Critters – Page 4

October 20 2012

Mallard ducks came back for the afternoon, two females and a male, hanging around the pond to feed. They’re on their way down south for the winter. They usually only come around for a couple of months in the spring, I haven’t seen them here in the fall. Incidentally we have just adopted about 20-30 new goldfish, but we can barely see a one of the fish. They are all hiding out, and the pond is now full after the rains. I guess the nice dry late summer is over!
Images from the yard, October 2012. The garden is sure growing up! Lots of foliage still around from our good leaf-growing weather we’ve had this past summer, though not as colorful as it could be. Still a little color in the yard and still a few flowers…

Weasel in the hood

Long tailed weasel sighting on the patio and scurrying around the salal. They are apparently solitary and have large individual ranges, maybe that’s why we don’t see them around. They eat voles, so they’re welcome…

Ducks still around

But spending more time by the road than in our yard. Hopefully they are wise ducks and will be OK. We let the pond fill up again with the rain so maybe they’ll grace us with their presence after all. Here he is by the pond earlier.

Frog fate

Found about a dozen tadpoles in the front pond that must have hatched just in time to be missed by the ducks. So we’re back to a handful, that seems more balanced than the hundreds and possibly thousands of eggs that were originally laid.

We cleaned out the backyard pond of excess foliage, so whether the ducks would have returned after Saturday or not, they aren’t coming back here this year. We had to lower the pond level for the maintenance. The ducks were last in the yard about a week ago.

May 2012, seems like summer!

All the deciduous trees and shrubs have provided screen. The weather is warm, to 80 today, but cooler and sunny here near the Sound. The hammock is up and ready for the season .

Tides have turned against the frogs this year. At first there were just a few, then occasionally numerous frogs croaking at night. We had many egg sacs in the front pond, about 6-8 just on the rain chain alone, and we thought we were in for an infestation of biblical proportions. Then the ducks discovered the front yard pond and took care of them all. We’ll have to see if any make it into next year to repopulate the pond.

Now In bloom: Camassia cusickii, Camassia quamash, purple Shooting stars, Iris setosa, Iris tenax, Penstemon rupicola, Penstemon davidsonii, Aquilegia formosa, Aquilegia cerulean, Aquilegia flavescens, Penstemn tolmeii, Iris chrysophylla, Saxifraga oregana, White Brodiaea, Deciduous Rhododendrons. Below, Penstemon tolmeii, Jacob’s-ladder, and Iris chrysophylla, a new iris for me with pale blue and yellow markings on a white background.

Nearly in bloom: deciduous Penstemons, Sea thrift, Heucheras, white Shooting stars (dentatum).

Ducks arrive, signal spring.

The mallard ducks hung out along the stream and trail today, about 14 days early for their usual arrival. But snow today put a question mark on all the spring stuff….a brief but fierce flurry of snow that fortunately melted interrupted spring. Fortunately because at this stage of my life I am still having to drive to work through the snow. Later, after semi retirement, I will view things differently and look forward to snow!!! Otherwise things continue to pop up. Lots of shooting stars, brodiaea and camasses are sprouting up into groups of soon-to-be flowering plants. Oh, and a little snow this weekend just to mix things up!

September 2011

This red dragonfly decided to hang out at the front pond. He tolerated these close-ups with the Cool pix pretty well.

The frogs are still occasionally seen but all matured and out of the pond. No recent pix, but they are about a 1.5 inch now.

Now I’ve seen it

Saw a coyote on the way to work. It ran across the road and just into our back yard. It stopped for a minute so I got a good look at it. It is the second sighting in our yard, a wooded suburb near a green belt.

Tree frogs are out and about!

First week of August and the Pacific northwest tree frogs whose nursery is our front pond have “evolved”, though only some of them….the eggs hatch at different times. They also hatch and mature faster in warmer weather, so some literally mature faster than others depending on when they hatched and if they spent time in the warmth of the sun (some of the tadpoles hide among the rocks more than others). Its been unusually cool ALL summer thus far, so their development could be a little slower than usual. This little dude is about 1.5 centimeter length, nose-to-butt. No wonder 3 of us adult humans couldn’t find the little (father) beast back in May when he was still here croaking, despite using flashlights and trying to bait him with recorded tree frog sounds from some website.

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Memorial day weekend

Waxwings coming around, transitioning from the earlier Saskatoon/Amelanchier shrubs to the Cascara trees.

Crow fledglings sitting in pine tree, but haven’t seen them in a day. Hopefully they are gone for good. The parents were surprisingly distant lately ( we told one young crow we were sure he was abandoned), but i did get sqawked at a couple of times. I put out some leftover anchovies and water, in the hopes of making friends or maybe a servant of the baby crow. Many other birds, including lots of California quails, Junkos, Tohees and goldfinches are everywhere, and the back yard is a regular cacophony of birds.
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