I had a Marlin Perkins moment today, when a video camera would have been handy if not priceless. A coworker and I were out on a lake, driving under a bridge and through a channel that connects the two lakes. The channel has a lot of nice emergent vegetation and water lilies, good wildlife habitat. As we were motoring through we heard a hen mallard quacking anxiously. We looked towards the shore and there was the hen, with her ducklings about ten feet out in the water, and on the shore stood a fox. I stopped the boat and we watched, for a good minute or more, as the fox just stood there contemplating the potential meal, and the hen swam back and forth, quacking up a ruckus. Finally the fox turned and trotted back into the woods; we stayed to watch if it went far away but we didn't see it. Real life drama at its best.
I came home to the sight of two naked butts, and one with swimming trunks, in our pond at the front of our land. My husband had the kids out swimming. What a wonderful sight, I mean, this is what childhood is supposed to be! I stayed out with them for another hour, drinking a beer and watching their innocence as well as the reflections of the white pines in the water. The Dharma Bum had a recent post about sitting still and watching the water and the sky. My pond isn't that big, but at least it's something that I can get that feeling any time I want.
At sunset I took Togo (my Siberian husky puppy) out for a walk. There in the driveway, not there before during the swimming, was a painted turtle laying her eggs in the middle of the driveway. I marked the spot with a rock, and I'll try to mark the nest so we don't drive directly over it.
Yesterday we found a red bellied snake. Russ was mowing out by the pond, and I flipped one of the canoes over so I could move it, and there it was. However, today it is either roaming free inside the cabin or it was an unsatisfying meal for a cat. We also saw a small snapping turtle up close, and a wood frog. Can they really learn this shit in school?
4 comments:
Love the day to day moments, like flipping through snapshots. What does a turtle look like when it lays its eggs? That must be quite a sight.
lene- I'm almost halfway towards my goal of saving up for a digital camera so I can post some of these moments! The turtle, and in this case she was a fairly large painted turtle, just digs a hole in the sand, positions her backside in the hole, and deposits the eggs. I forget how long it takes for eggs to hatch, but when it happens the little hatchlings, with shells about the size of a quarter, will dig their way out and head for the nearest water.
I love turtles.
We should start a "Digital Deb Fund" so that we can all delight when the hatchling turtles pop out of the shells. :) Thanks for the turtle information. swamp4me has a nice shot of snapper on her blog today.
Just found your blog & think its wonderful!
The turtles are definitely on the move these days...there was a painted in the driveway at work this week and snappers all up and down the road (lots of wetlands on either side).
It sounds like your children are getting a wonderful education as it is...
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