Country Escape's 2nd pond - Goldfish only

[addy1]

Neat story! wonder if the bird will head back home?

CE dragonfly nymph. Great pictures ce

 

[JenH]

Well, he didn't get my mulch, probably because it was raining all day and it's dyed mulch so not supposed to get wet the first 24 hours. But he did start painting my kitchen, and got the whole first coat done. It was a nice surprise to walk into my yellow kitchen when I got home from work!

 

[j.w]

Cool bird story and hope he finds some friends of his kind or he's gonna be one lonely little bird till he finds his way back home!

Glad you got a nice surprise of yellow in your kitchen to cheer you up after the let down on the mulch Jen!

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks for the bird story, Keith! That is really neat. My son spotted a woodcock, and after he showed me what it looked like, I've seen a few more since then.
And, last week, I rode horses down the road about a mile, and twice now have seen these same birds that I think don't belong in this area, what others have noted are possibly a semi palmated sand piper, and I tend to agree. Well, there was another group flying with them, so likely another type of sand piper. This one was more black on the top of it's head and back, and then, and I hope I can describe this well enough, it had white from beak to the neck, and then from the neck down to the check. So, from the side, and it was getting towards dusk, still very light, but no bright sun any longer, the white almost glowed and really stood out! It's also possible that the way the shadows were working, it just looked like it was black and white, but I stared for a long time, and they kept getting up and flying a little farther away into the field, but I sure thought there was much darker back and head feathers, and whiter chin and chest. I looked on sand piper sites and see nothing that comes close to that I "think" I saw. Need to take a good camera ... wait, I don't have a good camera. LOL

 

[CountryEscape]

Internet was gown since Sat. evening's storm, so am behind on reading and posting. Here are a few pics of bullfrogs I took this morning. Starting to name these guys, as there are places they typically are (Wally, the waterfall frog, always in the waterfall pool), or the way they let me get within inches of them and never jump (Smiley), or just the biggest one (haven't named him/her yet).
This guy was on the goldfish pond bog overflow, had to crop the pic in really far, so it's not super clear, but you get the idea. Two angles, so you get better idea of size. I'd say he/she is about 6" long while sitting.

This guy I'm calling "Smiley". I swear I can be within 2" of him and he still doesn't jump. Sometimes he's sitting on the edge, when I'm doing something there, like tonight draining the goldfish pond, as it was full to overflowing, and needed to set up an overflow area, and there he was! On the other side of the rock where I was manipulating the liner to get it to drain. Couldn't have been more than 6" from where I was working.

And, this guy is called Wally, because he's ALWAYS in the waterfall pool. I guess he's claimed that as his own personal pool.

 

[addy1]

welcome back ce, nice pictures.

 

[HARO]

Country; Google kildeer,ruddy turnstone, and semipalmated plover. They all have black and white heads. Maybe you'll find your birds there!
John

 

[CountryEscape]

Thanks, Haro. I'm familiar with the killdeer, and there are lots of them around me, but it's not that. And the others have black and white, but not like the birds I saw. If you can picture black head and back of bird all solid black (or that's what I remember, might not have been) and then chin and chest white, but not belly, or when they were standing, the only white I saw was on the chin under the beak and eyes and then went straight down it's chest. I rode again today, did not see them. Only saw them one evening, not since, so now I'm wondering if it was simply the shadows playing tricks on my eyes. Oh well! Did see the semipalmated sand pipers again, or whatever they are! They do look like this type of sand piper. Even saw another darker bird, maybe the one that I'm trying to spot, but always was in flight when I spotted it today, and always coming up out of the ditch edge in the tall grass. Looks somewhat like the sand piper, much darker (blacker) and not really ducklike, but almost reminded me of a coot, although not the same beak or legs ... probably the sand piper type of bird that I'm trying to describe with the white, but didn't notice the white in flight like I specifically noticed when standing in the field. Maybe next ride I'll take binoculars, or camera (but my camera won't zoom in anymore ...). Ho hum ...

 

[CountryEscape]

Ok, I searched "small black bird with white chin and chest" LOL and came up with several types of birds. But, if you look at a Western Grebe, you will see the markings on the chin and chest that I'm talking about. The bird I saw did not have this long neck, though, but the same type of black head and then white chin and chest. That's the best I can do. But, now that I saw this little black bird always in flight tonight, I will go back down that field trail and see if I can spot it sitting or on the ground. It was always alone, and the ones I saw in the field were always in a flock, like the sand pipers, so probably a totally different bird. But, it's fun to see new wildlife.

 

[CometKeith]

CE, I agree. It's especially neat when we can find new wildlife in urban areas where you would not expect them. Last year I saw a coyote walking through our yard checking out the pond. A few years ago the Chicago Police unfortunately had to kill a cougar they cornered, and since then mountain lions have reportedly been spotted in the northern suburbs. http://news.national...ougar-shot.html http://chicago.cbslo...in-lake-forest/

 

[j.w]

Unreal it was walking the streets of Chicago! I feel sorry for that poor cougar. Why do they have to kill everything? They could have been more prepared like it said in the article and used a tranq gun.

 

[CountryEscape]

My boss saw a Scarlet Tanger in her neighbor's yard 2 days ago. She described it and I said try looking up Scarlet Tanger, and sure enough, that's what it was. She said it is typically on the east coast, maybe goes to South America for winter. It's fun when these birds travel through our areas. I wonder if our early spring made some of them change routes they might otherwise have taken. Seems more and more are being spotted away from their typical migration route.

 

[j.w]

CE that is a pretty bird.............going to look it up of course. Ok here it is:

A striking black-winged red bird, the Scarlet Tanager is a common species of the eastern forest interior.
Despite its brilliant coloring it is often overlooked because of its rather secretive behavior and its preference for the forest canopy.

 

[addy1]

beautiful bird

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, she kept saying it was such a bright red, not like a cardinal red, brighter. It sure is! And, it was in the neighbor's yard, her husband spotted it and came to get her to see it, too. Very pretty!!!
Sorry, this picture won't get any bigger, I took it with my cell phone, wish I could take larger sized pics. Anyhow, this snapping turtle was crossing the road from my farm pond to the ditch on the other side. Assume it is a female, laid eggs there last spring and probably again in the fall, as I had 2 infants in my skimmer in September! Anyhow, she is at least 14" just measuring the shell. Looked like the size of a small dog crossing the road, until I realized it was a snapper. Yuck!