We have some great new photos to show you.  Ted Decker sent me two today.  The big blue heron was wading at Pearl Island Wednesday evening, enjoying the fishing, no doubt, and the bald eagle was just north of what Ted called Sandy Cove - I assume that was off Sandy Beach Road area.  That's where eagles have been spotted in the past.  Thanks very much for sharing, Ted.  (Click to enlarge the photos.)

A gentle reminder that both islands are privately owned and even if it may seem nobody is there, you are still trespassing if you venture onto them.  Please treat the islands the same as you would any other home on the pond.  Unless you are invited to visit, please do not land your boat on either of them or use either one as a destination to swim to.  The water is for everyone, but the land around it and the islands are private property.

We have been told there is a small group (or a gaggle!) of geese that apparently just showed up a few days ago and have been hanging out at Ned and Carolyn Hamilton's.  The only advice the Goose Committee has at this point is for property owners to make them as uncomfortable as possible by chasing them, setting your dogs on them, or whatever you can think of short of injuring them.  This will hopefully discourage them from coming back.  If they were hatched here, they have kept well out of sight all summer and are probably still in the molting stage so cannot fly; but their instinct could bring them back here next year, and that could be the beginning of more problems.  We'll hope they are just a stray group that settled on the pond temporarily and will move on of their own accord.  It's a bit early for them to be heading south, unless they know something we don't . . . !