While foliage covers up some of the birds this time of year, we enjoy the wildflowers and critters that we see on our walks. Ginger has a fetish about squirrels and today, several crossed our path.
Late in the walk, I saw something I’d not seen before. There was a wake on the river and I thought it was a River Otter but …..
We also saw and heard a number of birds so we’ll share some images next post. Great time to be out and about in Vermont.
I awoke to the song of a Carolina Wren, sort of unusual here — and going out to look for it, saw this trio in the back yard.
I suspect that the second fawn is hiding. Note the Joe Pye Weed in the background.
I did some reading on the back deck, watching the birds coming toward the feeder. We are getting a lot of youngsters and quite a mix. Here are a few:
Goldfinches have been numerous all spring/summer and some, like this guy, are simply stunning after molt.
Common Grackles show up in bunches — this appears to be a young one — no yellow eye and a little drab.
What’s not to like about a Northern Cardinal?
Finch – House or Purple? Their singing can be ethereal in the early morning.
This young Blue Jay is one of many who have boundless appetites and are constantly begging, doing their “wing” shake to get their parents to feed them.
We have a new “squirrel-proof” feeder which the greys have sort of given up on but the reds are still trying.
The other challenge is the Rock Doves aka pigeon who show up each day in droves. They generally go for the dropped seed but also try to get on the feeder, in a flail of flapping wings and clumsiness. I must say, they are pretty handsome birds — one or two at a time.
I looked up from my book to see this guy moving down through the reeds. We had a Great Blue here the last few years and he returned this Spring. After a surprise late snowfall, he vanished. This bird showed up months later and whether it’s our regular, or a newcomer, it it warms our heart to have that wonderful fisherman/woman in our back yard.
Slow birding is a nice way to spend a summer Sunday afternoon.
After several weeks dealing with triple-digit temperatures and a couple of hot, humid days back here in Vermont as I mowed our cow pasture aka lawn and bush-hogged our woods trails, it was great to strap the boat on Mary’s newly inspected car and head out early this morning with the air temperature 60. I was on the water before 6:30 and had the reservoir to myself.
You may recall that we bought our Hornbeck boats last summer
As I drove in, I saw a mama Mallard and her crew foraging along the shoreline. I launched the boat, paddled easily over towards them as she drew them into the lake, and listened to her cluck to them as I drifted, shooting with the long lens, and they motored on. I left them to enjoy the rest of their morning.
Mama was just ahead of them, outside the camera frame. She seemed calm but attentive to this potential predator.
Being a weekend, the highway noise was nothing and I just moved easily along with no ear buds, FitBit, or other distractions other than the birding gear. It was very refreshing, physically and mentally, and I listened to the Belted Kingfishers, the Common Yellowthroats, the Veery, some Cedar Waxwings, and a couple of flycatchers, just poking along on a cool misty Vermont summer morning.
The lighting was terrible for photography and I was rusty. I spooked several birds when I brought the camera up too fast, and missed others trying to control the boat speed and direction and doing neither well. It wasn’t a big deal – but I remembered that much of my birding in the last few months has been at preserves and locations where the birds seem more used to people, and tend to sit a little more still.
There was an Osprey perched right over the reservoir on a craggy dead tree who seemed quite uninterested in me. The camera shots were not ready for prime time. The water level was higher than it often is this time of year and so I could cover some areas that are normally mudflats.
The inlet to the reservoir is the North Branch of the Winooski and it offers a short stretch of quiet paddling with ledges, overhanging trees, and on this occasion, a family of beavers. They were very active and I was on their turf and they let me know. I felt comfortable but they were very close, as you can see here.
This guy had a stick in its mouth, then it reversed direction and …..
this image is not cropped. I got wet from it.
Four Great Blue Herons, probably this year’s youngsters, accompanied me part of the way back, squawking to one another all the way. The boat handled well — it felt good to get a little upper body workout — and Penny had slept after her morning walk and breakfast and was ready for the next item on the day’s agenda when I got home. The next project turned out to be to remove the hundreds of baked-on bugs 0n the Airstream Interstate that I picked up in the 12,000 miles I’ve put on it since April. But I was in a good mood from the lovely paddle and it went well. Now to get some better early morning light for photography.
This is the time of year when I spend several mornings a week in the woods cutting up firewood from trees I have down the year before. Yesterday, I got going early while it was cool (46 degrees) and was just starting on the branches of a soft maple when I noticed what looked to be a cow patty in the ferns just under my chain saw. We have no cows on our land so I shut down and took a closer look. I was surprised to see a big turtle, just lying there dormant in the morning chill. Here’s a look:
We have lived here 15 years and this is the first turtle I have ever seen in our woods.
I took a stick and moved the ferns aside for a photo. The guy/gal was not very interested in me.
That’s a quarter on its back for scale. This was a pretty good sized terrapin.
I moved the ferns back in place and went on with my work, cutting up a couple of loads of maple chunks, bringing them up to the wood lot, splitting them with a maul, and stacking them. It was a good workout and I decided to cool off and do some turtle research.
At first, I thought it was a Wood Turtle since we were in the woods and pretty far from any water. But they only grow from 6 to 9 inches and the pattern on the shell seemed wrong.
After lunch, I decided to go back out and measure the turtle if it was still there. Sure enough, it had not moved and I got about 11 inches in length for the shell – just using the rule in the air over the guy. The lighting was better so I took another iPhone shot.
From the size and the shell pattern, I’m calling this a Snapping Turtle.
Just before I left him, I took a close-up of him/her eyeballing me.
“Hey, don’t you have work to do?”
It was a neat encounter and pretty low stress for both of us. I suspect he wandered off in the night but in any case, I always wear steel-toed boots when wood cutting and should feel more comfortable tromping through knee-high ferns. I suspect I’ll not see him again but it is cool to know that he, or she, is out there on our land.