Gone Fishin'

DW and I had a suspicion that the heron would still be at Mud Lake.

It seemed like the black-crowned night herons that we saw in the spring had made a temporary home at this popular spot for bird watching: we had managed to spot two of them last weekend and I had seen some photos by other photographers in social media and as a shared photo during our local CBC News weather broadcast.

So we ventured out on Saturday and went to the same place where we had photographed one of the herons on the previous weekend. We got there by 7:30 in the morning.

Already, two photographers with much longer lenses had already set up along the bank of the lake. One even had a yoga mat and was lying on his stomach, his telephoto lens over the water. The heron was in the exact same spot as we had seen it in (or one of his buddies) the previous visit.

This time, I remembered to bring my 70–300mm lens and was able to zoom in close. The black-crowned night heron didn't seem bothered as DW and I set up next to the other photographers and started clicking away. Apparently, it was more concerned with finding some breakfast.

I caught it poking its beak into the water a couple of times but it usually came up empty-mouthed. But on one attempt, when he was quite close to shore, he managed to catch a small fish, and I caught the action.

But this heron wasn't the only one doing some fishing at Mud Lake.

As DW moved on and continued to walk along the pathway on the south side of the lake, I spied something on the far north side of the lake, near the water-treatment facility. Humans, doing some fishing of their own.

Only, they were police and tow-truck operators, fishing a vehicle out of the lake.

Even at my camera's maximum magnification, I couldn't make out too many details. Judging by the hood of the white Nissan SUV, it didn't appear that the whole hood of the vehicle had been submerged. It still looked fairly clean and the doors looked like they could be opened. But the grill was definitely under water.

DW, having realized that we needed to make our way back to our car, decided to stop at the lookout on the western side of the lake. It's a wooden deck that juts out into the lake and it provides a better and closer view of where the SUV was.

By the time we got to the lookout, the vehicle was already being pulled onto dry land. And by the time we made it back to our car, it was on the flatbed truck and a police cruiser seemed to be heading out from the site.

Which led DW and I to wonder: how can you accidentally put a vehicle in Mud Lake? It's not like you could be speeding along this road, lose control, and end up in that spot.

Had somebody been trying to make a three-point turn on the narrow roadway, dropped their front tires off the road and, in a panic, hit the gas rather than the brakes?

Had somebody stolen the SUV, gone for a joyride, and decided to ditch the vehicle in the lake?

I did a search on the Internet for any news about a vehicle in Mud Lake but so far haven't found anything at the time of writing this post.

It's the most excitement we've seen at this nature trail: two types of fishing in one morning.

What will we spot on our next visit? Happy Monday!