September 17 yesterday we saw some of the sawfly larva worms that make the "S" shape, on a small oak just off the path down to the road
can't resist taking photos of these curious characters, though they weren't formed up as a series of "S's" as they were last year
but seeing how they grip the world with their six legs, it's easy to see how they manage the alphabet.
Today I took a complete tour of the otter range near me, first going out in the boat. Between Murray and Grinnell islands I circled around a rather tame loon. While it seemed quite large, its feathers were not so distinct.
I wonder if it is just an adult coming out of a molt or a fledge just getting its markings. Today the geese were down at the end of the bay along the east end of Picton, but I didn't go down to investigate. I headed right to the otter
latrines, and got out to see if my suspicions were correct, that otters have been here. At first I didn't see any scats, old or new, not on the broad rock going down from the pine to the water, nor in the grass west of the rock. Then I looked up along the upper edge of the exposed rock, and saw a large though old otter
scat.
There was another scat a little further up. I took that way up and over the rock and waded through the juniper to get to the latrine at the point, where the otters had been active in the spring, and sure enough there were several old scats in the brown grass
even a mound of grass scraped up. There were even three scats on a rock just up from the water.
I haven't seen scats down on the rocks for some time, don't know why. I get the impression the otters like this area for the grass and the pine litter on that big rock below the pine. I took a close up of the scats on the rock. One was quite bleached and all the black washed away
But the other two had some black still and so, given the power of the sun here, might be recent, say within the last week.
But there certainly weren't any fresh scats. When I put my hand down on the grass to get closer to some of the scats, a spider welcomed me.
As I left I took a photo of the point, which I've taken many times, but not when conditions were this dry.
As I drifted out I got close enough to the rock island off the point to see a heron's head sticking up, as if the bird was hiding in a crevasse.
I hoped this was no sign of distress, and as I got closer the heron flew off without any trouble. I saw a number of cormorants on some small shoal rocks out in Eel Bay and got relatively close.
When I approach a pair of cormorants now, one often stays in the water. In this case too, one cormorant stayed put after the others flew off. I took a photo of it flying off but just as it went behind the rock. These are rather elegant birds, and easy going. Would be interesting to learn more about how they arrange themselves at this time of year. Is this a family that left the huge colony or two pairs sharing rocks, or four birds who happened to meet? As I went through the Narrows I took a photo of the carpet of algae that I noticed when I kayaked
through here.
Quite beautiful, though the other plants and fish might not appreciate it. These blooms seem relatively limited -- this is the largest I've seen. I didn't check the South Bay otter latrines from the boat, because I planned to hike out to them, which I did.
I headed off at 2 pm and went to the willow lodge first, to get a photo of the mud emerging in front of it.
This is no longer a convenient place for beavers, too shallow. No otter signs either. I sat under the willow awhile and noticed that the frogs and turtles didn't mind the shallow water, nor did the geese and wood ducks. It's like
the huge cove is turning into a beaver pond - but without the beavers. The path out to the island that forms the middle of the point between the two coves of the bay was quite dry, grasses were thicker than usual. This has been a good growing season in the marsh. There were no otter scats out on the rocks. I did see a possible mink scat. I probably wouldn't have shared the photo if the maple seeds were not next to the poop.
Of course it is shallow along the edge of the marsh
but much of the vegetation is dying back, I could even see a snail and its trail out on the bottom.
So I might be able to get the kayak back in here, which might be fun to do at dawn. Going around the end of the north cove, I could see trails in the mud and muck at the edge of the marsh, big enough for otters, but muskrats or even
turtles probably made them.
I didn't see any scats in the latrines along the north shore of South Bay. When I went up to walk along the Audubon Pond embankment to look for muskrats, I told myself to have my camera ready, but I didn't and when I saw a handsome muskrat curled next to a blob of grass below me, I tried to stare it down until I got the camera out, but it left me only a puff of mud to immortalize.
Which is not a bad photo. I'm fascinated by the staying power of these puffs of mud, and when I got down to the biggest muddy area at the west end of the embankment, I sat down to study the mud
How often do muskrats have to keep coming out to keep this mud suspended in the water? I sat for about a half hour and I saw three additional puffs, that of course, merged with the colloidal mass already there.
I finally saw a muskrat emerge out in the vegetation along the west end of the pond, but was disappointed when it swam back to a burrow toward the center of the embankment, not to where I was sitting. I didn't walk around the pond to see what the beavers have been doing because I wanted to get to Shangri-la Pond in time to see the beavers come out of the lodge, and still have time enough to see if Thicket Pond was dry enough for me to get to the lodge in the middle of the thicket. Well, Thicket Pond certainly was dry. Old channels were hard mud
and much of the old pond bottom boasted delicate green grass, burmarigolds and other plants.
