Dolan Lake: Trailside Bees and Fence Returning to Nature (Series Sumary, with more bees!)

Dolan Lake

Dolan Lake is a great hideaway that I like to go to often and take photographs at. It is a Hamilton County Wildlife Area that seems to border McLeansboro and Enfield, Illinois. Getting there takes turning off a long country span of State Route 14 and on to a gravel county road. The wildlife area consists of a road that circles Dolan Lake. It has a hand full of cabins, a small campground, and some boat docks. The restaurant has close last I've heard, but hopefully it will open again someday. It has the greatest view overlooking the lake.

I've tried my hand at a little fishing, dropped my kayak in and paddled around a bit, as well as enjoyed many nice days here. Yet, my favorite thing about Dolan Lake is the trails. It has several hiking trails that generally circle the lake that my family, dog, and I love to hike.

First Series

With this series I started with the fist set of pictures I came across from a hike at Dolan Lake. It was the first of September, 2017 and a hot sunny day. My daughter and I took my dog Max with us on the North West trail nearest the entrance to the wildlife area. It hadn't gotten miserably humid yet, something this part of Illinois is known for, but the sun was blazing this day. Luckily the trail makes most of its journey well shaded by tress, but the sun had the bees and other insects out and busy doing their business. I took pictures of a few things, but mostly a fence and some bees.

Fence

I took a few pictures of this fence I came across, which really caught my eye. Nature seemed to be winning over the fence, which was now just rusted wire and rotting wood posts. The plants seemed to be consuming it, wrapping around the fence.

I took three of the best pictures, which kind of went from one end of the fence to the other, and made them into this post.

(click for 'Dolan Lake: Fence Returning to Nature')

Flowers and Bees

Soon after that we came to an opening where the trees opened up to a small field of tall grass and wild flowers. Here my daughter and I took quite a few pictures of flowers and bees (I'm trying to convincer her to post on steemit too). The flowers were out in the open with the sun beating down on them. They were covered with all kinds of insects, from beetles to bees. I found at least three kinds of bees, including bumble bees, honey bees, and some sort of black bee or wasp, all fluttering around busily from flower to flower.

Bees In Motion

I had about four separate sets of bee pictures, with multiple shots. I really liked how you could see different angles of the same bees while they moved around and didn't want to just pick one shot from each to show. So I decided to experimented with animating the sets of images. While I was hoping for at least three to work out, two of the sets worked out and two didn't. Below, you'll find the two animated sets I made each into their own post.

(click for 'Dolan Lake: Bees In Motion 1')

(click for 'Dolan Lake: Bees In Motion 2 ')

More Bees

These two are from sets that didn't quite work out for an animation. They came out too great not to share. They aren't on their own post, but you can click them for the larger picture.

(click for higher quality)

A honey bee with legs bulging with pollen

(click for higher quality)

Thanks

Thanks for looking and reading. I have more pictures and stories specifically from Dolan Lake as well as many more places in Southern Illinois to come, so if you like what you seeing follow, like, and comment!

Photographed September 1, 2017 by @soill
Dolan Lake, Crook Township, IL
Google Maps Location