QUIET MORNING

The pond is quiet this morning, after the turbulence of the storm.  

South shore in the middle section

North shore in the middle section

Aren't the reflections wonderful?  
Quiet from a critter point of view, as well.  I saw two king fishers, one at either end - actually I heard them, didn't see them.  Likewise, heard two Carolina wrens - one on either side of the pond.  One goose flew over heading toward the dam, then 4 landed in the upper end, followed, a few minutes later, by 2 more geese landing near the first four.  Also a Great Blue.  nothing else.  Although, I did not go all the way to either end; my shoulder is acting up...  But it was a lovely, sunny moring to be out!  Hey!  (I just looked up), it got all dark out there!!  Don't like the weather? - wait a minute.
--DIane

POST STORM - SANDY

The pond is up about 4 inches as of this morning (the day after the big part of the storm).  I swear I saw WHITE CAPS on the pond yesterday!  The wind was really moving the water up stream!!

Haven't seen the swans, the cormorants, the osprey or the otters recently.  Have you?

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STORM: SANDY APPROACHES

There is a long string of geese swimming up the pond, which looks pretty calm at the moment.  It is interesting that our weather vane says the wind is out of the north east, but the pond has been blowing the waves toward our cove, from the south east.  What is happening on the pond doesn't seem to reflect what is happening in the treetops.  A while ago - Whoops, again right now!, the wind is really blowing the water over toward us, but there is very little motion in the tops of the trees.  

All of the leaves in this area of the pond are piled up in one long strip (lengthwise with the pond) and the strip of leaves does not come to the shore, it has been floating more in the center or south of center.  Earlier, I noticed that the leaves were moving down toward the dam, even though the wind was blowing waves in the opposite direction!  I wonder if they are floating over where the brook would be if there were no dam.

We've had a lot of birds at the feeders this morning, stoking up on food to help keep them warm.  I'm glad we have a lot of bushes, dead trees with nest holes and branch piles so that the birds have places to seek some shelter.  (I went out to the carport to get another armload of wood and startled some bird who was taking refuge there.)  I'll leave the feeders up until the wind starts getting worse; there is a flock of goldfinch, a couple chickadees and a nuthatch on the feeder right now.

We saw some wood ducks in the cove earlier this morning and there have been a steady stream of geese all day.  What have you seen?

COYOTE OR FOX HOWLING?

This morning, about 5:30 AM, when Linda & I were having our coffee & tea on the porch, listening to the night sounds, we again heard a call that we can't identify coming from the other side of the pond.  In my uneducated terms, it sounded like a cross between a rooster and what I imagine is a coyote.  Too early for roosters and the farm is in the other direction down the pond, but there were little, short noises, usually 3 of them ("Hey, Hey, Hey!") then a howl.  I'm thinking coyote.  But then I also did some looking at YouTube for fox sounds.  I am unconvinced on either.  Next time I should run in and grab my recorder so that I can really remember.

Here are a couple of YouTube videos with sounds of each:

Coyotes calling together (audio only)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3MrcUUzKgo

Coyote yips and howl (with video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbHeTPwWBbk

Fox calls - interesting - as the caption says, it could explain some of those strange noises heard at night!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6NuhlibHsM&feature=related

FOX and POSSIBLE GREEN TEAL

The leaves are on fire when the early morning sun is finally up and hits the tops of the trees along the south side of the pond!  It is just gorgeous when the tops of the trees are lit up and the bottoms still in shadow; interestingly, it doesn't matter if they are fall trees, spring trees or summer trees, the color contrasts are always beautiful!  And winter trees?  My favorites.  I love the patterns they etch in the sky. 

Early Morning Sun Hits the Treetops

 Saw a fox yesterday as I was out walking the dog about 6:30 AM.  Not sure if it was "Patches" or some other.  We have one that has a patch on its side that makes it very obvious.  Two summers ago we had a whole family down in the hollow and we saw the kits all the time.  This year when I see one, it is usually walking along the pond edge.  I think there is a den on the other side of the cove.

Saw those little brown ducks again when Linda & I were out yesterday.  One flashed a large patch of green, so I'm thinking the are probably green teal; both male & female green teal look like little brown ducks in the winter and they are the smallest dabbling ducks we have.  These guys looked smaller than the wood ducks they were with.

There was a photographer on the dam this morning (Linda & I were out just before sunrise).  He said he was trying to get the mist on the falls and the colors of the leaves.  I wished I'd asked who he was and if he had a website where he would be posting his pictures.  

Painted Turtles Enjoy Morning Sun

BIRDS & ACORNS

The first dark eyed juncos have arrived!  I saw them this afternoon.  Our goldfinch have mostly lost their bright yellow and are taking on the winter plumage.  We have an immature male cardinal who is beginning to get his reds, and the chickadees, tufted titmice and white-breasted nuthatch are eating us out of house and home!  I filled that tube feeder and the peanut tray at noon - 6 hours later both are more than half empty.  I love watching the nuthatch - they take the peanuts straight to a favorite tree and stash the nut meat under some bark for winter eating.  I wonder how much they actually get and how much the squirrels find!  Birds are special...

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Great acorn page on the Mass Audubon site.  Remember a couple years ago when it sounded like buckets of them being poured on the roof??  That, I guess, is called a "Mast Year"
http://www.massaudubon.org/blogs/yourgreatoutdoors/about-those-acorns/

PILEATED WOODPECKER AND MORE LODGES AND DENS

It's a misty morning on the pond with the temperatures in the 30s. The sunlight is gorgeous on the fall colored leaves.  Saw pileated woodpecker this morning on the walk with the dog; it was across the street in the neighbors yard. I heard this really funny noise (after the earthquake last night, I'm noticing funny noises!).  Finally decided it was a woodpecker, so I looked around and there he was in the tippy top of a dead tree, bright in the morning sun!

Somebody's digging under the tree at our landing. I've suspected something was going on, but haven't seen anything for sure until this morning. The sand right around under the the tree root has been disturbed. The hole is deeper than it was and the silt that usually covers the sand is gone. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

I paddled toward the upper end of the pond this morning.  I counted over 100 birds in the water until my canoe spooked them and they went flying. And that number doesn't even include the ones that were further up the pond. It was very misty and hard to see all the way to the mouth of the brook.  It looked like there was another kind of duck amid the masses that wasn't either a wood duck or mallard, but I couldn't see it well enough. Got to figure out a way to get close to the birds without paddling in and scaring them.

There was also a female duck with the usual brown markings, but it's smaller than the mallards and maybe even smaller than a wood deck. She was making a strange sound not the usual quack of the mallards.  I wonder what it is?  I'll probably never know given the brown female markings.

I found at least three more lodges up on the upper end of the pond, north side, just before it narrows. They look like muskrat lodges; of course I don't REALLY know, but that's what they look like to me.

Anyone know with this big tall plant is? It's probably six or seven feet tall has a top like wheat or some other kind of grain grass. It has long pointy leaves the leaves are about 18 inches long and look a lot like corn leaves.  There are a lot of them on the north side of the pond.

I also saw a great blue heron and the Kingfisher flew over very high in the sky. We have more water in the pond after all this rain. I think that helps the critters to get closer to our banking under that tree because in the summer it's fairly shallow right there.  I was able to paddle quite a ways up the pond, although I didn't go very far because I didn't want to spook all of the birds.  But, I was able to get close to the shore as well as paddling straight up the center without getting stuck in the mud and that is an improvement!