OF RAVENS AND PILEATED WOODPECKERS

I had quite the bird sighting day yesterday, and I wasn't even out looking!  The first was a raven.  Yes, a raven around here; not a common thing. I was out on my bike running Blake and heard what sounded like a raven.  Naw...  but it does! I thought, "Maybe it is a Great Blue Heron; they have a "ronck" kind of sound," so I was looking for either bird overhead.  There it is! Black bird, BIG, POINTY TAIL (!!!) and then it called right over head.  No question, it was a raven.  Fun!  We see them a lot traveling in Canada, but they are not seen often here!

Crow tails are flat across while raven tails are more extended.

Go to the All About Birds site (Cornell University) to learn more about the Common Ravens (but not so common here!) and to hear their call.  
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Raven/id

So then later came the 2nd cool sighting.  I was outdoors having just taken the snow blower out of the truck and was filling the feeders, breaking up sticks for kindling, etc., when I heard the Pileated Woodpecker over toward Suzanne and Micheal's.  I ran to where I could look into their trees but didn't see anything.  Grabbed the dog (or he would bark until I got back...) and ran to the street.  My eye ran across the hole where the screech owl lived this spring and it looked funny.  I watched for a while and saw a movement so ran back to the house to get binoculars (I did a lot of running in this period of time!).  I opted for running upstairs to get the good optics and then ran back to the street.  Yup!  The pileated was in the hole!  The ironic thing is that it was originally a pileated woodpecker's hole and that is why I was looking for the screech owl there; the screech lived there this spring, now the hole has a pileated again!  Active place.

Again, I recommend you go to All About the Birds to learn more about this other wonderful big bird!
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/id

BREAKING ICE, PILEATED, COOPERS & SCREECH

COOL!  I've always wanted to play icebreaker with my canoe!  Today was the perfect day; temps in the low 60s, but still ice on the pond from last night and Wednesday when the temperature never got out of the low 30s!  The ice was just crunchy enough to make a lot of icy noise, but I could paddle into it.  Blake thought it was somewhat unsettling! Poor pup.

 The Pileated woodpecker is around!  Michael said they've seen it several times, Linda & I saw and heard it the other evening in the tree where the screech owl lived last spring, and I saw it again the next morning in a tree in our front yard.  

A Coopers hawk is frequenting our bird feeder - I think it was probably a Coopers that I saw last week when I didn't get a real good look at it and thought it might have been a Sharp-shinned.  

And we have a screech owl who serenades us in our pre-dawn time on our porch.  Great birds around the pond.

COONS and A CHILLY MORNING PADDLE

Dumb, dumb, dumb. No, it's not dumb that I was out paddling this morning at about 6:30 when it was only 31º, it's dumb that I was out paddling without my binoculars. There are migrants on the pond and I'd love to have been able to see them clearly.

Some Canada geese came in and landed on the pond; as common (and annoying!) as they are, I still love watching them fly in and land.  This morning, flying west just as the sun was coming up, the white "V"s on their tails were luminescent!  

I think I saw some Hooded mergansers; they are fairly common during migration. Then there was something else that flew off as I rounded the bend, but all I know is that they were not our usual ducks (mallards, black ducks, wood ducks).

The pond is beautiful this time of year; there are no water chestnuts left, the scum is gone and the trees reflect in the surface of the pond. It is quite gorgeous. Yes, it was chilly with the thermometer reading only 31, and there's frost on the truck and ice in the birdbath, but somehow paddling warms my soul.

I think we had a Sharp-shinned hawk Coopers hawk on the feeder the other day and the juncos are back. (11/15/13: Decided it was probably the Coopers rather than a Sharpie.  I later got a very good view of a Coopers in the same position and I didn't see it well on this day.)

A very strange thing greeted me as I arrived at the canoes: one of our trash barrels was leaning up against my canoe, having been rolled down the hill from the house. Our coons are quite persistent. Normally they can't get into this trash can and they roll it around up near the house near where it sits, right next to the carport, but they've never taken it down the hill before!  Look carefully at this picture you can see that the trash can must have taken a very odd trajectory to get down the hill, around the trees, rolling somewhat in an arc to the west/right, to land between the canoes. The large end was to the right, so it would have rolled with that curve to the right, but still it's pretty strange. We would've wondered where the trash barrel had gone, when it came time to go to the transfer station tomorrow. Life is never dull here.

(The canoe is wet in the right hand picture, as I had just returned from paddling and repositioned the trash can to take a picture of the trajectory.)

OTHER THINGS IN THE ROAD

(Edited Oct 9 & Jan 25 below)
Linda & I like to crunch acorns (especially the caps!), so maybe that is why I am looking down these days and seeing lots of things in the road.  Most recently, as of Saturday and the rains, these small seeds, covered in beigeish fuzz, were all over the driveway.  Today, I see lots of them in the road in various places.  I haven't the foggiest what they come from - I don't see any bushes or plants or trees that have fuzzballs on them.

