the Way of the Turtle

1.2 Mile Walk at Ann Lee Pond
Monday, June 21, 2010

OK, if I don't want to smell like bug spray I need to find some other way to keep from getting chewed up by the $#%@&**@$!! mosquitoes. If only I could train a squad of dragonflies to follow me around and eat them...

Since it was buggy I stayed out of the woods... walked through the fields to the western end of the crazy bridge and then spent a while out on the bridge, both because I was enjoying it and because the bugs didn't seem to be out over the water. It's amzing how the pond has gotten choked with water lillies and duckweed since I was there last. Didn't spot much in the water, but I didn't expect to (it was getting toward dusk, not much reason for the turtles and fish to be out and about.) I did spot a group of wood ducks about halfway between the bridge and the far shore of the pond... at least I think they were wood ducks, it was hard to be sure even with my camera on full zoom.

The wildflowers were blooming in the fields... lots of daisies and black-eyed susans. I've got to get back there during the day sometime to get some photos with better lighting - what can I say, fields of wildflowers make me happy.

Walking along the edge of the pond I startled a sizeable group of geese and goslings (three adults, and I think seven youngsters?) into the pond. One group of goslings was starting to have their adult colors coming in... the warm spring really got them off to an early start this year. They clearly found it work to push through the duckweed, so the not-so-little squirts all ended up in a line behind an adult... fun to watch. I walked all the way down to the small bridge near the entrance to the woods, and startled a deer that was in the swamp beyond the bridge. I don't think she knew what to make of me when I laid down on the bridge to get the clearest shots I could (under the overhanging foliage.)

One of these days I'm going to have to go over there when I have enough time to wander down to the Shaker Historic Site... while it's not as elaborate as the Hancock Shaker Village over in MA, I'm still interested in taking a look at the old buildings.

JMH