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.