Much is happening on Beatitude Pond, just  a couple of days before summer is officially here. Lindley spotted the eagle flying near the same area it had before. I know the fish & game person thought our property is not suitable for a nest. Still we wonder.
On our evening walk we saw a merganser duck with six ducklings. First time we've seen merganser ducklings on the pond.
Lots of red winged blackbirds this year...all flying to the same location on the pond....good food source?
Black flies are gone, thank goodness.
Lindley said a snapping turtle laid eggs on the driveway by the crossings.
Muskrats have been active, beavers less so.

Colors and Sounds of Spring

Spring has been slow in coming this year - with many days below average temps. Now on - May 12 - it's warmed up a it, but a cold front is coming in tomorrow so it will be back to somewhat chilly temperatures.
The end of April, we had a bat on our bathroom window screen. It didn't move for several days and I thought it was dead. It was a small brown bat, a endangered species due to white nose disease. But on the fourth or fifth day, I can't remember exactly, it had vanished. After consulting with Vermont fish & game, I found out it had probably be in torpor, a period of reduced energy output when the beaver goes into kind of a temporary hibernation on cold nights to save energy. I hope the little bat made it to wherever it flew next and does not die of the white fungus.
Last week we saw an eagle flying from our property! Saturday and Sunday I saw a solitary sandpiper and some turtles, soaking up the sun on a log in the Beaver Pond.
After not having seen any beavers since Easter, we saw a medium sized beaver swimming in Beatitude Pond. He has made a small shelter. Also saw the muskrat a couple of times.
Any many hawks!

Beavers, Wood frogs, ducks and geese

Happy Easter - and also my birthday this year!

During the week (Tuesday) I heard the faint sound of a wood frog, but then we had a freak snowstorm after heavy warm rain all Tuesday (which almost flowed over the wetlands' crossing culverts!). Today while wandering about the property I can hear a deafening sound of wood frogs. Happy return for them. Since I last posted we have seen a larger beaver several times...out scouting in Beatitude Pond and nibbling on sticks here and there. Still no major construction or renovations, just yet. The beavers are probably too hungry to work just, yet...there is time for that.
River plants have started to poke up and garlic is coming up in the front garden. I also found some young onions I had overlooked in my harvest last year. I planted peas. No black flies, yet!
Other creatures we have seen this week: mallard duck couple, Canada goose couple. Today I saw a red tailed hawk flying over head, some unidentified warbler in a white pine tree, moths flying over the surface of Beatitude Pond, numerous whirly bugs in the ponds, a tick.

Positive I.d on a beaver

This afternoon I noticed a small white pine had been freshly cut and place across the downstream side of the small culvert that joins one pond to the other under our driveway. Later when Lindley and I were out he called over to me that he had spotted a small beaver and it briefly got up on a  bank and showed its characteristic curved outline and fur lined body.
I rushed inside and got some carrots and apples which we put near the shore. He had already returned into the den by the time I returned. Later maybe he will come out for a fresh snack.
So happy to see him after a long and cold winter.

Cold Winter - Bob cat sighting

This winter has been a cold one, a little above average snowfall. Icy driveway, thick ice on pond. In January I saw the bobcat for the first time, though we'd seen evidence of it in the recent past, it's paw prints crossing the beaver pond.
I heard a cracking on the ice one morning and looked up an saw its bobbing tail against the snow.
We are now looking forward to the first days of spring.

Spring returning

After a very long winter, spring is returning bit by bit and all is thawing. The creatures are also returning.
First Robins, then kingfisher, hooded mergansers, wood ducks, muskrats, and possibly a lone beaver, and the first buzz of a tree frog.

November's Brown

It is early November. A huge typhoon slammed into the Philippines yesterday, the biggest hurricane in recorded history. Last week there were snowstorms in the middle of the U.S. Weather has been somewhat tame here in NH lately, though yesterday we did have a few snow showers (nothing that stuck).
The water level is high from the beaver damming and the new home the beavers have built is quite sizable. They have also been actively cutting down some tall and sturdy trees. We have started to wrap some of the trees by the front road to prevent gnawing.
Yesterday the wood ducks flew off from Beatitude Pond when I went down to look and see why there were ripples on the surface of the water. First the females flew away, closely followed by the males.
Plants are now various shades of yellow and brown and have gone to seed.
I have planted all the garlic, hoping for a good crop come spring.

Rest well, sweet Earth.