MUSKRAT HOLE IN THE ICE? DEER AT THE BIRD BATH

Got slowed down this AM by watching four deer come up to the house to feed on our Yew bush.  Our yews are so ragged, we are appreciative for all the help trimming them!  

I knew we got the bird bath heater for a reason!

It was fun to see them, as the deer below were only about 5 feet from me! They stayed for about 15 minutes and then moved on.  -4º outside this AM, so they are welcome to whatever sustenance they can get from the yews.

 

 

On a different note, there has been a hole in the ice on the pond and I have wondered if it is a muskrat hole.  Haven't seen any brown furry critters there, but it seems logical.  Then Linda was reading H.D. Thoreau: A Writer's Journal, edited by Laurence Stapleton, and ran across the following:

"I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice.  He is a man wilder than Ray or Melvin.  While I am looking at him, I am thinking what he is thinking of me. [I felt that way this morning as the deer was looking in the window at me!]  He is a different sort of a man, that is all.  He would dive when I went nearer, then reappear again, and had kept open a place five or six feet square so that it had not frozen, by swimming about in it.  Then he would sit on the edge of the ice and busy himself about something.  I could not see whether it was a clam or not.  What a cold-blooded fellow!  thoughts (sic) at a low temperature, sitting perfectly still so long on ice covered with water, mumbling a cold, wet clam in its shell.  What safe, low, moderate thoughts it must have!  It does not get on to stilts.  The generations of muskrats do not fail. They are not preserved by the legislature of Massachusetts."  ~Henry David Thoreau, Novemeber 25, 1846.

I wonder what Thoreau was thinking when he said, "What safe, low, moderate thoughts he must have".  What are low thoughts?  Moderate thoughts?  I wouldn't think he'd feel safe on the ice...  Perhaps HDT was even then comparing him to politicians? "It does not get on to stilts."  Interesting that so much of HDT's paragraph fits with today.  Somethings don't change, and unfortunately, it is not just nature!

A muskrat hole in the ice?

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?????

RHODODENDRON LEAVES

I could tell it was cold this morning; the Rhododendron leaves had all curled up. Actually, I didn't have any trouble noticing the cold when I was out with the dog at 5:30...  (Thankfully, I've trained him the he does NOT go out as soon as we get up!  I get to do my exercises and such first!)  Back to the Rhodies.  I have noticed this curling every winter, and I wonder at what temperature they curl.  It is clearly when it is below freezing, but is it before that or at 30 degrees or what?  Today it was 23 when we were out.  I found a website on Rhododendron (when I was trying to get the spelling right!).  Maybe they have a question/answer.  (The mountain laurel do this, too - do all of the Azalea plants?)
(10/9/12 - Hey! We got an answer to this question.  Click the "comment" at the end of this post)

Rhododendron leaves curled from the cold

Lots of ripples on the pond when we were on the porch at dawn, before sunrise; didn't see any brown furry things, but there sure was activity.  No ice yet.  Ice in the birdbath, though!  I'll take them some water when it warms up a bit more.

From Suzanne: 

The other night I saw 4 muskrats at once in between our houses.  They would get food and bring it back and all climb on the log and eat.  There were four at once on the log. (Just before dark)

I want to see that!  Gotta hang out down there more in the late afternoon.

SWANS ARE BACK!

Nice paddle this morning.  Met two of the swans that were reported at the end of last week (Carol S said she had seen three on Thursday!)

Spoke to a fisherman on the dam who said he had caught 3 small bass this morning.

A muskrat was busy chowing down in the water chestnuts and brought one home.  For some reason, he wasn't bothered by me today and I was quite close - I could see his teeth as he was eating!  (With binoculars)  Couldn't get any decent pictures though, cuz I just had my point and shoot, it was still pretty dark and he moved a lot. 

We seem to be back to the normal number of wood ducks (down from the 50 some I saw a while back!), although, they could have mostly been up stream.  Saw one great blue and several geese.  Otherwise, a quiet & lovely morning.

THE ORIGINS OF THIS BLOG, OTTER VIDEO

So I am semi-retired now and am spending a bit of my mornings on the pond.  I started keeping a pond journal, but today it occurred to me that it would be great if others added their observations and we could share what we've seen and noticed.

