Visitor

This guy showed up the other day when I was working from home.  Of course, I was on a conference call with a client when he arrived, so had to restrain my excitement and stop myself from dropping everything and sneaking outside. Luckily the camera was close at hand!

I was particularly excited because we see him (her?) fly by, or at the far end of the pond, but I've never seen him land on our side of the pond. 

According to my handy dandy reference book, he ought to be heading south soon for the winter - although the skim of ice that was on the pond over the weekend has melted away, so it may not be too soon.

And I always thought the advantage of working from home was more kid time -- turns out more creature time is another benefit!

Flora

Lots of mushrooms seem to be springing up - every time I walk around (picking up the debris from Irene) seems like there's a new one. I'm looking forward to learning about how the land changes over the seasons, and I think this may be a whole new category.

Here are some Indian Pipes (I believe).



They have been well sheltered by one of the boats. 
Here is a particularly massive one, growing right in the right of way - you'd think it would have been crushed before it even surfaced above the leaves.

Others remind me of the Morels and other tasty mushrooms that they sold in the markets when I was in Spain.  Pretty sure if it's growing here, they're not selling it in Spain though. 






































I'm also reminded of a mechanical engineer that we knew in Albuquerque, who would pick pounds and pounds of some sort of mushroom and send them off to family in Poland.  As far as I knew, everyone survived.

The variety of shapes and sizes is amazing.  Also makes me think we need to clear out some of the smaller trees and get more sun on the ground!

Red - I know brightly colored frogs are toxic (thank you Museum of Science) - wonder if that holds for mushrooms as well.

Irene

Well we found out Saturday morning just how much stuff had migrated out of storage in the pod to scatter itself around the yard.  Actually it all fit pretty easily into the shed, and the boats were moved up to higher ground and tied to trees easily as well.  

It was the construction stuff that was more worrisome.  We moved some wood inside, and tidyed loose scraps, but besides closing the door on the dumpster there wasn't too much to do but keep our fingers crossed.





The level of the water at the pond had dropped 4 or 6 inches.  Interesting, because I didn't think the previous owners had sold the pond, so I wonder who has (or assumed) that responsibility.  The poor beaver lodge was completely out of the water - wonder how that impacts them.

 

If we hadn't been so busy moving potential projectiles around, I would have loved to take a rake and cut back on the seaweed. oh well.

During a break in the storm midday today we did a tour of the perimeter.  Luckily, there was not much damage apparent. 

The tarp had come off this beauty, another gift from the previous owner that one of the workers offered to take for scrap metal - we had happily agreed because we couldn't budge it. 

 We also found some erosion along the side of the porch and foundation.

 

 

Looks like the silt fence did its job, though.

 And, one big branch down.

  

All things considered, though, it fell in a pretty good place - we can get in and out, no damage to the house, shed, or garage, and we had moved the zip line from this location a couple weeks ago.

Hope you all are safe and dry as well.

Red Tailed Hawk

I did recently buy a bird book (it turns out our old book was from our time in Albuquerque, and thus was, appropriately for the location, titled 'Western Birds of the US' or some such. Helpful at the time, now not so much).  However, I didn't need it when this fellow (lady?) swooped over us.

He was carrying a small black/brown lunchpail.  A hairy one.  Perhaps an ex-mouse or chipmunk.  At any rate, he must have been pretty excited about it as he clearly wasn't paying attention to the noisy family wandering around in the yard marvelling at the siding and shingles, and he flew in so close I actually ducked! 

Once he took the edge off his hunger, and realized the nearby threat of his new neighbors, he flapped his way a little bit farther away, and we saw his dark red tail.  I was suprised at how vibrant it really was.   

Funny Sandy Circles

I was looking out the 2nd floor bedroom window the other day admiring the view, when I noticed some odd craters in the water below.  

There are two visible above, between the reflection of the tree. 

As a side note, I did spend an hour the other day raking the beach and it's a little disappointing it doesn't look stunning already!  Lots more green stuff and moss to come out.

Anyway, I decided to go a little closer and find out what these circles could be.

They looked pretty identical once I got closer, and there were no hints (like eggs, turtles, or plants) that were going to help me.