The three on the right hand side were connected and looked like they formed a larger ball - their seeds are still green; on the others, the seed is brown under the fuzz.  Anyone know???
[Jan 25 -- Shortly after I posted this, Carol told me of an article in the Mass. Audubon Sanctuary Magazine (Fall/Winter 2013-2014--available online ). The article, by Michael J. Caduto, titled, "The Oak Tree's World", talks about the oak galls and says that there are more than 800 species of insects & mites that create galls in trees.  The ones we see most on our road/woods are the red balls (common oak apple galls), about the size of the acorns or somewhat bigger.  Apparently, the above fuzzy things are also oak galls.  Mr. Caduto says, 

"While not as common, my favorite galls are the whitish, woolly twig gall and the wool sower gall (white oak), both of which appear like oak-borne cotton balls that are complete with dark spots that look like seeds. These round white tufts are caused by the gall wasps, Andricus furnessae and the Callirhytis seminator, respectively."

In his article,  Mr. Caduto says many interesting things, but two that caught my attention are:
1) Most of the galls are "mearly cosmetic and harmless to the tree" and that some are even beneficial to the tree.  The gall provides food and protection for the growing insect (which is often eaten by a bird!).
2) The tree roots can often distinguish beneficial fungi from damaging fungi and will attack the damaging fungi as soon as they invade the root tissues, but will allow the beneficial fungi to grow!]

A few weeks ago, every night when I'd take Blake out for his pre-bed outing, I'd see daddy-longlegs all over the road!

Last week, Carol and I were walking down Crystal Lake Drive and saw four small (baby?) snakes, run over, on the road.  We don't know what the snake is, either.  They were near Crystal Lake and Willis Lake, so a water snake seems logical?  But I really haven't a clue.  I don't know my snakes...
Anyone know?   [Oct 9 -- I emailed Mass.Wildlife@state.ma.us and got an answer.  They were juvenile Northern Water Snakes (Nerodia sipedon).] 

 (Double click to see the picture larger)

The green webbing is Blake's leash - 3/4" wide.  On the snake's lower jaw, there were white marks - a distinguishing feature of all 3 snakes that we saw.

Even looking down, it is interesting around here!!

WOOLLY BEAR CATERPILLARS

Recognize this little guy?

Yup, a wooly bear caterpillar.  In the spring, it will turn into an Isabella Tiger Moth.  On my walk with Blake on Monday, I was seeing them all over the road (most were rather flatter than this one - ewww...).  Wednesday, I had to look hard to find this one intact in order to take its picture (I think it was dead, though I didn't check).  

I wondered about the weather prediction myth around the woolly bears so I checked a couple of websites.  (If the brown band is large, over a third of the caterpillar's body, the winter would be mild.)  I thought the Old Farmer's Almanac website,
http://www.almanac.com/content/predicting-winter-weather-woolly-bear-caterpillars 
had the best and most interesting description, of the myth, the origin and the facts, and of course, OFA would be interested in things that forecast the weather!  Check it out.  

OH... and the website said that they are crossing the roads to find over-wintering habitat under bark and in crevices in rocks and logs.

MORNING PADDLE

I paddled upstream in the pond on this beautiful crisp clear morning. It's quite weedy and mucky in the center and the lower end of the pond, but it clears out as you get upstream, closer to where the brook enters the pond. The area right before the mouth of the brook is weedy again with lots of water chestnuts, especially around the edges. This is the area the harvester didn't get to before it broke down.

I saw several wood ducks this morning; They are definitely beginning to congregate before migration. There were also many mallards, of course, and the great blue heron was right at the mouth of the brook.

There was also a busy muskrat going back-and-forth, back-and-forth, across the pond. They can really move fast. I decided not to bother all the critters at the far end of the pond this morning and just watched from a distance (I remembered to bring my binoculars today!).

When I arrived back at our landing, after watching the Kingfisher for a while, there was a raccoon very busily walking along the shore, around the tree and up to the kayak. I couldn't figure out what it was doing, but it was quite intent. The coon sure wasn't very aware; I pulled up pretty close in my canoe, and he didn't even see me until I said, "Good dog" to Blake (he was being quiet). Actually I'm not sure Blake saw the coon either until we got closer. As I spoke, the coon got nervous and hid behind the tree looking like it was about to go up the tree. I scared it off so I could look at the bird's nest --wait!  What is the lump sitting in the tree? I think it's the coon. Yep. It's the coon. I'm in the house dictating this blog entry and happened to look up at the tree and saw a lump that I don't remember. Then it moved. Binoculars handy, and it is definitely the coon staring right at me.

I got a photo of the birds nest that hangs over the pond this morning from the canoe. In this photo, which is closer, you can really see how messy the nest is, and that there are strands of fibrous material tying it to the branches. 

Nest from pond side

Never a dull moment around here; there is always something new to see!

DAWN PADDLE

Chilly, misty morning on the pond - 39º according to two of the weather apps (I forget to look at our thermometers...).  I also forgot to take my binoculars, so couldn't see what the ducks were, but I know the wood ducks are starting to gather.  Morning sightings include a great blue heron, a muskrat, a kingfisher and an unknown hawk.  Perhaps a red-shouldered?  It was a buteo, not an accipiter, but looked too small, with too short a tale for a red-tail, but I'm not really good at identifying the red-shouldered.  In any case, it was gorgeous flying through the blue sky!

There is a bird's nest, larger than a robin, but not huge like a hawk, built on some branches of a tree leaning over the water.  

Location of nest on branch over water

closeup

I'm thinking maybe one of the grackles that I frequently saw down by the water, or I suppose a red-winged blackbird or even a blue jay?  I don't know enough about nests. Cool to look at, though!

