot long. I flipped her over just to take a look at the under-carapace. Nice colors. After flipping her back, I had to fight the desire to help her on her way as she was in a dangerous place, but unfortunately not being able to tell where she was going, I hesitate to play god.
Nice shell, huh?