RECENT SIGHTINGS

Haven't been out and down by the pond much in the last couple of weeks - hope that will change!  But, it is gorgeous from in the house, up here on the hill.  A few recent sightings: 

• Carol D saw a beaver sitting on the ice eating yesterday morning.  We are in the mid-section of the pond.  I think I might have seen it again this AM, but couldn't get my binocs on it quickly enough to be sure.
• Both Carol D and Linda & I saw an adult fox go through our yards a few days ago and then Linda & I saw a young one today in our yard, then it went down and sat down to look a the pond for a while.  Meanwhile, Blake (our dog) went crazy and I think the fox heard it as it passed through our yard, down the driveway and down the street - I think it lives across the street in the hollow.  I saw tracks in the snow after the Dec. 3rd snow that crossed the street from our house and went down into the hollow.  That is where the den was a couple years ago.  The youngster this morning had a lighter colored back right foot - the others were black, but this one more mottled and grey or white.
• Carol S said that she saw two kits playing in her yard after the November snow (8th or so?)  Probably one of them was the one we saw today.  
• The great blue heron is not a regular visitor right now, but I saw it on our landing a couple days ago.  But, I also saw one sitting on the ball field over by the Fairbank Center!!  Ummm... the ball field?  Baseball season is over!
• Lots of black ducks around still
• The muskrats are very busy going back and forth in the morning and evening - sometimes mid-day.  

Always interesting around here!!

ICY POND

Wasn't the snow pretty this weekend?  I loved the way it coated the ice on the pond and collected the crevices of the tree bark.

Pond in the Snow

I found that there were tracks in the soft, slushy ice.  From a distance, up the hill, I thought they were probably duck trails.  As I got closer, I realized that they were thinner than a duck would leave and some were short and right in the middle of the ice, and one started really thin close to the shore, then got a little bigger as it went out, then disappeared, but you could see a faint change in the ice beyond that.  I think it must be muskrat trails.  The trail that goes to the upper left corner, past the thicker ice, heads out the same direction that the muskrats frequently go.

Muskrat (?) trails

I watched a pair of black ducks land on the pond this morning.  Descending into the thick fog that was over the ice, they totally disappeared from view and made no splash and very little disruption in the water.  I only knew they had landed when the swam out of the mist. I am always amazed at how smoothly they land (in contrast with some other ducks!).  We seem to have a lot of black ducks at the moment; I'm seeing very few mallards in this part of the pond, but many blacks.

We also have the white-throated sparrows who have returned to our yard.  It's funny, but I rarely see them during the summer; mostly they show up in the cold weather.

White-throated Sparrow

Still lots going on out there, even though we mostly hunker down inside.

NEW FEEDER BIRD

Hmm... She seems to have the feeder all to herself!  (Photo shot from indoors with point & shoot camera)

Red-tailed Hawk

BRRR....

It's a frosty, chilly morning - wonderfully seasonal. This morning when I was out with the dog (about 5:15), the sky was totally clear and the stars bright.  Venus was in the east and Jupiter so big in the west that it looked the size of several of the other stars.  The ground crunched frozen under my feet, and the Rhodies were curled and pendant.  The thermometer agreed that it was chilly - 25 degrees.  

More ice on the pond this morning; there has been some ice for the past few days, but today it covers most of the lower end of the pond (the big part where the dam is) and has reached up here to the middle section (the water flows faster up stream).  I've always wanted to play icebreaker and launch my canoe into the icing water, but alas, my shoulder says I should not; it will have to wait for another fall.  

Meanwhile the cove in front of our house and Carol & Joe's house is mostly clear of ice.  Saturday, the Great Blue Heron hung out there almost all day.  We watched it seeking lunch.  I've never managed to see a GBH catch and swallow so clearly before.  We watched it eat 4 fish. The bird would tilt its head with one eye facing the water (so that it could see more clearly out of its eye without the beak in the way?) and suddenly strike!  This one was good! We only saw it miss once in the time we watched.  After eating a bit, it sat on the shore at our landing.  Further from shore, there was a whole flotilla of black duck in the cove, upending to get plant material and a king fisher flew by chittering.  Five hooded mergansers, 2 males and 3 females were diving; they seemed to be having good fishing as well!  Good to know that the fish are thriving; I read that one of the issues when a pond it covered with the water chestnuts, is that the chestnuts choke the pond, both using too much of the oxygen and also creating mats of vegetation that are hard to swim through.  Hopefully we will be able to keep on top of the water chestnuts from now on!

So do the muskrats swim across the pond when there is ice forming on it?  Gotta watch!
Stay warm, all; and instead of complaining about the cold, bundle up and get out in it and watch nature.

Icing Begins on the Pond

LOVELY WEEKEND!

What a nice weekend, eh?  And great that this rain held off until today. Linda & I spent some time sitting on a bench (two logs & a board) up a ways from the shore and just watching.  The muskrats were busy going back and forth across the pond, a great blue heron came in and did some fishing at water's edge, we saw the hooded mergansers again and there was a flock of geese.

Busy Muskrat

Closer to the house, we have a black squirrel this year - I've seen it many times in the yard, and the birds are still eating like mad!  Our feeders are constantly occupied.  The coopers hawk likes that.  Saw a red-tail hawk fly between the house & pond yesterday; he's probably looking for a squirrel - we have a few!  The fox ran across the street yesterday - bushy, sleek and gorgeous with its bright white tail tip!  Then there are the spectacular winter trees.  I can never decide if I like the trees better in winter, spring, summer or fall!

Winter trees at dawn

RHODY QUESTION ANSWERED

Check it out!  Someone answered my question about when/why the leaves on a rhododendron plant curl!  The why apparently isn't known, but the when is at  -.5C they begin to curl.  Read the whole post - it is a comment on my last post, Nov. 6.  The comment was written by Anonymous (that person really gets around!), so I don't know if it was by one of you or if someone from the Rhododendron Society webpage answered my email on the blog rather than via email.  Anyway, I'm glad and it is interesting.  So this morning, when I went out with the dog, I knew it was below freezing, but not too far below freezing, because the Rhody leaves were beginning to curl, but hadn't yet become pendant.  :-)  Knowledge is fun.

Hooded mergansers on the pond this afternoon - two males & two females.  

First snow - Nor'easter on Nov. 8, 2012

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.