Sunrise 6:58 am: Worried about homes and jobs

In the 15 years the Dawn Joggers have been on patrol in the Bay Area, we've been treated to the annual appearance of Lake Lagunita on the Stanford campus. We seem to recall that early on, once the lake had filled, it stayed full until Spring when it was drained. More recently, it's filled as the result of big rainfalls, such as we had around the holidays, but then slowly receded. At least until the powers-that-be on campus open the spigot from other lakes on university land and allow a fresh stream of water to enter.

This is always a topic great concern for the DJs as a full lake provides "homes and jobs" for a lively community of ducks. Even though the lake is down considerably from early January (you can see the water marks - and that white stuff is heavy frost), they were an active group this morning. We will be watching anxiously -and praying for more water - as there is hardly anything sadder than a new crop of fuzzy ducklings left with only a puddle.