There were areas of very soggy mud, closer to the lodge,
and I could see water in channels leading to the lodge, but when I tried to see the lodge, I simply couldn't. As the water disappeared the buttonbushes grew thickly
Not for nothing do I call this Thicket Pond. Barred from the lodge, I went over to the long canal on the north side which was mostly dry and hard mud.
I got to Shangri-la Pond a little before 5pm, early for beavers to be out, but not these beavers. However, to my shock, I waited until 6pm and no beavers materialized. I only saw the top of a large snapping turtle's shell bobbing in one of the muddy channels of the pond. I took two photos of the lodge, the top,
and the side where it looked like the beavers had larded on some fresh mud
This way I'll be able to chart progress if these beavers begin keeping regular hours like this. Then as I continued down the East Trail, I saw that the beavers have done some gnawing since I was last here
and that heart shaped girdling is on a rather mighty oak.
Then when I got to the Second Swamp Pond, where I don't expect to see beavers out early, there was one right in the middle of the pond, jawing goodies that it brought up from the bottom.
It was quite happy and alone, didn't even react when I checked the otter latrine, where there were no new scats. I didn't see any more beavers as I peered over at the lodge.
I have to figure out where they got all those old branches to pile up. As I walked along the dam, I found it easier to negotiate because the water is lower and the beavers are cutting the cattails.
When I got to the area behind the south end of the dam, where there is usually a varied collection of leftovers, I saw that most remains were from the cattails -- just a bit of alder, and a few flowers.
I took the shortcut up to the mossy cove latrine of the Lost Swamp Pond. I was running out of daylight. I looked for beavers near the dam where I think they are denning but saw none. Then I checked the latrine and saw new scats
about twice as much as usual
and some were quite fresh and served on a scarlet leaf.
This was a sweet sight for me, having not seen an otter here for almost a year. This seemed like an early valentine, and a promise of sightings to come. These scats were close to the water, so I could dream of pups, but they could be the result of two successive visits by one otter, and are larger primarily because with the pond water level dropping, fishing should be easy. Indeed when I looked out to the southeast section of the pond, I saw a deer wading almost in the middle of it, with the water barely covering its ankles, so to speak.
The deer are getting their dull winter coat, but when I photograph them in the golden sunset they retain their summer hues in the photo. Of course I hoped to see beavers and scats at the Big Pond, but didn't. I did see that the beavers had doubled their haul of shadbushes.
A good hike.
September 18 a dry sunny day in the low
seventies; green leaves are dropping from the thirsty trees and
rattling on the hard ground. I had to man the pump for about
three hours to do my part in soaking the garden. After lunch I
walked around the Deep Pond, or rather, I sat by it for a half
hour and then walked around it. Of course, I had my eye on the
pond but was soon distracted by several ravens flying high above
me. There were two pairs doing some beak to tail and side-by-side
flying, and I saw a raven do the limp drop and what looked like a
mid-air flip
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but in the main I saw elegant gliding and a
slow progression to the east with now and then some curious
vocalizing like the exclamations of a complaining human.
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Then a hawk flew low, too fast for a photo. I
was hoping to get a photo of the red dragonflies that were
doubling up, but had no luck. I did look at the pond and while
every other pond seems to be shrinking away, this pond seems to
be growing.
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Of course, it isn't but that illusion arises
because much of the vegetation that was on the pond has been
eaten or is sinking as it dies back. Judging from the level of
the water at the dam, the pond has dropped about six inches in
the last few weeks. That should make the lily pads high and dry
like they are in White Swamp, but there is a beaver at work here
and most of the pads have been nipped and eaten.
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Well, not all eaten, a frog preferred sitting
on the one of dead pads.
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At the inlet I saw more trails made by the
beaver into the bush, and this time I saw some saplings had been
cut.
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But a couple other trails just seemed to peter
out, so I think the beaver is still mostly eating the grasses and
leafy plants. Outside the lodge I saw several stripped sticks
floating in the water.
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As I went over the knoll and could look down on
the pond, I saw that there was a good bit of vegetation in the
pond, albeit now under the water, so this beaver can probably
survive on less woody fare for a bit longer. Will it eventually
cut a tree? After I finished my after lunch pumping, I walked
down to the new pond, still unnamed, though Wildcat Pond is a
possibility. With more leaves falling off the trees, the pond
seems to be evaporating away, and the beavers here don't seem to
have a talent for dredging, though perhaps they are keeping the
canal below the pond dredged. That is still muddy. However, it
seems clear that beavers are doing their thing around the pond. I
saw a fresh pile of nipped pine boughs near the dam,
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The trunk of the small pine has been segmented
and taken away. There seems to be more work here and there but
nothing I can be sure of. I notice work that I am sure I would
have taken a photo of if I had seen it before. For example I
noticed gnawing on a stump of a small tree aleady taken. With the
water gone, the beaver came back to cut closer to the ground.
