You know, there was never a point in my life where I envisaged writing that. Never mind. There are some big fish in that moat - here are some getting a bit too close to mama duck and (I presume) her second brood of the year.
Weird - google pix cut the top off that one. Click on the pic for the complete photo - you can see her mouth is open - she was quacking furiously throughout. Here she is lining up a vicious peck.
Not sure what sort of fish they are - carp? - but that one seemed to be showing a bit too much interest in the ducklings for mama’s comfort.
Meanwhile, a huge heron was watching over proceedings.
It rained feathers today. I need to get a real camera, but once again, our bird feeder has proved to be an all sort of bird feeder because there was a Red Tailed Hawk on our roof.
Me either - that’s why I was so interested in trying to capture the ruckus. And mama duck wasn’t messing about - she was trying to do some serious damage.
Today I scared the shit out of a spider. I went to toss a few flies to my local Spotted Orb-weaver and saw that half the web was wrecked and she was already eating something (beetle?) I tossed them in anyway.
This could be posted in Pet Pictures, but I think it’s more nature related.
This summer has been very hot and dry (like a lot of the country). A week ago we had a rare cool, misty day. I took the dogs (Huck on the left & Zeb on the right) for a walk on our trail behind the house early in the morning. I think I might just frame this picture - it has kind of an ethereal look to it.
We have trails a lot like that around our home (different species of trees, etc). In fact I can picture in my mind exactly where I could get a similar picture.
Not to be maudlin, but years from now, you’ll really treasure that photo.
I just saw a hummingbird! It must be lost - I don’t have a feeder & there aren’t good pollinator/nectar-providing flowers in the immediate vicinity.
It checked out the sweet pea and a few random colorful spots (and investigated my suet feeder!) then meandered off, cheeping.
Also, I saw the “tree groundhog” for the first time in a while! (Granted, I haven’t been sitting outside as much lately. Between the humidity and the mosquito party, it ain’t as pleasant.)
But seeing him scrabbling face-first awkwardly down a tree means the neighbor was unsuccessful in killing him off.
I think I’ve posted in this thread before about fearless robins (the European variety rather than the American ). But hey - here’s another nice picture. We were working in the garden of Trep jr’s place, and this fledgling robin dropped by for a feed.
I sat down on our porch and felt a needle poke me above my bellybutton. I grabbed at my shirt there and felt something, so I squeezed, crunch.
I put an ice-pack on the site within thirty seconds and had zero pain, just a small amount of swelling.
Hummingbird Thunderdome is getting A LOT of business. I’ve identified three contestants:
1 - The Guardian. He sits in a tree about a hundred feet away from the feeder and keeps a close eye on it, and drives away…
2 - The Rival. Pretty self explanatory there. One day, the feeder will be all his, but he had better look out for…
3 - The Sneak. While The Guardian is chasing The Rival, The Sneak will come in and drink his fill. He has also mastered the art of hiding on the opposite side of the feeder, when The Guardian shows up.
I recently watched a Spiny-backed Orb-weaver for 10 days until it disappeared. Once (and only once) it decided to decorate that day’s web with the wings of flies. (The close-up is a different spider in 2013.)
Over the last few days, when harvesting blackberries, I’ve also accidentally harvested a couple of these guys (subsequently released back into the wild.) This one I saw before harvesting. I think they’re shield bugs, but if anyone knows better, feel free to put me right.