There are about 5 in the front area, and as I walked around our point, I found several others.  I'm wondering if the recent storm smoothed out the sand so they are more noticeable, or if there was some event that created them (giant hail? tiny meteorites?)

So, back at the ranch, we fired up google.  Searches for sandy turtle crawfish (yes I saw a crawfish last weekend while raking!) , and snake nests didn't show anything remotely resembling this.  Really glad about the snake thing not having any hits.  Turns out it's a fish nest -- pumpkinseeds!  And, it's the males that make them. We'll have to keep an eye out in the next week to see how things evolve.

More Creatures

Our list of sightings is growing on a weekly basis.   Earlier this week both Jacques and Jonathan spotted what they thought was a coyote. (I'm hoping it's just one!) 

This guy was out just before the dramatic rains the other day - we had hail but were grateful that the tornadoes did not make it this far east. 

In addition to the turtle, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, beaver, deer, snake, and swarms of various insects, we can now add, unfortunately, mice.  Three so far, all  small and rather cute, but, unfortunately, inside.  Even worse, it's not clear where they're coming from but there is a reasonable chance that they may be dropping from the ceiling which remains open (so electricians and plumbers can easily access the space).  Yech.

On a more entertaining level, we can also add frog - while we've been enjoying hearing them in the evenings, Mairead recently had a closer encounter with one on the beach.

First Voyage

Well we took a break and launched one of the fleet.

First we had to sort through the pile of oars.

Then make our way through the trees and around the beaver lodge.

But this is what the new homestead looks like from the water.

Surprisingly like a certain home in New Hampshire. 

That elongated grey blur in the right tree is a heron keeping a wary eye on the boat.

Meanwhile, our favorite reader held the fort beachside.

Neighboring house.  Ironically, we looked at this house five or so years ago.

And, the landing crew waiting to welcome us to shore.

Lady Slippers!

 Feels like I'm continually being reminded what a gift this place is - today we found three different patches of lady slippers. What a great surprise!

Guess the lady slippers are lucky too, as I'm not sure how those on the path have avoided being stepped on.

 

More wildlife

This giant rabbit was waiting for me when I returned home today. New
species to add to the list!

Spring arrives

 I am so excited to see what comes up this spring.  I've heard that one of the former owners was quite a gardener, but given about five years of neglect (not to mention the sand piled outside the house), I'm wondering what's survived in the garden.

So far, a couple patches of crocuses have appeared.  Raking uncovered what looks like a couple of daffodils and irises (a little scrawny looking though).  And this little guy.

Sweetest thing we've found for quite a while!



Plant

Another natural item....

I was so excited to see these little red berries, I have aunts who for many years would find these plants and put them in little glass jars in the fall, and we would get one of those jars around Christmas time.  Then we would have the shiny green leaves and red berries to look at all winter.  Sounds silly, but it brings back happy memories and really, they are pretty little terrariums.

Need to find out what this is called, it's all over in the wooded area, and when exactly to fill those jars!

Update: Teaberry.  Thanks Dad and Uncle Bob!

First beaver sighting!

Walking pondside this evening, we got our first glimpse of the
beaver. He spotted us, slapped his tail (aha, confirmation it's a
beaver!), and disappeared.

Found this and a couple other newly chewed trees around the corner...my understanding is they prefer trees less than 6" in diameter, but these maples and oaks must be tasty.

Now, I did this same walk Sunday evening and these trees were intact, so they (he? she?) moves pretty fast.

Just read that a pair of beavers can take down 400 trees a year....I'm hoping they're not all on our property!

Wildlife

In addition to the random manmade items we're finding, there are also lots of natural wonders that promise future discoveries.

This is probably the biggest one.

Now, this is the closest I've ever been to something like this, but it sure looks like a beaver lodge.

The ice on the pond here has just melted, but a quick jaunt over to the Mass Dept of Wildlife site suggests this is just the right place for them - pond is deep enough to get a protective layer of ice, but probably deep enough that there's water under the ice all winter long, giving the beavers underwater access to the branches and bark they store at the bottom of the water.

Based on the many stumps, they like birch.  A lot.

And, a little farther along the path is this:



Either the next lodge or an abandoned base.  Lots of the branches are bleached out, which suggests they've been there a while.

We'll be keeping our eyes open this spring and summer!