There is nothing quite so wonderful as a little pond time on a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning. The air was clear, the sky was blue, and the critters were active. Positively glorious. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I love where I live.
Beaver may be amazing little engineers, but they don't always get what they want. A beaver has been working on this particular tree for a couple of weeks. He finally got it chewed all the way through only to find that it wouldn't fall. Don't you know that's got to be frustrating.
Cypress knees at the water's edge... for only the most discriminating palate. This young squirrel seems to have a taste for the tops of cypress knees. We watched it hop from one to the next, nibbling a little on the top of each.
We watched this great blue heron stalking a meal. He moved carefully and stealthily for several minutes, never taking his eye off his prize...
and his patience paid off. With a quick plunge he came up with a mouthful of fish. It appeared to be a warmouth, known locally as a chub robin or goggle-eye. For the more scientific among you, it is known as a Lepomis gulosus. For the heron, it was known simply as lunch.
But for me, the prize of the day was this male carpenter frog, Rana virgatipes. We hear them all the time - a loud ba-dack, ba-dack, ba-dack, that sounds like someone hammering a nail - but we almost never see them. And until today I had never been able to get a picture of one. You might say that this little frog has been my personal holy grail and after several seasons of searching today I found it.
Like I said, a positively glorious morning!
11 comments:
Hey Swampy! You should see the hat my daddy got for me when he was in Canada! It's a captain's hat from the Maid of the Mist. (That's a boat.) (Not some old lady.) - Bloggy Jr. (Nice pictures as usual.)
Poor Beaver. Maybe he should team up with the carpenter frog and then they could really get something built! Of course they'd need my expertise to help them out ;-).
We need to set up a reunion. I'm in A-town everyday of the week and I haven't seen you in FOREVER... you might be like really old and wrinkly for all I know :-P.
Such wonderful pictures. You certainly are lucky to love where you live.
Glad you got the frog pic.
Bloggy Jr., I can't wait to see you in your captain's hat -- I know your dad will post a picture :)
Careful Woverman! I am indeed old and wrinkly, but I am also armed and well-trained :D I could be persuaded to venture over to A-town - perhaps lunch one day? I have some comp time to take off so I should be able to make a midday trip.
Doubleknot, thanks. I am very lucky to live where I do. Whenever I need a a little soul-soothing or a mental pick-me-up, all I need to do is take a walk or put a canoe in the water.
Cypress knee tops may be fattening. That squirrel looks well fed!
Great frog, I've never seen that one (and knew it) before.
Hey, don't be forgetting me in this little reunion!!! I'm actually in Virginia @ the moment, but I'll be around for most of this week, and until I go off for job training my schedule is pretty open as well. But I'm in agreement with Woverman, it's been a LONG time! Lol, probably what...since one of my random stop by visits when I was in the area? Regardless, we should definitely have the reunion, even if it is individually! Haha. Nice pics, btw. I like Mr. Carpenter Frog.
Forget you, Pushesrb? Not likely! :) I'll email you and we'll figure all this reunion stuff out. Can't wait to catch up with your latest adventures...
(psssst.....posted)
i LOVE seeing all this exotic wildlife! we have a yard full of squirrels, grackels and sparrows. the occasional cardinal or the always-funny scenario of blue jays chasing the cats is as good as it gets here in the texas urban landscape.
I read your posts often but never leave a comment...just wanted to you to know how much I enjoy reading your blog. You have such interesting pictures and informative posts.
SZ, I'm glad you like the wildlife. I've been keeping tabs on Frankie - boy, is he growing!
AiP, I'm happy to hear that you stop by frequently. Thanks for your kind words.
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