OWLS & OTHER SOUNDS BEFORE DAWN

We've been getting up really early, about an hour before dawn, and sitting on the porch with a cup of tea or coffee. The morning sounds are wonderful. Crickets abound.  Some days it's been too cold for Katydids, but others, we'll heard one, very slowly "KT".  They are temperature sensitive and the calls get slower and slower as it gets colder.  The Katydids die at the frost.  

Apparently, you can tell the temperature by counting the calls per minute (I'm not sure if that means syllables or the whole call & I can't find it anywhere -- ex: if it is cold, you will hear, "Kay....... Ty"  or sometimes just the "Kay" part!)  Anyway, here is the formula presented by the Hilton Pond Center, York, S.Carolina, http://www.hiltonpond.org/thisweek010901.html
(I like the closing comment <grin>)

• T=(C+161)/3, with T being the Temperature and C the number of calls per minute. This won't work in winter, of course, since all the stridulating katydids will be dead, so unless you're a classroom teacher helping students with math skills, maybe it would just be easier to buy a new thermometer.   
  

I think we have the Common True Katydids here.  They like oak trees (which makes our neighborhood a good habitat!)

Several days ago we heard two great horned owls calling to each other. The next day we heard two screech owls alternating calls. The day after that, we heard a barred owl across the pond, and a bit later also heard a screech owl from the other side of the pond.

The owls seem to be out and calling just a bit after five which is about an hour before sunrise. Later, the great blue heron squawks. Yesterday, we heard the Heron three times from the dam end of the pond, and once from upstream further. 

Morning is not quiet around here!

HARVESTING PROGRESS

Chris Wilson is the operator who has been maneuvering the harvester up and down the pond daily since he and a team of others put it in last week Monday.  As I said in my last post, I was concerned about whether or not the work we had done with the hand pulling the water chestnuts in June would have lasted - it did. 

Pull-a-thon in June

  
I was also concerned about whether or not the nuts would be falling off as the harvester hit the weeds, it being rather late in the summer.  When I checked the nuts last week, they were still tightly attached.  All has been going well!

I went out yesterday to see what the area up stream from us looked like; before the harvester it was totally matted -- below is a picture of what it looked like in early June and by early August, there was no thought of trying to paddle through it!

 









NOW, post harvester, it looks like this!!

Nice, eh?  

Katrina Scheiner and 5 students have been working in canoes to pull the weeds from the edges where the harvester can't reach (the device needs at least two feet of water).  The town DPW has also worked on the this project, helping with the launching of the harvester, moving the harvested weeds, building up the dam, etc. (Thank you Bill Place and crew!)  The dam has a strip of metal across the top of it and sand bags where the breaks are in the lower part of the dam, consequently, the water is a bit over a foot higher than it usually is.  What great paddling last night!!  With the extra water and no weeds, Linda and I (& Blake) were able to paddle all the way to the mouth of the brook, right down the center, without getting stuck in mud!  If you love to paddle our pond, right now is a terrific time to do it.  

So here is the bad news.  The harvester broke down again (it has broken several times this summer).  Chris is quite adept at repairs, but this time it has to go in to the shop again.  Too bad, cuz I think with the last three scheduled days this week, he could have gotten to some of the edges that are still weed choked.

There is also a long term goal to be able to have the pond dredged, which would help get rid of not only the mud, but also the extra phosphorus and other excessive nutrients deposited in the water from the Marlborough Easterly Waste Water Treatment Plant.  You know all the slime on top of the pond?  It is an algae called, "Hydrodictyon" or "water net" and feeds on phosphorus.  If the phosphorus levels are where they should be, (.1mg/liter) the water net (slime) dies.  More that that and it thrives, as it is now.  Of course, the other problem with too much phosphorus and too many weeds is that the extra plant life uses up the oxygyn in the water, so that the fish die.  If the fish are gone, the herons, king fishers and other fish eating birds go away and essentially, the pond dies.

The other green stuff floating on the pond is duckweed (the plant with little, tiny leaves). As you look at the pond from the dam area off Dutton, it still looks pretty bad; that is duckweed and water net, not the water chestnuts; they have mostly been being harvested.

Duckweed and water net algae

We also have other invasive weeds, particularly evident upstream, near the mouth of the brook.  These too, would be eradicated by dredging.  So, there is hope for the health of our little pond and for the whole Hop Brook system and the Sudbury River (Hop Brook empties into the Sudbury River).

A big thanks to all who have helped and particularly, the Hop Brook Protection Association for its work to cleanup and preserve our pond and the whole Brook. HBPA has done a great deal of fundraising and grant writing to get enough money to take care of the problems, a small example being, HBPA paid the $1850 to move the harvester from Carding Mill Pond over to Stearns Mill Pond. (If you aren't a member, consider going to the website and joining/making a donation.  It matters.)

POND HARVESTER

The harvester is here and working near the dam end of the pond to clear away the water chestnuts.  The water level in the pond is quite low (normal for August), so I hope that they are able to build the addition on the top of the dam to raise the water level a bit.  

There is also a group of several college students, interns, who are working in canoes and pulling weeds from the sides where the harvester can't maneuver.  I was concerned that the pulling we did in the spring would be negated by the spreading chestnuts, but the  sides of the pond are still mostly clear where we worked in June, so that is good!  We can look forward to an improved pond soon!

