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<\/p>\nThis week and next are the last two stay at home weeks left for me.\u00a0 After that I\u2019ll be half time in the office.\u00a0 And since Monday is Memorial Day I\u2019m feeling very lazy and am looking for an excuse to think about non-political subjects.\u00a0 So today I made a point to take a little time and be at play in the fields of the Lord.\u00a0 I noted that the birds of the air were quite active.\u00a0 In particular I noted that some swallows have appropriated the bluebird house.<\/p>\n
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This accords with the low opinion I have developed toward the bluebirds.\u00a0 To borrow a phrase from the President they\u2019re low-energy losers.\u00a0 But we have had some indigo buntings around this week.\u00a0 They are even bluer than the bluebirds and I think much more heroic.\u00a0 I noted a number of hawks flying above the fields and saw how this disturbed some of the smaller birds.\u00a0 I assume they were worried about the hawks attacking their nests.\u00a0 A couple of rabbits were spotted frolicking outside the former goat pen.\u00a0 What with the circling hawks I thought this surprisingly bold.\u00a0 Possibly they read Watership Down and took it to heart.<\/p>\n
I noted a goodly number of frogs and salamanders drowned in the swimming pool which we opened last Friday.<\/p>\n
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The idea of amphibians drowning in water also leads me to a low opinion of their fitness to survive in the highly competitive future that we know is over the horizon.\u00a0 A number of years ago we had some blue spotted salamanders around the property.\u00a0 They\u2019re good sized and I\u2019d love to see them again sometime.<\/p>\n
A very large snapping turtle was cruising around the pond and I was wondering if the mallard family might be at risk of losing a duckling if they weren\u2019t careful.<\/p>\n
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The painted turtles were all hanging out on a fallen tree and looking fairly useless.\u00a0 I wondered if maybe they were afraid of the snapping turtle too.\u00a0 But more certainly the bull frogs and small fish were likely on the menu for grandpa snapper.\u00a0 I went to inspect the remains of the beaver dam that was abandoned when that buck toothed rodent disappeared last year.\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s all gone now.\u00a0 And the pond is at a low ebb.\u00a0 More like a puddle than a pond.<\/p>\n
There were a goodly number of deer travelling through the woods in the last week or so.\u00a0 They were grazing on the stringy weeds that cover the shallows of the pond but none of them were around today.\u00a0 Neither did any of the turkeys wander by as they have been lately.<\/p>\n
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After that black bear or Lovecraftian monster or whatever it was flattened our bird feeders last week I\u2019ve been using the game camera to see what\u2019s going on at night.\u00a0 The only thing unusual was a red fox.\u00a0 Last year we had grey foxes but this is the first red one I\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n After finding that hatchling milk snake I moved my tin to another location in hopes of finding some snakes near the rock wall.<\/p>\n The garter snakes I\u2019ve been seeing near the retaining wall have disappeared.<\/p>\n The warmer weather must have allowed them to disperse from their winter hibernaculum in the wall.\u00a0 There was a northern water snake near a vernal pool last year but he wasn\u2019t around today.\u00a0 I\u2019ll hope to find him again this year.\u00a0 What I\u2019d really like to find are some larger snakes, a black racer or even a black ratsnake.\u00a0 But we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n Insect-wise we have plenty of bees around.<\/p>\n There are the usual honey bees and bumble bees but also the always annoying carpenter bees.\u00a0 Because of the very extensive wood work on the structures on the property I am at perpetual war with these bees.\u00a0 We have had our first butterflies.\u00a0 There have been a number of painted ladies and today we had our first tiger swallowtail.<\/p>\n I noted with pleasure that the three small Giant Sequoias got through the winter well.\u00a0 They join their older and larger cousin in the southwest corner of the property.\u00a0 My own personal grove.\u00a0 The two metasequoias have also grown tall in the last five years.<\/p>\n The bristlecone pine tree I planted last fall unfortunately hasn\u2019t done as well.\u00a0 It looks dead and I\u2019ll have to replace it soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week and next are the last two stay at home weeks left for me.\u00a0 After that I\u2019ll be half time in the office.\u00a0 And<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1263,3],"tags":[1267,1202],"class_list":["post-10998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","category-photography","tag-photogs-corner","tag-wildlife"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DSC03114.jpg\")
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