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| Grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, and others with six legs continue to be having a field day with these prolonged warm temps; I don't know my insects very well, so I could use some help on this ID -- seemed to be a cricket (making noise with its legs rather than wings, as hoppers do), probably 1-1/4" long, big jumper |
We've had nearly four inches of rain in under a week with more unseasonably warm weather, so duck activity is still modest at best. But winds just shifted northeast, and we are supposed to cool off quite a bit -- at least for a day or two. By the time I drove home, the cloud cover had built up again and the temps were dropping. Afternoon highs reached the low to mid-seventies, but it was probably more like 62 by the time I got home about 6:00 last evening. That should usher some new birds down. And that's a good thing; the natives (duck hunters) are getting restless -- Opener is Saturday!
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| This parent trumpeter and its mate were accompanying four cygnets (young) through our newly emerging cattails in what was millet last year; they were a ways away (~75 yards) when I took this shot, but both adults kept standing up on muskrat hutches to keep an eye on me (Note the capture of water droplets from its bill . . . at 75+ yards!) |
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| I like this photo because it shows several steps in restoration progress; from left to right: the water is up against the newly installed stone protection in preparation for duck season; the middle of the image not only shows the heart of the new dike (last year's effort), but newly emerging grass -- finally popping after all this water; and the right side shows the reds of a bumper crop of smartweed -- a fowl-friendly food source that pioneered after the millet and will further encourage the proliferation of sustaining perennials like bulrush and cattail |