UPPER POND NEAR THE BROOK INLET

I thought I'd go to the upper end of the pond today and leave the muskrats alone.  Blake & I got in the canoe, shoved off shore and I noticed the sure sign of otters swimming in the water, so it was quite a while before I even go out of our cove!  The otters (looked like 4 but turned out to be 5!) were cavorting in the water while swimming across the pond - moving fast!  When they got to the north side, they got up on shore and some (probably the young ones) were chasing and playing in the bushes.  Then there were 3 in the water and still some ruckus on the shore.  Now there were four in the water, some swimming on top of each other!  They see me... 4 heads turned our way and staring at us!  Here comes the fifth otter, chuffing and complaining.  All go under and disappear.  Then I saw the lodge.  Theirs?  Seems small.  I left it to look at later after the animals had managed to go to safety.  The lodge is right near where they were playing and swimming and where they were on land.  I've watch them in this spot before and I swear there was nothing there last week!  I'll have to keep an eye on it - it is probably just shy of 3 feet tall (the part out of the water).

UPPER END OF POND
It is possible to more easily paddle toward the upper end of the pond, but there are still a lot of water chestnuts up there, more than in the center area.  (Our central area muskrats are doing a good job of eating those darn plants!  I saw some muskrats nibbling away this AM.  No swimming branches, though).  Lots of birds in the upper end.  As I approached, I flushed 15 geese, 37 wood ducks, a great blue heron & 2 double crested cormorants.  Many of them landed in the inlet of the brook which looked too full to add any more birds to the collection of geese, mallards and black ducks that were already there!

It is still very shallow and mucky, so it is hard to go far.  The rain over the weekend helped, but not enough to make it fun paddling. 


After checking out the upper end, I went back to the center and looked at the lodge.

Wish I'd had my SLR camera - there would have been a great shot: a great blue on the upper branch of a snag, with a cormorant sitting closer to the water, about 2 bird lengths away.  They looked content with each others' company.  

Again, leave comments on what YOU have seen.  If there is no comment box visible, click on the word "comments" and a box will show up.  If you put your sightings in there, I'll add them to my list that I started in the right column.