12/31/2011

End of December and no snow.  Today's pond report:

12/30/2011

morning pond report:

12/26/2011

midday pond report:

12/25/2011

extra morning pond report:

12/25/2011

morning pond report:

12/24/2011

morning pond report:

12/18/2011

today's pond report:

12/17/2011

morning pond report:

12/11/2011

Morning pond report:

12/10/2011

Last Wednesday I came home from work to find mouse number twelve.  I escorted it around the pond in a cold steady December rain, and released it into the woods.  I consider this full atonement for my bad owl thoughts.

Today's pond report features hooded mergansers:

12/4/2011

morning pond report:

12/3/2011

morning pond report:

11/30/2011

Caught mouse number eleven tonight.  Walking down the dirt road to the dam, saw the silhouette of an owl in an old apple tree.  It flew across the meadow to the pond.  I walked across the dam and released the mouse.   I hope the owl doesn't get it.  Unless it is headed back to the house.

11/27/2011

morning fog report:

11/26/2011

first of two morning pond reports-

and a second morning pond report:

11/25/2011

morning pond report:

11/24/2011

morning pond report:

11/20/2011- evening

Here is the beaver who has been doing all that carpentry:

11/20/2011

Today's pond report:

11/19/2011

While I was shooting a critter darted out from under the pile of sticks removed from the beaver dam.  He ran along the pond edge.  You can see the briefest out-of-focus glimpse in the second shot, and part of the pile in the third.  Not a beaver.  Too dark and sleek.  And too small for a fisher.  A mink, I think.  One of many moments I didn't capture.  Sometimes you just have to be here.

11/12/2011

evening pond report:

11/11/2011

evening pond report:

11/9/2011

Caught two more mice.  The nearly full moon was so bright I was able to take them around the pond to release them without a flashlight.  This is the full moon and Jupiter:

You won't be able to see it here, but in the second shot the camera actually caught four of Jupiter's moons I couldn't see with my naked eye.

11/6/2011

today's pond report:

11/5/2011- evening

evening pond report:

11/5/2011

I have been spending more time at the dam end of the pond.  The reason is that the house has mice.  I am catching them and releasing them on the other side of the pond.  I take them across the dam and then up the trail to a place where they would have to reverse direction to find their way back to the house.  Is this enough?  Or will they all return?

Today's pond report:

A Dream

Early this morning I had a dream about the pond, one of those dreams where you are almost awake and feel almost as if you are writing the dream as you dream it.  I was fishing in the pond, wading in the shallows by the southernmost spillway in the earthen dam.  I caught something so heavy that it almost pulled the rod from my hand.  Then it began to swim toward me.  It was a sea turtle.  A second sea turtle swam with it.  I easily unhooked it.  The second sea turtle nudged my face with its head, and they swam away.

10/30/2011

today's pond report:

10/29/2011

evening pond report- early snow

10/23/2011

today's pond report:

10/22/2011

evening pond report:

10/22/2011

today's pond report:

10/15/2011

and the sun follows the rain:

10/15/2011

and the rain follows the wind:

10/15/2011

pond report:  the wind follows the rain

10/10/2011- evening

10/10/2011

pond report: indian summer

10/7/2011

evening pond report:

10/3/2011

evening pond report:

10/1/2011

Today's pond report features a green heron, wood ducks and geese in the corn field.  Weather permitting, this weekend will feature the annual mowing of the tall grass and stacking of firewood.  At the moment weather is not permitting.  Also planting five bulbs' worth of garlic, Georgian Crystal, which sounds both delicious and vaguely narcotic.  Mostly I'm planting it in hope that it will help to keep critters out of the vegetable garden.  They were especially bad this year.

9/25/2011

pond report:

there are one hundred thirty-seven pond reports

on my YouTube site:

http://www.youtube.com/user/moviegarden?feature=mhee#g/u

today's pond report

Today's pond report was delayed by a graphics card glitch and a trip to the Apple store, where I learned that my 2005 Powermac G5 is now a "vintage computer" that Apple will no longer repair.  Fortunately the gentle shaking between the parking lot and the Apple store seems to have lulled the graphics card into submission for the time being.  

today's pond report

And a sequence I deleted from the 6/12/2011 report:

Until I recorded this and did some research, it never occurred to me to wonder how birds keep their nests clean.  The newborn robins' waste is sealed in a membrane.  When they are very young it is eaten.  When they are older it is removed and dropped away from the nest.  Only newborn birds produce the membrane.

What is The Pond Report?

Me with my video camera paying attention to the pond.  And sometimes other things near the pond.

Some disclaimers:

I am not a naturalist.  Any identification of a bird or other creature should be viewed with skepticism.

And the pond is, maybe, not natural.  It was created (in the late 1920's I think) by damming a brook.

You should also know that I am not above misleading you.  For example, I cut this out of yesterday evening's report:

The pond crosses under the street through a culvert.

evening pond report (with mosquitos)