With that, I'll start with my first few pages of my journal.

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 Thursday, September 20, 2012

Ah, retirement…

Doesn't get much better than an autumn dawn paddle on a misty pond!  Then I watched the muskrat make his busy trips from one side to the other.  The phoebes were making their chirping call so loudly that Blake started growling!  

There was a redtail having an altercation with some crows - looked like she was chasing them, though.  

THEN, I watched two otters play for about 10 minutes.  They'd surface nose to nose, then dive again.  Then come up and wrestle.  Then off to chase under water.  A third otter came and just checked in a couple times, but didn't play (mom?).  

One of them spied my boat and their heads and half of the body came up out of the water staring at me.  They moved closer and closer.  Curious.  Finally they were about 10 feet from the bow of my boat, coming up and staring.  Blake was not happy about this, but he kept quiet for me.  Finally they left, and after visiting the wood ducks, I came in so the critters could have their pond.

Magical morning.

 

 Friday, September 21, 2012

Carol joined me this morning.  I managed to see the brown furry thing that goes back and forth across the pond just after dawn well enough today to decide that it was a muskrat.  The head/body was smaller than the otter, but today I saw the tail.  We saw one of the cormorants and some wood ducks, a couple of phoebes, but they seem to be leaving – cool and not many bugs left.  No otters.

  Sunday, September 22, 2012

Linda & I (and Blake) went out today, and while trying to get a better view of the osprey, we saw 4 or 5 otters!!.  I spotted a disturbance in the water among the water chestnuts and I watched, then saw another black back and another.  AH!  An otter! Hmph.  Gone.  But there is motion in the tree that has fallen down in the water.  Sure enough, among the leaves I found this large, wet furry thing!  Mama otter.  Pretty soon a little head showed up and swam up to mama.  Then another and one more!  Three younguns.  They nuzzled in.  Awww...

Before long mama dove and disappeared, but the young ones started playing in the weeds.  I had brought my little camera and got it out, but Blake spotted the critters, too!  He wanted to go play!!  I did manage to get a bit of footage (hmmm  inchage?  It is about 10 seconds), but you can hear Blake whining and see what his wiggling was doing to my steadiness - it is hard enough to shoot in a canoe.  :-)  

While I was managing the dog & camera, Linda thought she saw FIVE of them!  Mama came up and was hissing at us - get OUT OF HERE!

Amid this excitement, we also did see an osprey – first one I’ve seen this year and I’m not even sure we saw any last year.  It has been a bad couple of years on the pond because of the water chestnut invasion. 
 

 Monday, September 24, 2012

Another very special morning!  Chilly, 40 degrees, and very misty on the pond.  Blake & I were out in the pre-sunrise dawn light.  We watched the muskrat, who was busy heading across the pond.  I think he saw us though, ‘cuz he suddenly turned around and went home.  Maybe something else was there.  OH!  That’s where I saw the otter later.  Maybe that spooked him, because we really weren’t very obvious or making sound.  The muskrats move SOOO fast!

 

We paddled toward the dam, stopping to take a few pictures of the sunrise. We saw the east end heron and then later, saw the west end heron.  I steered away from the heron so that we wouldn’t disrupt it in its morning vigilance. 

As we came back up the south side of the pond I watched the kingfisher for a while; he certainly was making a racket with his rattling cry!  I am still hoping to some day see one catch a fish…  Speaking of racket, the redtail was calling from one side and the crows cawing from the east end.

As we approached the heavy water chestnuts, I was scanning to see if I could spot the busy muskrat (saw him again later as I was bringing the canoe up).  I turned to look ahead in the chestnuts and there was the black back of an otter!  But what’s that big patch of white?  Must have a piece of vegetation stuck on her head.  Dove again, up again, dove again, up again, and still the white.  OH!  It is breakfast!  It has a fish!  It went into the bushes and probably up on shore.  I didn’t bother it by following, but went off to look at more wood ducks.

(More tomorrow - I've got a vid of the harvester working on the water chestnuts that I'll post tomorrow)