Canyon Lake in Autumn

Today is a good day to post more autumn photos...it's day 3 of 40 mph wind gusts and the first day of snowfall, UGH. Really it was just snow 'dust' blowing sideways and barely visible, seems to be gone now...if only the wind was too...word is somewhere above us in N Dakota there's 8" of snow on the ground...sigh... Anyway, on the 9th I took a drive over to Canyon Lake in W Rapid City, as someone had mentioned the autumn colors there...I have mixed feelings about using the lake as a photo op since it's a man-made one, but hey the trees and water fowl are still real...it was overcast so the colors didn't turn out the best...

The lake is surrounded by many different types of trees, including maples which we all know produce gorgeous colors, like deep coral and gold...

This tree had bright green leaves and shiny bright red berries...

Another tree with golden high-lights...

I was excited to find that American wigeons are visiting the lake, a migratory stop...here's a male and female couple snacking together...

Wood ducks are at the lake year-round, but this day all I saw were the females...

In the designated duck-feeding area, this lone sunflower was looking prime...

More bright shiny red berries...

The butterfly garden was looking pretty good considering it was October...

A scabious flower? Another blogger recently posted what appeared to be the same flower so I wrote down the name...Googled it, seems the same (of a variety)....

The cosmos were doing well, fucshia and white...

Another wigeon shot...looking pretty 'fluffy' there...

I went back to the lake days later, when the sun was out, to get better shots of the wigeons...this is one of them....

Looking at a snoozing mallard, from the bridge above...I liked the stepping stone pattern around the duck...

The Canada geese were at the lake, no surprise there....

Dark burgundy leaves...

A tree was covered in these pretty orange berries, it was amazing...

Trees along the lake shore, with a bench and two small piers in the distance. I had quite the enjoyable visit!