Nature Post!
I figured that it's pretty early in the spring (around here, you can expect hard frosts until near the end of April, or at least be prepared for them), my lake wouldn't have much to show me... besides the usual prolific skunk cabbage.
Instead, I found some lovely surprises and another favorite new lake spot I had no idea was there.
I should never, ever assume my lake has nothing new for me.
This is always a familiar sight... skunk cabbage and moss. If it's luxuriously green in mid-April around here, it's probably skunk cabbage.
It may not have pretty flowers (in fact, its flowers came up while there was still snow and look like bizarre alien mutant pods) but it does have its own beauty, especially when your eyes are starving for green.
The luxurious green in this picture is a marshy field of skunk cabbage; the green twigs are invasive Japanese honeysuckle, which seems to get its leaves out before most of the natives.
I am always happy to see my little trout lilies (otherwise known as dogtooth violets, which is a silly name because they are lilies, not violets). Like many early spring arrivals that can't depend on bees, they are facing downward waiting for ants to arrive.
The ants are definitely out and about. I thought this was moss at the edge of the path till I realized it was moving. I'm not sure exactly what these very, very tiny ants were up to, but they were very busy.
I wasn't expecting anything like this! I occasionally find small skeletons of groundhogs or raccoons, but this was quite a bit larger, possibly something the size of a dog or a small deer.
A mystery, here... these bones are laying on top of last fall's leaves, looking like they were laid down there (rather than washing up in a spring overflow). However, there are little spring things coming up around them, so they didn't JUST show up here.
You'll notice, first of all, that there is no skull. That would make it really easy to tell what it is, but with no skull I'm not good enough at bones to figure it out.
Also, I don't see any small bones that would belong to hooves/paws/whatever, so that doesn't help either.
Interesting points: many of the vertebrae and the hip joints are still articulated, although the bones are very clean. Either nothing has disturbed this for some time... seems odd, since it was visible from the trail... or something else is up. It has been too cold for flies, but ants are pretty good at picking bones clean if they're mostly stripped already.
The lack of a head makes Honey suspicious that this was an illegally taken deer, either out of season or by someone without tags. When people around here process deer for meat the ribs usually show it, because the ribs cover up some of the best pieces of meat, the back straps. These ribs are quite unmarked. It's possible that this animal did have a skull until some trail-walker swiped it, but it's also possible someone killed a young buck and only kept the head. Still, it's pretty clear this body did not decompose here... there would at the very least be clumps of fur and such, and it would be partly buried in leaves and dirt.
ANYWAY, since I have finished rhapsodizing on a headless dead animal...
Henbit, a charming little weed that pops up just about everywhere. It's an invasive, but naturalized, and quite cute.
Always, violets.
Trees flower early, before the leaves can pop up and block access to pollinating insects or breezes.
The sky was still quite blue when I started my walk. This field is all goldenrod and ironweed in midsummer, but right now it's just the ghosts of these flowers and the wild grasses that grow between them.
I had never noticed this tiny peninsula before... it's barely wide enough for a person to walk along, and I would never have seen it if the trees and grasses hadn't been out of the way.
Oddly well-cleared, though, for a place this hard for a person to manage to get to...
And this is why.
This is the nest of a Canada goose, a large and generally unwelcome creature that wanders around on land, grazing, pooping abundantly, and being aggressive toward people who get too close. I'd have been a bit alarmed if I though this nest was still under a mother's watch, but the baby geese have all been hatched and wandering around for at least two weeks now, so this egg is a dud, and the rest of the offspring are off following mom around somewhere.
Bits of egg scattered around. The mother probably tossed them out of the nest as she tidied up. She also probably munched most of the new spring greenery on her little peninsula, leaving a nice path for me.
And this is the view from this isolated little nesting spot.
No words.
.
Goodnight, my lovely lake. See you again soon.
.
.
.
Instead, I found some lovely surprises and another favorite new lake spot I had no idea was there.
I should never, ever assume my lake has nothing new for me.
This is always a familiar sight... skunk cabbage and moss. If it's luxuriously green in mid-April around here, it's probably skunk cabbage.
It may not have pretty flowers (in fact, its flowers came up while there was still snow and look like bizarre alien mutant pods) but it does have its own beauty, especially when your eyes are starving for green.
The luxurious green in this picture is a marshy field of skunk cabbage; the green twigs are invasive Japanese honeysuckle, which seems to get its leaves out before most of the natives.
I am always happy to see my little trout lilies (otherwise known as dogtooth violets, which is a silly name because they are lilies, not violets). Like many early spring arrivals that can't depend on bees, they are facing downward waiting for ants to arrive.
The ants are definitely out and about. I thought this was moss at the edge of the path till I realized it was moving. I'm not sure exactly what these very, very tiny ants were up to, but they were very busy.
I wasn't expecting anything like this! I occasionally find small skeletons of groundhogs or raccoons, but this was quite a bit larger, possibly something the size of a dog or a small deer.
A mystery, here... these bones are laying on top of last fall's leaves, looking like they were laid down there (rather than washing up in a spring overflow). However, there are little spring things coming up around them, so they didn't JUST show up here.
You'll notice, first of all, that there is no skull. That would make it really easy to tell what it is, but with no skull I'm not good enough at bones to figure it out.
Also, I don't see any small bones that would belong to hooves/paws/whatever, so that doesn't help either.
Interesting points: many of the vertebrae and the hip joints are still articulated, although the bones are very clean. Either nothing has disturbed this for some time... seems odd, since it was visible from the trail... or something else is up. It has been too cold for flies, but ants are pretty good at picking bones clean if they're mostly stripped already.
The lack of a head makes Honey suspicious that this was an illegally taken deer, either out of season or by someone without tags. When people around here process deer for meat the ribs usually show it, because the ribs cover up some of the best pieces of meat, the back straps. These ribs are quite unmarked. It's possible that this animal did have a skull until some trail-walker swiped it, but it's also possible someone killed a young buck and only kept the head. Still, it's pretty clear this body did not decompose here... there would at the very least be clumps of fur and such, and it would be partly buried in leaves and dirt.
ANYWAY, since I have finished rhapsodizing on a headless dead animal...
Henbit, a charming little weed that pops up just about everywhere. It's an invasive, but naturalized, and quite cute.
Always, violets.
Trees flower early, before the leaves can pop up and block access to pollinating insects or breezes.
The sky was still quite blue when I started my walk. This field is all goldenrod and ironweed in midsummer, but right now it's just the ghosts of these flowers and the wild grasses that grow between them.
I had never noticed this tiny peninsula before... it's barely wide enough for a person to walk along, and I would never have seen it if the trees and grasses hadn't been out of the way.
Oddly well-cleared, though, for a place this hard for a person to manage to get to...
And this is why.
This is the nest of a Canada goose, a large and generally unwelcome creature that wanders around on land, grazing, pooping abundantly, and being aggressive toward people who get too close. I'd have been a bit alarmed if I though this nest was still under a mother's watch, but the baby geese have all been hatched and wandering around for at least two weeks now, so this egg is a dud, and the rest of the offspring are off following mom around somewhere.
Bits of egg scattered around. The mother probably tossed them out of the nest as she tidied up. She also probably munched most of the new spring greenery on her little peninsula, leaving a nice path for me.
And this is the view from this isolated little nesting spot.
No words.
.
Goodnight, my lovely lake. See you again soon.
.
.
.