There was a flock of Cedar Waxwings eating the bugs off of the water chestnut mats last evening.  Quite a few of them were there - more than usual, I think.

OF KATYDIDS AND BULLFROGS

Two critters I feel I'll never be able to photograph!  They are too elusive.  How many of you have actually seen either the bullfrog or the katydid??  Heard them, sure, but seen them?  For your edification, I've found two pictures:

from Encyclopedia Britannica online

http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/bullfrog.htm

Hmm... they kinda look alike!

Anyway, what brought me to this is that the katydids are singing at night now, joining the bullfrog chorus. The acorns have started to fall, and I even see some red leaves on the dogwood tree.  I guess fall is coming. Where did the summer go? 

We've been gone, so although we've paddled, I haven't been on our pond much.   Here in the center, the pond is kind of scummy.  I assume that upstream, the water chestnuts are still matted across the width of the  pond.  Hopefully the harvester will start work soon!

Has anyone seen the otters?

WALKING THE DOG

(If you are looking for info about the Stearns Mill Pond weed pull this weekend, go to the June 9th entry.  Thanks for taking an interest!  Hope to see you there.)

Having to go out and walk the dog several times a day, is truly a blessing. Probably only those of us walking dogs along this road have seen this beautiful lady slipper.

Why do I say that?  As any dog owner knows, we spend a lot of time staring at the side of the road while the dog sniffs. We also look at the side of the road to make sure there's no poison ivy where the dog is going.  Want to know where the poison ivy is?  Ask a dog walker.

What other daily pursuit has you out walking in every kind of weather, good and bad. Hmmm, yes, even during the hurricane.  That one wasn't so much fun.  "Okay Blake, we're gonna run to the end of the driveway, then turn around and walk back.  So, do you thing--FAST!". 

Yesterday morning I saw a deer in the fingers of dawn.  Last night I heard a bird that I didn't recognize and had never heard before. It almost sounded like a screech owl but not quite. I wonder if it is an immature, fledgling screech owl trying out its voice?  A couple days ago Linda & I saw a little bit of down, or fluff of some sort, on the hole where the screech was seen earlier this spring. Perhaps they did have a nest there and the chicks have fledged.

Last week in one of the rainstorms, I put on my rain jacket, rain pants and my hat and took Blake for a walk. It actually was quite lovely to be out in the rain. A runner was coming down the hill toward me and I said to her, "People who don't get wet, don't know what they are missing."  She replied, "You got that right!"

WATER CHESTNUT PULL-A-THON JUNE 22!

Water Chestnuts

They are so pretty,
Invasive water chestnuts,
But they choke our pond.

Photo from http://www.thebeatnews.org/BeatTeam/invasive-species-2/

Water chestnuts really are a pretty plant, but they spread rapidly (one rosette like the one above can create 15 or 20 seeds and each seed can produce 10-15 rosettes a year, so one seed can produce 300 new seeds!!)  

Last year, our pond was harvested by a machine, and we hand pulled many canoe-loads of plants.  The area that was done is MUCH better this spring. This time in 2012, it was pretty difficult to paddle on the pond, but right now, there is only one area that is choked, but it is bad.  

June 6, 2013, center area of Stearns Mill Pond

The plan for this year is to have another Pull-a-Thon on June 22, 2013, from 9:00AM-1:00PM followed by lunch.  We will focus on the area around the shore where the harvester can't reach, then when the harvester comes in a couple weeks later, hopefully it can clean out the rest and in a few years our pond will be cleared of this nuisance! 

We had loads of fun last year getting to know neighbors and helping our pond.  Someone commented the Pull-a-Thon was better than a block party!

If you are able to participate please RSVP to Ann Kirk  (abkdds@gmail.com -- this is the corrected email).  We need boaters to pull and fill canoes, we need people to pull the loaded transport canoes to shore with row boats, and we need people on shore to help receive what is brought in.  If you have a canoe or row boat, let Ann know. The boaters must be 14 years old or older or have a parent in the boat with the child.  (more details below)

Pull-a-thon 2012 -- photo by Barbara Taskovics

Click on the following link to find information (from Cornell University) about the Invasive Waterchestnuts, how they grow, what they look like, etc.   
http://bandnotes.info/PondsWaterways/waterchestnutalert.pdf

And lastly, here is a short video of the harvester last year! (26 seconds)

 
DETAILS FOR SATURDAY, JUNE 22

• Please try to arrive between 8:30 and 9:00AM, sign in and get a name tag.
• At noon, BBQ for all helpers, courtesy of the Kirks
• Where: Kirk's landing - the green space at the end of the pond, on Dutton Road
• Parking: we will be parking next door to the yellow house - look for the sign.
• Bring: water boots, work gloves, sunscreen, water bottle, any recycle bins you might have--the kind with the holes in the bottom, and, your sense of humor and fun!
• Wear: old clothes (you WILL get muddy!) and a hat to shade your head, face and neck is a good idea!  Tall boots, or shoes you don't mind getting wet and muddy.
• LIFE JACKETS are a must for all in canoes - our pond is muddy (2 or 3 feet deep in muck in some places) and often very shallow so that if you tipped over, you would not be able to swim; you'd just sink into the mud, like quick sand!  
• Unless you are paddling to the event, we suggest you drop off your boats Friday night so that we don't have a road jam Saturday morning as everyone is trying to unload boats on narrow Dutton.
• RSVP, if you can, to Ann at abkdds@gmail.com
• Up-to-date info and news, including weather issues, on Twitter, at #StearnsMillPond 

Have Fun.    Get Dirty.    Make a Difference.    Meet Your Neighbors.    Enjoy Good BBQ!

