After a fun-filled 4-person-scramble at Eagle Point Golf Course (that included 10 birdies!), I drove a mere 6 miles to Agate Lake County Park to take photos in the late-afternoon light. There are two entrances to the park, and from experience I passed the northern entrance on the Agate Dam Access road and continued another mile to the southern entrance. It’s not clearly marked, but look for Dry Creek Rd. and follow the sign to the land-fill. Ignore the “No Access” reminder since the parking lot to the lake’s southern entrance is well before no-man’s land.
From the parking lot, there’s a seasonally-gated road heading a quarter-mile through wetlands to a grove of oak trees and a bathroom. Following a clearly marked main trail to the east, you soon reach the shore. I was alone on this shoot, and a gentle breeze made an audible sound as it rustled the few remaining leaves clinging to the oaks. A shoreline trail meanders in a counter-clockwise direction back to the restrooms. This route in the late afternoon provided optimal photo light illuminating the oaks and their many occupants: goldfinches, American Robins, Yellow-rumped (Audubon) Warblers, and the beautiful Lewis’s Woodpecker.
