July, 1919 157 
A RETURN TO THE DAKOTA LAKE REGION 
By FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY 
(Continued from page 114) 
VII. THE GEM OF THE SWEETWATERS IN COVE AND SHORE 
1 
GE conditions that make the Coulee a favorite resort of families of water 
a birds make the small easternmost lake of the Sweetwater chain the chos- 
en home of hordes of birds. While almost in sight from the traveled Bel- 
erade Bridge, a mile to the west of it, the lake is so completely cut off by the 
moat-like Coulee and its marshy venous meshwork that the nearest way to it 
by road from the Bridge is five or six miles around along the northern oval of 
the mail ecarrier’s route, which crosses the moat on the grass-grown, black 
framed Coulee Bridge and making a broad loop out over grain fields comes no 
nearer than the far side of a wide field from the lake on its way back to town. 
Remote and out of evidence to start with, the little lake has many other 
advantages. Nearly round, it is only about three quarters of a mile across, so 
that the wind has less sweep than over the larger lakes, and when it blows too 
hard, sheltering banks protect the birds, for its surface is sunk well below the 
level of the surrounding grain fields and scattered bordering clumps of trees. 
On three sides the lake is fringed by sheltering tule marsh and on the fourth 
by a protecting strip of woods; while additional shelter is afforded by tule isl- 
ands, long streaks of tule across the middle of the lake, between which the 
water fowl can gather at a safe distance from passersby along the shore. Lying 
close to the marsh-bordered Coulee and a long pasture slough on whose edges 
large flocks of Ducks rest when not feeding, the small Sweetwater has also 
within a mile or so, three open-shored lakes, to which the Ducks that spend 
their days on the small lake can fly for greater security at night. All these 
conditions make the east Sweetwater so popular among both Ducks and hunters 
that a hunting lodge formerly near the north Sweetwater pass, during a recent 
winter was moved on the ice down the Coulee to this lake. Between this vacant 
hunting lodge in the woods on the south shore and the farmhouse heading the 
grain fields on the north end of the lake is a grassy road following the east 
shore, and as I walked back and forth over it, often just to see what birds were 
there, frequently on my way around the lake or out to the mail box in the wheat 
field, I had ample opportunity to become acquainted with its many tenants. 
Among the most interesting were the Black-crowned Night Herons, and 
they were often seen on fence posts leading down into the lake at the ends of 
pasture lines, as well as standing at the foot of tules, either on the islands or 
along the marshy border of the lake; preferably half hidden by a thin tule 
veil. Sometimes one would be seen clambering around among the black rods 
of a tule island, or rising from a blind with a loud squawk. They were seen at 
all hours of day, and found fishing in the afternoons, but as their name indi- 
cates, their normal fishing habit was probably best illustrated by one seen at 
7:40 Pp. m. flying across the lake and lighting at the edge of a tule island as if 
ready for night work. 