SNAPPING TURTLE LAYING EGGS

Wow.  I wanted to enjoy watching nature by being home during the day this year; spring is always especially busy in a school and I never saw anything. I've known that the snapping turtle comes up and lays her eggs in our backyard, but have never seen her myself. My mother was visiting one time and saw the snapper laying her eggs, but I never did. 

Today, there she is in the backyard. She stood quite a deep hole. She has mud on her nose. Her shell is starting to get dry on the top so she's probably been here for a while. It seems to be a fairly slow process, as is most of a turtle's life when on land!  When I first looked at her she was laying eggs, I assume she was anyway, she was just sitting in the hole and being very still. 

Snapping Turtle laying eggs

 Then she got up and turned around and stuck her head way down in under the mind and under the rocks. This is a very rocky area there are lots of small stones that the former owner put down for some reason. Anyway, she stuck her head under ground, either another making the hole deeper, or possibly covering the eggs, I'm not sure which. Nice thing about trying to take pictures of turtle, is that they don't move very fast! 

The snappers looks so prehistoric so long scaly tail. Her legs look powerful; that makes me want to try to get another picture of those back legs.

She sticks her back leg way down deep into this hole, maybe 6 inches down. (You can see that in the picture - her right hind leg is in the hole she has made) I wonder if that's where she just actually lays the egs. I'll have to do some research and see how many legs they lay at one time. As I recall it's quite a few because of predation. Most of the eggs don't hatch they get eaten by coons and such, before they can become ready and hatch or the little turtles get eaten as they try to get to the pond.

(I have an awfully busy morning and I really don't have time to watch this, but I can't tear myself away. I'm using the Dragon software on my iPhone to dictate this entry as I watch the turtle. Some times technology is pretty cool.)

I wonder if she is tamping the egg down as she sticks her foot in the hole or if she's using her toes and covering the egg or exactly what's going on down there. Certainly can't tell from this distance.

Let's hear it for iPhones. I asked Siri to find information for me on snapping turtles laying their eggs and here's what she came up with from: http://www.naturealmanac.com/archive/snappers/snappers.html

Female snapping turtles have the ability (as do most turtles) to plan their pregnancies. Sperm cells from the male survive in the female's reproductive tract for up to three years in a specialized duct so that when food is plentiful and life is good she can fertilize any eggs she happens to be carrying. When the eggs ripen (usually in mid June in our area) she develops a wanderlust and leaves the water (one of the few times these turtles willingly leave the water) to search for a suitable location to lay her eggs.

Snapping Turtles will sometimes lay their eggs considerable distances from the water - up to a quarter mile away has been recorded. Once the site is chosen she digs a bottle-shaped hole with her hind feet as deep as she can reach - which can be up to eight inches. She then lays from ten to thirty ping pong ball sized eggs and covers them with the previously excavated soil grading it smooth with her lower shell and tail. Depending on the temperature, rainfall and moisture content of the nest the eggs the eggs hatch in from 55 to125 days after laying. In northern climes some nests overwinter with hatching occurring in the spring of the following year. Around here most nests have hatched by the end of September.

The hatchling baby snappers (assuming the nest isn't discovered and eaten by a passing skunk or raccoon) burrow up through the covering soil and then seek the nearest body of water. In practical terms this means moving downhill until water is encountered. It's during this over- land migration that the young turtles are most vulnerable. Even though most of the migrations occur at night wandering raccoons, skunks and even owls pick off as many hatchlings as they can detect for a tasty meal. Those that actually make it to water are still not safe. Snakes, turtles, herons and other snapping turtles all find the youngsters a tasty treat and make the most of any encounter. Perhaps one turtle hatchling in twenty will live to see its second year.

I have GOT to get packed up for tonight's gig before I leave for the stable -- I'll edit this tomorrow.  Very cool....

RED-TAILED HAWK CAM UPDATE

Well, the Red-tailed hawklets featured on the Cornell webcam (see April 6 blog entry) are a bit over a month old (34 days, I think) and have changed beyond imagining!  Birds grow so fast.  Compare the picture of day 2 with today's pictures! (All pictures were captured on my iPhone as screen shots from the live video coverage of Cornell University's Hawk Webcam.) 

Day 34?

Day 2

 

Amazing what mother nature can do!!!  I find it interesting that the chicks look so much like bald eagles; bald eagle young DON'T look like this.

Day 34? Trying out wings (screen shot from Cornell webcam)

It is really windy today, and the bird closest to us (above pix) was flapping its wings - strengthening them in the wind to prepare for fledging.

