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!