Yesterday I took a little kayak trip around Diamond Lake in either Champlin or Dayton, I'm not sure. I've been to this lake before during bird class but never on it before. And I did see lots of birds there - tree swallows, barn swallows, cedar waxwings, Canadian geese, bald eagle, blue winged teal, pelicans, double crested cormorants, ringed billed gulls, blue jays and cardinals. The pelicans were at the far end of the lake from where I put in on South Diamond Lake Road. I paddled over to them. They were standing on a sandbar in a couple inches of water with some gulls and cormorants. As I got silently and slowly closer, the cormorants and gulls freaked out and flew away so i didn't come any closer. I figured it takes a lot of energy to get a pelican up in the air and a closer view wasn't worth their energy. The water of Diamond Lake is much more shallow than I expected. Many times I had to kayak over weed beds. I could feel the thick bed of weeds scrape the bottom of the boat. Dragon flies and damselflies were thick over the weed beds. Some weed beds were so thick that swallows and some kind of shorebird could be seen walking back and forth on top. The wind was non-existent and the lake was as smooth as a mirror. I was alone on the lake. I had the whole place to myself. A few houses are visible but most of the shore line is not developed. This is a lake I will want to come back and visit again.
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