This next shot is the mother, who is called Big Red, and the three chicks sharing a starling.  It was really interesting, one of the parent birds, I don't remember which, came in with a starling (there is a nest in a pipe right behind where mom is standing) and dropped it. The bird who is furthest away in the top picture clambered over the other two and grabbed the starling.  Mom reached in and took it away and started eating it.  The chastised young-un stood back and waited (reminds me of training our dog... pack leaders eat first!).  Then Big Red started giving the now polite chick some pieces.  The other two stayed in the background.  Eventually the first chick felt satisfied and the other two came forward and in this shot, they are both pulling on what is left of the starling.

Day 34? - mom (Big Red) and the three chicks having a starling lunch (screen shot from Cornell webcam)

If you haven't checked out the incredible work of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and you are interested in birds, you must take a look!  AllAboutBirds.org is an incredible (free) resource, and the Birds of North America website (which you have to pay to have access to) has much more detailed and scientific information.  You can link to the webcams from AllAboutBirds.org and there are webcams for the Red-tails, a Great Blue Heron (whose eggs have started hatching!) and two Ospreys.

Always more fun to see live, but when there isn't a nest in viewing range, the webcams are a terrific alternative!!

THE GOOD, THE BAD and the UGLY

What a spectacular morning for a paddle!  I managed to get out before 6:30 and the sun was shining on the water, well, actually on the pollen on the water!  Many birds flitting in the branches of the trees.  Now that most have leaves, it is harder to find the birds, but there are so many colors and textures!  Look at this picture of maple tree seeds & leaves; what color, and the delicate fringe of the new leaves up above.  Wow.  (Click on the picture to see it full size)

Maple seeds and new leaves

Sometimes I like to just float in my canoe and watch what is under the water - I see fish swim by, painted turtles with noses in the air, darting away when they see me.  I keep looking for the huge snapper that both Suzanne and Ann have seen, but it hasn't showed up yet on my watch.  

Then, however, while looking so closely at the water, one can't help but notice the burgeoning water chestnut plants.  Yes, they are coming up.  I travel with a bucket in the back of my canoe now, and today I pulled a half bucket of water chestnut plants.  

Speaking of invasives, I'm sure you've heard all the hype about the garlic mustard and how quickly it spreads and takes over everything in its path.  Pull it when you see it!  It goes to seed soon and there will be loads of seeds that grow efficiently.  Below is a picture

Garlic Mustard -- PULL when you see it!

And the ugly?  The scum on the pond.  Covers the pond this AM, but upon closer look, a lot of the issue is pollen, and we KNOW that covers EVERYTHING this time of year!  I sat on the porch (my summer office) for a while this morning and it looked like it was snowing.

Still, our pond is a beautiful place and I feel blessed to live on it!

MISCELLANEOUS NOTICINGS

It was all misty on the pond this morning when I went out at 6:20ish.  Temperature was 36, and chilly!  I heard kingfishers, and red-winged blackbirds among the other regular yard birds that we hear in the morning. Watched a grackle gathering little twigs and young leaves, probably for nesting material. Also saw a muskrat. The mist was so think in some places that I could hardly see the other shore. The air is cold, but the water is warm (I've noticed that as I pick Water Chestnut nuts out of the pond!)
 

Sunrise through the mist on Stearns Mill Pond (unretouched photo with a Canon Powershot!)

The pond is getting a little bit scummy at this point; things are starting to grow and to float up from the bottom.  I've pulled out about a half bucketful of Water Chestnut nuts (seeds).  They are floating on top and I just grab them and dump them into the bucket.

Scum on pond

 
From last Friday's paddle:

The trees are blooming and hanging over the shore edge.  Pretty.
Geese are noisy, but I love watching them land in the water so smooth. Uh-oh. Two more geese are flying in and landing where the first one was. They don't seem happy that this first goose is in their territory. There's lots of honking and slapping of wings and flying at the intruder. I wonder if the two have a nest somewhere and are protecting it. I know there's a goose nest further upstream, near the mouth of the brook.

The water is low today that's not good.
Why is there an oil slick on the top of the water at our landing? 

Suzanne reports several sightings of a VERY large snapper near the shore and also some piles of shells.  I've seen both all white shells and the shells with purple, iridescent lining.  I'm not up on my shell animals, so I'm not sure what they are.  Could be piles left by muskrats or otter, or even a coon. 

But our pond is so beautiful!

IT PAYS TO SLOW DOWN AND LOOK...

I'm linking to a wonderful video that a friend just passed on to me.  It is a morning walk, last week, through Memorial Forest, right here in Sudbury, done by Christopher Renna.  Give it a watch, if only for the Barred Owl shots!  But, there is so much more to it and it really shows us why we need to slow down and look!  (Really look at the pictures of the fish eggs and watch the insects on the water! --Later: Mr. Renna said they are likely spotted salamander eggs, as they are in a vernal pool.)

Screen shot of Barred Owl from C.Renna's video

  Here is the link to the video:  http://youtu.be/2yMswp_thqg

BIRDS EVERYWHERE!

I am trying to get some work done; but the birds are not making it easy!!  I look to the right of my computer window and see from the Cornell nest cam, the cute little eyass chowing down on the piece of chipmunk mom red-tail brought, or if I look up from my screen, the feeder outside the real window is swarming with birds!  Right now I see 4 purple finch males and one female, 2 Carolina wrens, a downy woodpecker, a bright yellow goldfinch in the bird bath, two mourning doves on a tree branch, a junco and a chipping sparrow in the grass, whoops!  Blue jay just came in, scattering all the others.  A robin has arrived and there is a nuthatch taking dog fur from the nesting materials put out for them, two geese just flew over and there is a female wood duck sitting in the tree closer to the pond!   

