All dried up (updated)

Lake Weston dried up this past week. This summer must have been one of its longest stays if not the longest. It formed with the heavy rains in June so it lasted over two months. The rain we got last night was too late and too little to keep water in it.

 It is always interesting to see what was in the water. There were hundreds of dead fish, including some larger bullheads or catfish. Most of them were smaller and I do not know what kind (though I suspect it may be a river carpsucker).

The herons probably had full meals as the water receded--there are many bird tracks and also some animal tracks in the mud. I suspect that the water produced lots of frogs and toads--I have seen quite a few in the area. It also produced a lot of mosquitoes--I was swarmed as I took these pictures.

In other news, the estimates for the repair of the bridge over Wildcat Creek near Lafayette is four to six weeks. Prepare a route home if you are traveling past Lafayette to the south.

Update: Not long after I posted this a storm blew up in Newton County and reached over to give Rensselaer a heavy downpour, probably the most rain we have had in a month. The runoff temporally put some water into Lake Weston, suggesting that the water table in that particular location was still not very far below the surface. This picture was taken Saturday in the late afternoon.