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!

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.   

Snake!

But in a cool way. I guess we're getting quieter because although we startled the snake, she (he?) didn't leave completely.  And we were awfully close.

 

I will admit I was kind of hoping we could see the capture of dinner, but I guess I was loud enough to scare away any prey.  Leaves me something to look forward to.

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.

More wildlife

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