Paddling Lake Minatare (Again)

 With nice warm weather and low winds forecast for the day, Noelle, Sierra and I decided to get the canoe out for her maiden voyage of 2021. We made the short drive up to Lake Minatare State Recreation Area and drove onto the beach to eat lunch at the car.

After filling our bellies, we put the canoe in the water and started paddling east along the northern shoreline.

Ax we paddled, we noticed something white along the shoreline and approached it to have a closer look.

The white object turned out to be a pelican!

As we paddled further along, we saw some other birds including what we believe were Semipalmated Plovers and black necked stilts. As we paddled further still, we found a bald eagle perched in a tree. A closer inspection proved that there was actually a pair of eagles near a nest!

We paddled a little further east of the nest where we tried to land the canoe on the shoreline. It turned out to be quite muddy though, and so we abandoned that plan and then turned around to head back to our put-in. By this point Sierra was tired of being in the canoe and rested for a bit as we made our way back to the car.