Female Wood Duck

Earlier, I was out walking the dog at 7:15, and heard this strange sound that didn't sound like any of the songbirds we have around. It was close by so I stopped and really looked. It called again, and I thought. "WOOD DUCK!"  It took a bit of looking, but eventually I found it in the crook of the tree.  It stayed long enough so that I could go in and get my DSLR camera and take some pictures (above).  I don't believe it's nesting out here as I don't see a hole for it and and besides, it's awfully far from the pond, being right out here on the street.  What a cool morning gift thank you world!  

Quick update on our neighborhood screech owl.  After not seeing it for several days, I caught it in its hole 4 times yesterday, so it is still here!  I didn't have binoculars for most of those sightings and wonder if any were little owlettes.    :-)

Hmmm... everyone just left and it is empty!  Must be a hawk somewhere around.  Do I take this time to get back to paying the bills, or go look for the hawk??

CORNELL HAWK CAM

Red-tailed Hawk eyass, one day old

I have been watching the Cornell University Hawk Cam as the little hawks are hatched and grow (the nestling is called an "eyas").  These are a pair of hawks that Cornell has been watching in the nest for several years.  The female is called Big Red and the male is Ezra and yes, you can learn to tell them apart!!!  They had three eggs this year and two have hatched, the first on Monday night and the second early Tuesday morning (I started watching at just the right moment and got to see the second one hatch!!!). 
The black blob in the upper right corner is a starling that is about to be their lunch.  The above photo shows the two eyass at one day old, with the unhatched egg. 
These are iPhone screen shots of the Cornell hawk cam images. Click on the images for a larger pix.

The eyass are now two days old and much stronger and larger than yesterday!
The egg has pipped (the bird inside has started making a hole in it and will hatch soon)

RTH eyass, two days old with mom

 Here they are today, two days old, with mom (Big Red).  Mom has a snake she is feeding them.

To see the hawk cam, click this link:

http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/16/Red-tailed_Hawks/?utm_source=Cornell+Lab+eNews&utm_campaign=562fb46458-Bird+Cams+eNews-FallVisitors-10.19.2012&utm_medium=email
Before you start chatting on the chat line, be sure to read the section called, "Hawk Nest FAQ" (just below the video window) and the Chat Guidelines.  In the FAQ section, you can find out how to tell the adults apart, and learn a lot about the hawk pair, their offspring, the project and the cam.

I found I could spend a lot of time watching and although semi-retired, I don't have that much time, so I click on the 2nd cam view button, which gives a small window, and I put that window in the upper corner of the desktop.  Out of the corner of my eye, I can see if anything exciting happens.

There are other cams, as well.  I've been glancing at the Osprey cam occasionally (they had one egg as of yesterday) and the Great Blue Herons, who have four eggs.  The action is at the Hawk cam at the moment, though!!  

For more info on the hawks (and all birds!), go to Cornell's free site, 
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-tailed_hawk/id
 
Cornell Lab of Ornithology is one of the major places for bird study and they also have a more scholarly site, with deeper info, but that costs to join - Birds of North America
http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/

I want to leave you with one last picture of the eyass.  Apparently they play fight and it helps them get stronger.  This is yesterday.  The one on the right is "attacking" the other.

Day old RTH eyass play fighting

Check it out!

PILEATED, PALM WARBLER & TURTLES

Grey day, but warm and a pleasant wind.  Too much to paddle, though, given my shoulder.  Hard raking, too!  :-)
Several interesting sightings recently:

• A pileated woodpecker moving through the dead trees along the shore of the pond
• A pair of wood ducks
• Several phoebes, some snagging mosquitoes and other bugs from over the pond, some doing their territorial call around our house, some sitting in branches
• Two Palm Warblers - beautiful birds!  We have seen them only once before.  Very bright yellow breast and belly, with some rufous lines on the breast along the wings, a rufous cap and yellow stripes above and below the eyes.  The thing that called my attention to them, instead of, "Oh, its just a goldfinch", was the bird bobs its tail continuously!  They are not feeder birds, but may be seen on the ground or in the pine trees.  They are in migration, heading further north.
• Juncos are still here
• Haven't seen the bluebirds recently, but also haven't been at my desk where I see them in the morning
• MANY Painted Turtles today!  Linda thought the log looked funny; that was because there were 10 turtles on it.  I went to take some pictures and discovered that there were 40+ on the three logs up stream a bit on the pond.  I spooked the 10 on the initial log, but some came back.  

I count about 40 here!

7 of the original 10

HAIKU FOR A COLD SPRING DAY

Haiku have always fascinated me; I love the 5, 7, 5 rhythm of the syllables and the minimalist nature of the poems, and of course, the twist of the last line.  NPR was reading from a haiku contest for Cherry Blossom Weekend in DC this morning, and it got me thinking in haiku today...

A grey cloudy sky,
The sleet's hard and stings my face.
Hmmm... it's mid-April? 

Yes, there's sleet and cold,

But it's a beautiful day -

There are daffodils.

A goose on her nest,

The osprey dives for dinner,

Our pond is alive.

