Friday, June 12, 2009


Today's exciting bird -- the Great Egret! It was fishing in the pond this morning when I arrived. I watched from the viewing point but didn't dare try to get closer for a better shot. This is only my second time seeing one; my first one, also in this pond, flapped away when I tried to move in for a photo. Lesson learned.

After I'd watched it for a while I was called away by a jogger to see a snapping turtle. Man, I'm going to have to hire an assistant to keep up with everything! The snapper was thinking about crossing the path, but these things take time, so I got some photos:









It sat for a long time and considered its options while everyone passing by paused to marvel at it. Everyone loves turtles, it seems. I warned a woman with a dog that there was a turtle up ahead and she obligingly put her pet on a leash while they went past. (We also had a chat about tansy, which I was pulling at the time, and dame's rocket, which she's noticed taking over fields in the area over the last few years. I'm all about the outreach.) Finally the turtle raised itself up (look how high it gets!) and sped across a few feet of path before resting for another five or ten minutes.




At long last it made it across the path, but it didn't head toward the pond as I'd expected. Instead it spent quite a while meandering, perhaps wondering how it was going to climb over the fence. In the end it moved into the grass and disappeared.




Here's what tansy looks like, before:





And after:









Dog vomit slime mold, day two:



Ah, beauty is fleeting.

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