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I also bumped into to an old cut on a large
birch
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and wondered if this could help me date the
pond. I looked up and saw a full crown of leaves, and assume the
crown would not be so healthy if the cut had been made well
before Spring.
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I also saw some striking red berries
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and arranged the now dead leaves of the plant.
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Then I thought I discovered a strange plant
with little violet flowers. Leslie looked at the photo and
identified it is a stunted vervain with a late bloom in honor of
this sunny September.
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I headed up the valley to our land and noticed
quite a few robins working the litter under the trees. I got up
to our ponds and was sad to see that the canal between the First
Pond and Teepee Pond was completely dry. And it looked like a
turtle had passed that way.
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The First Pond continues to reveal the channels
and wood piles the beavers made when they were there.
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And now I have two burrows on the other side of
the pond that are accessible.
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I stuck a camera in one to get a look at what I
might dig into.
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September 19 headed out to the ponds before
7am, just as it was getting light enough to see well. When I look
for otters in South Bay or off Picton, I like to get up at the
first light of dawn, but I was hoping to see an otter in the Lost
Swamp Pond, and there's no percentage in stumbling along the bush
to get there too early when I couldn't much see anything. I went
via the Antler Trail and I saw two bucks with modest antlers. One
ran off directly and the other flirted with me, but moved into
the shadows before I could take a photo. I also saw a doe. This a
good spot for bucks, right on the boundary line between the state
park where bowhunters will range beginning next week and Thousand
Island Park where hunters can't go, legally. Despite the cold
night there was not that much dew on the grasses -- the humidity
is low. The great morning noise came not from the robins who
dominate the dawns from late spring through early summer, but the
blue jays. They seemed to be everywhere, even hopping on and
around the beaver lodge in the Big Pond. Of course, I was looking
for beavers, and I first saw one doing some quiet diving in front
of the lodge,
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and then five minutes later, another beaver on
the other side of the lodge, also quietly diving. I had camera
ready as I crossed the dam, hoping to see one on the wide trail
to the shadbushes. I saw some cut twigs, still with leaves, out
in the pond behind the dam,
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but no beavers were on or below the dam. I
looked into the fogs up pond, and if beavers were there, I didn't
have a chance of seeing them.
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By the time I got to the Lost Swamp Pond the
morning fogs were no more. The pond was placid, which was
disappointing.
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It's nice to see the pond aroil, a good sign of
an otter, if no ducks are around, and none seemed to be. I sat on
the rock above the mossy cove latrine, before checking for fresh
otter scats in the latrine below. One likes to keep hope high as
long as possible. I soon saw a beaver swimming around the lodge
by the dam. Then I saw a beaver high out of the water along the
opposite shore munching away. There were large ducks up pond.
Then I saw some capering in the water by the dam, first good
indication that these beavers did have kits this year. Since we
spent so much time at the land this summer, I really didn't log
in much time at this pond. So there were at least three beavers
about. I didn't see any muskrats, and that is the most puzzling
development of the summer. I saw so many muskrats in the late
spring that I expected to see muskrat kits any time I came to the
pond, but I'm seeing no muskrats at all now, except at Audubon
Pond. Given that the summer has been relatively dry, I don't
think they migrated into the wetlands above the ponds. Perhaps
they went down to the river. But, as I noted, I didn't spend
nearly as much time at these ponds this summer as I usually do. I
headed down to the Second Swamp Pond, and here I flushed more
ducks. I was also buzzed by a blue jay. They seemed to be
everywhere I looked especially in the trees across the pond.
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I briefly saw a beaver outside the lodge, just
one. But it was after 8am and respectable beavers might be
expected to be in their lodge. I waited fifteen minutes, but no
excitement disturbed the very pleasant view, sparrows in the tall
grasses excepted. I walked back up to the Lost Swamp Pond dam,
and lounged there for another twenty minutes, on the theory that
an otter might come around the bend any moment, none did. More
blue jays, and I heard a flicker yelling like he was put off by
the blue jays. There were no scats in the latrine by the dam. The
beavers have started a little cache pile in front of the lodge,
but the glare of the sun promised unrequited photos,
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so I turned down to the Upper Second Swamp Pond
which is very low but reflects the yellow burmarigold blooming
all along the dam. This was so picture perfect that I took
several photos from different angles, because not getting a good
photo would be a disappointment.
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I more or less made a beeline home, and as I
angled into the Antler Trail, I saw three more deer, two does and
a fawn with only a faint shadow of spots.
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