Exactly. And this past weekend I had to cut down one of those trees. My gf planted it 30 years ago, a Japanese Maple that I’ve known for 20 years now. We kept it filled with bird and squirrel feeders.
But we are doing some home improvement work, replacing a tiny porch with a big deck, forcing us to remove the tree. It was actually sad!
No picture because I was driving, but as I was driving across Missouri over the weekend I saw a hawk soaring through the air… except something looked a little odd about it. As I got closer I realized it had a snake dangling from its talons!
I saw a red fox trotting across my street.
When we were watching the eclipse from my BIL’s deck, we saw an eagle fly overhead. Unexpected!
Y’know, in the normal course of events, the cheery sight of a family of ducklings is kind of an everyday thing at this time of year. Lovely but commonplace. Two years ago I saw ducklings on Hedgecourt Lake. They were the only ducklings I saw in 2022, the only ducklings I had seen in three years - bird flu is not a joke. Then today there were reports of ducklings on our local lake, so we went up there to check it out. Yep, a family of twelve (twelve!) ducklings!
I just hope that this signals a return to normality rather than being a one-off.
j
I was out trimming the bushes at the front of the house and got a ssssssssssssssssssurprisssse!
I like those kind of surprises, mostly. Any idea what species?
A black rat snake. They are looooong and love to climb. They keep the rodent population down, but also like baby birds and eggs. There’s a nest up under the eaves of the porch and I wondered if that was the purpose of climbing the bush. S/he had a change of heart after I started taking the pictures and slowly slithered back down.
On the highway on the way to the airport to drop my sister in law off, I saw a couple of wild turkeys on the side of the road. Then one of them took off, flying across the road at an altitude of about four or five feet. I thought for sure it was going to collide with a car but somehow managed to not get hit. The other one just stood there watching and going “Nope, not even gonna try that.”
I guess it counts as nature too, even in the middle of Berlin. Today I saw: April weather.
That is going to hurt the fresh flowers, buds and shoots around here.
Five minutes later it was over and the sun shone again.
Actually, the sun was shining while it happened but I saw no rainbow. And it was very loud.
Yikes!
Today we were out on the deck eating dinner and a bun joined us in the back yard:
This little feller blocked the road for a moment when I was on my way back to work after lunch. Would you look at that precious smiling face?
Come back, little gator! Let me love you!
Gator!!!
Forbidden boops!
This morning I spotted a dead Turkey Vulture on the road side. As I approached another TV flew over the body and landed a little way back where there were maybe twenty more TVs, all facing the dead bird. The one that flew in hopped to a stop and turned to face the body. It looked like they were all immatures. By that time I was past the clearing and back into traffic.
I drove by the site this evening. The unmolested bird body is still there but the other birds are gone. I don’t know enough to claim this was a bird funeral, but it sure looked like one.
We’re in Rhodes, Greece at the moment. Yesterday we walked through a forest of wild sage (yeah, and a lot of trees). But man there was a lot of sage. Weird.
j
Black vultures.
As we approached, we first smelled and then saw why they were there. Dead carp. This was near a man-made lake, and either some fishermen had left the fish there, or the lake level had risen and then fallen fast enough to leave the carp stranded. PU.
So I just opened the door to take the trash out - and there’s a fine new crop of Carolina Wrens on the front porch! I shut the door and took this through the window.
Oh, such cutieness!
It’s been raining all day so I guess mom and dad just wanted a dry place to feed the young 'uns.