There were about 2-3 minutes today when seeing this was actually possible, so The Girlfriend and I are extremely lucky to have been there when it happened. But as we were walking the property and discussing where some trees would be going, I spotted this microspud booking as fast as it was able across the gravel driveway.
This is easily the smallest turtle I’ve ever found,
And so, part two of the visit to Mattamuskeet National Widlife Refuge, focusing entirely on the one species that made a cameo in the first. The foreshadowing of the day came early on, when we saw a pair of birds far in the distance crossing the road.
This is cropped from the full frame at 600mm, so suffice to say I wasn’t identifying them based on what I saw in the viewfinder,
It’s taking a little longer to get to this than intended, because other things keep happening, and I’ve decided that there are enough images to go along with it that I’m going to split it into two posts this is the first. So let’s go out to Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina.
The Girlfriend and I have been planning to do this trip since we moved to the new
Yesterday we went on a nice little day trip, and consequently I have just a few photos to put up, but first, we have last night’s news, which is, now it’s official:
Yep, the first appearance of a treefrog, in this case a Copes grey treefrog (Dryophytes chrysoscelis) means that spring is officially here. Sure, we’ve seen some spring peepers before this,
It’s that time of the year, the time when the critters are getting more active and birthing their bebbies and all that, so we revisit our now-annual post on the topic of wildlife rehabilitation, in the hopes that it helps someone out there handle their unexpected situation a little bit better. Below begins the content first written in 2013 and still quite topical.
I used to work in this field
I mentioned in the previous post about the possible explanation for the raised water levels in the pond, and The Girlfriend and I went out in the kayaks today to check things out. I would say the mystery is adequately solved.
That’s the edge of the kayak peeking in there, as it sat against the top of an impressive beaver dam, one that measured better than six meters in length
Perhaps having read my previous post where I dumped on February for being so dismal and rainy, it responded by producing a quite nice day today, as in, no jacket required, so take, take me home. The handful of leftover pics I had slotted to throw up here are now superseded by the ones I actually got today, and there’s just a few, so settle in.
We need to start with, the weeping willow (Salix
The other day (well, eight days ago) when The Girlfriend and I were out doing various property tasks, she came across three nearly identical finds that remain a small mystery, one I may be attempting to solve as I find the means to do so. To wit:
Right in one of the paths through the less-traveled sections of the property, she came up with this, the carapace of, most likely, a common
Just two this time, even though the last sorting session was pretty hefty – I just featured most of what I liked at the time that I took them (well, in a reasonable time frame thereafter, anyway.) So we only have these:
One of several images taken of a roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja) while at Sylvan
I’m supposed to be working on the weekly post right now, but I heard a noise outside and, since it was nearly 11 PM, I thought I’d check – you only get one chance to be eaten by a bear, you know? Though despite my cavalier attitude in the preceding sentence, I was cautious and went out slowly,
