The official start of summer is just around the corner, and boy has nature been busy procreating! I discovered a curious fish mating tactic while out on the pond one day. A whole cove was lined with cleared sand circles decorated with mussel and snail shells. And although they quickly darted as I approached (zoom in on last pic) each one had a fish (male?) waiting expectantly in the middle!
Pond life has come to our front doorstep as well. We awoke one morning to find a mother snapping turtle laying her eggs! The nest is now surrounded with chicken wire to keep out nest robbers and unwary human stompers. Now we have to wait 3 months for inch long baby turtles to emerge before we can start on our BBQ patio!
Watch where you step! Baby snakes and frogs have also emerged and hide in the cool grass and around rocks. And we discovered a new developmental phase of Dobson Fly, growing its wings beneath our mulched paths!
Fish, reptile, amphibian, insect…and now we take to the sky! A cardinal nest in a tree near the driveway has produced 3 juveniles, seen gorging themselves at our feeder. Six chicks flew out of the moss nest under the porch, and now we wait for 3 robin’s eggs to hatch atop our paint roller pile in the workshop!
In human creature news…we now have a smiling sloth buddha for our kitchen window and Brandon still believes that umbrella canoe sailing will work:)
