Paddling Burke Lake

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Hi Blog!

We eagerly await the arrival of our daughter-in-law and grandson. Our son has been detained for another week for work reasons. Now that settlement on their new condo has been completed, we are free to romp about the country until Tuesday when Weina and William arrive. 

Today's adventure took us to Burke Lake. Here Kathy displays the various items she collected during the paddle.  She's quite an environmental paddlist.

Burke Lake is a 218 acres freshwater reservoir in Fairfax County, Virginia. It is contained within Burke Lake Park, a Fairfax County public park owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority. Burke Lake is formed by a dam on South Run, a tributary stream of the Potomac River. 

As soon as we left the boat launch, we paddled next to the dam.

Burke Lake is all about the fishing. Swimming is actually prohibited. We had to carefully navigate both folks fishing from the banks and folks fishing from their boats. While Dave snapped stunning pictures like the one below, Kathy searched the bank for various flotsam and jetsam.

We found an old beaver lodge. We later learned that the beaver was notorious for stealing the neighbors' small trees. However, when Fish and Game tried to trap and move the beaver, he or she went missing. The hunt for the tree-eating rodent that for years had irked residents of a neighborhood near Burke Lake was called off because the trapper hired by Fairfax County could find no sign of him/her.  We hope the little chisel-toothed one escaped and prospered in some new pond.

Pictured below is a Mystery Snail Shell. Mystery snails are the largest freshwater snails. They have spiral shells with a door used to seal themselves inside. Unlike most freshwater snails, they give birth to live young. The sudden appearance of baby snails surprised aquarists, hence the name mystery snails. Mystery snails are native to Asia where they are a common food item. In 1892 they were imported to Chinese markets in San Francisco and by 1911 had established around San Jose and San Francisco. Over time the snails moved from the Chinese food markets into the aquarium trade and were transported across the country for use in aquarium and ornamental ponds. They are now widespread in ponds, lakes, and reservoirs from California to British Columbia and Florida to Quebec.

Burke Lake offers excellent fishing and features largemouth bass, muskellunge, walleye, channel catfish, bluegill and black crappie. Anglers also catch white perch, yellow perch, sunfish and an occasional blue catfish. We also heard from a couple of anglers that snakehead fish are also present. We suspect the large fish that approached Kathy's kayak, rolled over and left a large wake was either a snakehead fish or catfish.  The fellows fishing in the photo below were just some of very many we found on the lake when we started our paddle:

Freshwater mussels are mollusks and are similar to their marine clam and oyster cousins. They have two shells connected by a hinge-like ligament. Around the world, mussels live in a variety of freshwater habitats but are most prevalent in stream and rivers. They vary in their adult sizes from those as small as a thumbnail to others as big as a pie plate. Native Americans used mussels as a ready food source, implements for tools, and as jewelry.  It appears the mussel who left the shell in the photo below was middle-mussel-sized:

As we cruised along the lake shore, we got to get up close and personal with some of the more interesting plants in the park.

Great blue herons love to fish along the shallow banks. We seemed to be constantly running into them.  Today offered us the extraordinary opportunity of snapping photos of at least six great blue herons!

This guy decided to take refuge in a nearby tree.

We were surprised to find a little island in the middle of the lake. We thought we would have time to paddle all the way around it on the way back, but the heat was beginning to take its toll as we finished our trip. We got on the water at 8:30 a.m. and got off at 12:30 p.m. when it was 96F!

Just about halfway around the lake, we found a small beachy area at the end of an peninsula jutting into the lake. The fallen tree in the photo below had obviously been used before. This shady area gave us a great place to stretch our legs and eat our lunch, even if it was only 10:00 a.m. Extremely hot days make for extremely early adventures.

We shared our lunch spot with a couple of tiger swallow butterflies.

As the morning progressed, the clouds started building. The shade they offered was a welcome relief from the hot sun. It also made for better photos. Notice the small patch of yellow amidst a sea of green.

We were really surprised by the amount of wildlife we encountered. There were dozens of blue herons, king fishers, crows, swallows and fly catchers. The fish seemed to be jumping all around us and turtles poked their heads out to see us glide by. We spotted some huge turtles lurking just under the water surface by our kayaks as we paddled through shallow waters.  

This blue heron is so used to fisherman that he just posed for us.

There was no shortage of green as we continued our way around the lake.

The fallen trees made for great contrast. Kathy found herself in kayak jail.

We noticed several osprey fishing around the lake. At one point, this osprey stand would have made a great place to nest. Now, it looks like it could use a little home improvement.

We knew there were Canadian Geese on the lake. We could hear them honking. Their pinfeathers were constantly floating by. We at the far end of the end of the lake before we actually encountered them. Again, having lived with hundreds of fisherman, they didn't seem to mind us.

Because of the heat, we paddled a very leisurely pace. This afforded us the time to notice the little things. We named this photo "Still Life Leaf on Glassy Lake Surface."

As we made our way back toward the fishing boat launch, we passed the public marina. Boat rentals were closed for Covid-19. The geese didn't seem to mind; they had the whole launch area for themselves.

The fishing pier can be pretty popular in better weather. With hot sun and temperatures close to 100 degrees, only a few hardy souls were still trying to catch the big one.

We suspect this large white goose was either dropped off at the lake or escaped from a nearby farm.

As we returned to the boat launch, we met a Virginia Fish & Game conservation officer. First, he thanked us for collecting trash as we paddled about. He then warned us that the boat launch is used for fishing only. In order to park and launch, we needed to have valid fishing licenses, a launch permit and our fishing rods. We promised him that the next time we came back we would be properly equipped.

It seems weird to finish our adventure at a time when we usually get started, but this excessive heat has caused us to make certain changes. To quote a famous Philadelphian, "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."