This next one had several last lines; ultimately I went with the chuckle of this one.  So often I feel like I hit a shell.

Bright sun on the pond.

My paddle dips the water.

Whoops. Thwacked a turtle.

OK, OK... how about this, then:

Bright sun on the pond.

My paddle dips and rises,

As my mood goes up.

Check the comment area for haiku from other authors.
Share YOUR nature haiku!!  Leave one in the comments area.

FIRST PADDLE OF SEASON

Finally got myself out on the pond today!  Went for a paddle with a friend who hadn't seen our wonderful pond.  She got a great introduction!  We hadn't even pulled away from shore when a muskrat came motoring down the pond; we got a great view.   Then we headed toward the dam and there was a heron fishing at a snag.  Another great view!  Two fishermen were on the shore.   There is a new muskrat lodge on the south side of the pond and the one I was watching last fall is looking rather disreputable and unused.  We paddled up pond to the mouth and there was a pair of Canada geese, one on the nest and one guarding.  

All of that was a pretty good series of sightings, then we spotted an osprey!  When it first flew across the pond, I only got a quick glimpse and I assumed red-tailed hawk, but it flew like a gull...  Then it landed and I got my binocs on it and it was an osprey - beautiful!  Somewhat small - perhaps a male.  We got to watch it for a long time and saw it dive into the water twice.  Missed both times.  Then we lost sight of him.  Came around a corner and he was on a branch looking out over the water.  He saw us and flew.  Later Carol called to say that there was a bird she couldn't see well enough to identify, with a black and white head, in the tree between our houses.  I went outside and it was the osprey and he had finally caught some dinner!  

On a not-so-good note, the pond scum is coming up from the bottom and floating on top already.  I saw, but couldn't reach, several water chestnut nuts today, too.

At the feeder: Juncos are still here, we have bluebirds in the feeder and the white-throated sparrows are calling.  Those are the oddities.  Otherwise, normal bird sounds.  Linda and I were out on the porch for "first bird" this morning.  We like to sit in the dark and wait while the sky lightens and we hear that first bird call!  It is usually a robin.  GORGEOUS Coopers hawk on the branch outside the kitchen window yesterday!  So much to watch around here.  :-)

So what are YOU seeing?????

SCREECH OWL UPDATE

(Info updated)
First of all, it is a truly gorgeous night!  I stood out with the neighborhood screech owl for about 20 minutes, until it started getting a bit too dark.  

I was walking Blake and heard a screech doing its trill call and I knew that the owl had been sitting in its hole, so I walked down that way to see if it was the owl in the hole calling, or a second one.  I couldn't tell!  I watched the owl in the hole for a long time - it must be a ventriloquist!  

I walked beyond the tree, where it couldn't see me, but I could watch where the hole is and could see if it flew.  I heard the calling from that direction, but it was very quiet, so it sounded far off.  I gradually moved to where I could see the owl again, but still couldn't tell if it was calling or if it was another bird.  Its mouth wasn't moving at all.  Finally, I saw it!  The throat collapsed when the sound stopped!  I also saw it move its head and open the eyes wide and look at something.  

I still have more questions than answers!  Is there a female with eggs is the biggest question?!!  Time to go do some more research. 

Had a red-winged black bird at the feeder today, the bluebirds are still here and the juncos haven't left yet. 

LATER...  Too funny.  I'm reading the info on Cornell, Birds of North America site (wonderful, detailed info!) http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/165/articles/sounds
and it said:

"Adults sing faintly inside nest cavities or close to family members and may seem ventriloquistic"

Another interesting tidbit from that page:

"Monotonic Trill is pair and family-contact song, variously called Bounce, Tremolo, Secondary Song, Warble (Gehlbach 1994c). It is mostly on a single pitch, 3–6 s long, but may rise or fall slightly at the end. Male trills when advertising nest site, courting, and arriving at nest with food; female trills to induce fledging."

And:

"Males and their incubating-brooding mates sing antiphonally day and night, whereas neighboring males sing synchronously at night (Monotonic Trills). Male trills are more frequent closer to sunset and become shorter as nesting progresses. Nesting males mostly give Monotonic Trills, postbrooding females give more Descending Trills and predator-recognition calls, but males increase Descending Trills and calls after fledging. Trills are more frequent during gibbous and full moons and before stormy weather. Male’s voice stimulates female vocalizing (Gehlbach 1994c)."

 Apparently they have many more vocalizations than the trill, whinny and screech.

"Hoots are the same pitch but sometimes descend slightly; they denote mild alarm at intruders and potential predators. Bark is a loud, single, high-pitched hoot given by more anxious individuals likely to attack. Screech is a single loud, piercing or grating call by agitated owls, often during physical defense of nests or fledglings, and can resemble a squawk or scream; it has many variants. Rasp is a rough grating call, usually falling in pitch; nestlings use it as a food-begging call, and adult females use apparently the same Rasp in food-begging during courtship. Chuckle-Rattle is a rapid 3–4 note call, accented on the last note which may be higher pitched. In mobbed adults, it may be longer and grade into a high-pitched cackle; Chuck-Rattle signifies intra- (nestling) or inter (adults) specific annoyance at benign intruders."

Also learned that the females, even when brooding, will sit in the hole for a short time and take a break.  Will also leave at dusk and sometimes dawn, to bath, eliminate waste, eat.