Just a quick report since I didn’t get to it yesterday and it’s so nice outside this morning…
We had a great crew show up at L1 for a 7:00am swim. These included Dave, Nick, Carol, Stephanie, Nic, Mike, John, and Stuart – the latter hailing all the way from England! After a very brief quasi-sunrise, Mother Nature gave us mostly overcast skies but very calm waters. The official lake temperature came in at 65F, and we beat the storms by two hours!
Sunrise (photo credit: Dave)
Carol in her element
Just missing the dreaded seaweed patch!
Left to right: New Lake Monsters John (#85) and Stuart (#86) posing with Mike – Congrats!
Double-crested cormorants are large waterbirds whose summer habitat includes lakes and inland waterways. They’re quite widely distributed across North America, ranging from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska down to Florida and Mexico.
Like other cormorants, they primarily eat fish which they hunt by swimming and diving. And they’re definitely built for speed and efficiency in the water. As you can see, this one moves quite nimbly when going after his prey:
Cormorants have a short, stocky body with webbed feet and a very long neck. This enables them to quickly dart through the water in pursuit of smaller fish, which they snatch with a small hook on the end of their beaks.
Here’s a shot of our friend again just after snaring a juicy morsel:
But his success as an aquatic hunter is not always welcome among many Great Lakes residents. Cormorants are voracious consumers of bait fish such as round gobies. This has adversely impacted the perch, walleye and bass populations – much to the chagrin of sport fisherman throughout the region.
And to add insult to injury, cormorants are notoriously noisy and destructive wherever they establish their highly populated breeding grounds. This has led to increasing efforts to cull the cormorant population in several parts of the Great Lakes basin.
But even if you’re not a fan of our new visitor, you can’t help but admire his talents. In fact, when you see him in action, he looks like a throwback to some prehistoric time when real lake monsters once had free reign over the large inland sea that covered most of North America.
And when you look at his skeleton, you’re even more tempted to think that they still exist:
Dave, Carol, and I met out at L1 for a late morning swim today. We were joined by new Lake Monster Mike a short while later.
The official water temperature came in at 64F – the same as the air temp. The swim area was quite agitated with some 3-4 foot, high volume swells that created a bit of havoc on the south end of the wall by Oak Street Beach. In light of this, we stayed out about 50 feet from the wall and turned back around Ladder 13.
Even with these less-than-calm conditions, the clear skies and plentiful sunshine made swimming quite comfortable without a wetsuit. For those of you who couldn’t make it, we will be out tomorrow at 7:00am!
Mike – Lake Monster #84 and esteemed English Channel crosser (congrats!)
The autumnal equinox does not take place until next week, so it’s still officially summer!
I met Dave out at L1 late this morning for a quick swim, and you couldn’t ask for better conditions. The lake temperature came in at 68F with a bit of a chop to keep things interesting. But there was lots of sunshine, and the great weather brought out some new faces – including one non-human variety!
Here’s Bob’s swim report on the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore – one of only four national lakeshores in the U.S.
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After the fun time at Big Shoulders Saturday, I thought why not try a swim in Indiana? I had a day off work so I went to the Dunes National Lakeshore at Beverly Shores, about 10 miles east of Gary (the National Lakeshore is to be confused with the State Park which does not allow swimming after Labor Day).
The sky was clear, the water temp was very comfortable, and the waves were not too big. Anyone driving out here for a swim can park their car along the Lakeshore Drive at any of several parking areas. And did I mention it’s all free?
I swam parallel to the beach for about a mile and then turned and came back. For most of the swim the water was deep enough, but in a couple of places I swam over a sand bar and could touch the bottom as I stroked.
A couple of interesting points: A short distance from where I parked, the National Park Service is renovating four homes from the 1932 Chicago World’s Fair. These homes were moved from the site of the fair to the lake shore in Indiana by a businessman as an advertisement for his development. I don’t know how his business fared, as it was the Great Depression.
Another point about the National Lakeshore, Illinois Senator Paul Douglas along with people from Northwest Indiana were instrumental in saving the lakeshore from Gary to Michigan City from private development and industry except for the several miles that is the steel mill at Portage. I was an environmental victory from the 60′s we can all enjoy.
It’s that time of year again. PLEASE help spread to word to keep the safely ladders (including L1) in place out at Oak Street Beach. You can contact the Park District at 312.742.PLAY (7529) or go to the Chicago Park District Facebook Page and post a note.
I’m reposting Dave’s comments from last year below. While the year has changed, the issue is still the same.
*** RED ALERT ***
As we all know all too well … The summer of 2009 never arrived as promised and very very soon the Chicago Park District will pull all of the swim ladders at Oak Street Beach….
1) If someone one slips and falls in this winter, it’s a long cold swim to try to get out
2) Many people continue to swim in the fall, winter, and spring
3) The fire and police scuba squads use the area for training and rescues, and they use the ladders
4) The city can save money by not removing the ladders and re-installing them the next year
5) The winter ice has not damaged Ladder #1 over the last 10 years, and it has stayed in year round
6) The new ladders at Montrose are welded in and cannot be removed
*** Hopefully if all of us call to plead our case they might leave in the ladders…
Call now and do not wait or you might show up for a swim next Tuesday and find all of the ladders gone….
Despite autumn-like weather conditions – including 59F water temperatures – we had a great turnout over at L1 at 6:30am. We waited for the sun to come out from behind the clouds before starting, but it was still a very brisk swim in some rather challenging waters that involved 3-4 foot swells. Still, everyone did very well and had fun. And more than a few swimmers earned their much-coveted Lake Monster numbers, too!
Sunrise
Left to right: Terry, Stephanie, and Nic – Lake Monsters 77, 78, and 79
