The Birds and the Bees (and Other Wildlife)
June 24th
Hello Kal Lake Swimmers:
Next week Wednesday will be July 1st and we traditionally hold our
Canada Day swim at 8:00am. We hope that many of you can make it and can wear some suitable Canadiana to the park and perhaps for the swim as well.
Every year in the past I have brought lots of cherries to feast on after
the swim. However, after I spent today scouring the tree for the few
cherries we had, I'm sorry to say that the swim will be "cherriless"
this year. I hope that this won't affect participation.
The cause of the poor crop is the birds and the bees. Every year around
the end of May I put a series of nets over the tree to keep out the
birds. This year I could not cover the tree properly as I encountered a
bees' nest in a hollow branch of the tree near
the top. After being stung three times in the space of ten minutes and
being swarmed by several more, I gave up on the netting, leaving a huge
hole over the top. This is normally the area that needs to be the most
heavily fortified. As the bees were pollinators,
I did not want to destroy the nest. So I withdrew and simply hoped for
the best. Unfortunately, the birds took over and have had four weeks of
ravaging the cherries, leaving a pitiful few for me to pick in the
sweltering heat today.
In spite of this, I was delighted to read the thermometer at the start
of the swim today (minus my shorts). The 31 degree air temperature had
warmed the water at the beach to 22 degrees, much to the pleasure of the
nine of us. Only four were clad in rubber,
and they couldn't get into the water fast enough in the heat.
Admittedly the water was probably three or four degrees cooler on the
Cosens Bay side where everyone swam to the Painted Rocks. Gary opted to
continue to Dog Beach while the rest of us tried to
find a watch that was lost in the deep water by a hapless jumper. We
headed back after spending 15 minutes on the fruitless search. The final
leg in Juniper Bay felt like a bathtub for the five of us swimming
naked.
On the return walk up to the parking lot we spotted a fairly rare gopher
snake just off the path, directly across from a doe that wouldn't stop
staring at us. I'm informed that rattlers are more common than gopher
snakes on the east side of the lake.
I hope that this does not deter anyone from plans to do this swim again at 5:30pm on Thursday. I will have to tear myself away from the Netherlands-Tunisia World Cup game. Hup Holland!
Before that, Go Canada Go at noon tomorrow!