winter scenes

went to the lake to pick up some old photos that I want to eventually scan and include in this blog regarding the history of the lake. We just had a half foot of fresh snow.

where did fall go?

this was taken a few short weeks ago lying in a row boat looking, basically straight up. with the currently, unseasonably cold weather (highs around freezing, lows in the teens), I am missing the fall weather.

English Yew

While moving rocks around this weekend, I noticed a twig of needles on the ground. They were similar in appearance to the Eastern Hemlock I had identified last weekend, but, without doubt, different. I looked up to find the source of the needles and to my surprise saw these cool red "berries" all over. The seed is inside the red aril (no cones on this evergreen) and except for that red skin, all parts of the tree are poisonous to both human and animal. I tasted the aril and as the book says, it's kind of sweet (trusting soul aren't I?).


This little find just fascinates me. We have two rows of 5 trees each of this particular evergreen. They are behind my sister's backyard and my mom has always referred to them as hemlocks.

They had to have been planted at some point as they are certainly not native and in fact, our area is colder than that where these trees are known to survive, but they've been there for a least 50 years. It's like I just got to know a long time neighbor.

Eastern Hemlock

One success I did have in tree identification last weekend, was the Eastern or Canada Hemlock.

The inverted, row of needles on the twigs was very helpful. I like when nature provides an obvious, differentiating characteristic that even an amateur could notice :)

woodwork

Sometime after its' creation, the lake became known as Beaver Lake. Here is some evidence of the appropriateness of the name. While, as a nature lover, I don't like the idea of intentionally killing animals, I have little problem knowing that beaver trappers are allowed on the property given the increase in the beaver population and the damage they've been doing to some beautiful trees.

Deptford Pink

As I was attempting to identify some trees, I came across a few of these flowers hanging in there for just a little longer. Also known as Grass Pink. Deptford is a location in England where these flowers were abundantly found.

Half-bonded Toper

Probably the last dragonfly sighting of the year. This type is known to fly until late October. I'm not 100% certain on this identification as my field guide says this kind of dragonfly has become scarce. Pollution is given as a possible reason for the scarcity. I got lucky as this guy landed on the back of a seat of a row boat a little after I had pulled the boat onto the shore. He nicely stayed right there while I walked back into the house to get my camera and came back. Perhaps he was just looking for a photo-op since he stayed on that seat back as I took numerous pictures from different angles trying to get a good view and in focus with my basic digital camera. A short few seconds after I decided I was done, he flew off. I'm glad he stopped by and introduced himself.

tree frustration

with the bright, tree leave colors, I felt inspired to specifically identify some trees. Around our pond, I know we have evergreens of the spruce, fir, and hemlock varities. We also have plenty of non-evergreen varieties - maples, birches, elms. However, I've never attempted to differentiate between the types of maples or spruces, etc. So last weekend I took some pics and got out my guide. The next day, I took my guide with me and hiked around to the trees of which I had taken pictures. After pouring over pages of tree info, the only thing I definitively achieved was a headache. Ugh. Judging on mostly the leave appearance alone, I'm thinking we have at least three different types of maples, but with the foreign language that is tree anatomy, I'm not even sure what the guide is telling me about the different tree types. I think I'm gonna have to study up on the language over the winter and try some identification again in the spring.

fall masterpieces

when the temperatures get cooler the colors get brighter

I love when the lake
is still enough for reflection.

Plated Millipede

Arthropods is a grouping of animals that includes insects, spiders, and millipedes (and other things), but millipedes are not an insect and therefore are not found in my insect and spiders field guide. One on-line source states there are 10,000 described species of millipedes, but I don't know a single one and hence can't begin to specify what species this is, but on-line sources also state millipedes have four kinds of body types - cylindrical, bristly, plated, and pill. This is definitely a plated variety. I'm just happy I was able to figure out it is a millipede.

Squash Bug

Eastern Red-backed Salamander

Yesterday I came across near a dozen different salamanders in different places as I was moving rocks around. This kind of salamander doesn't spend any time in water. The salamander pictured was found with a large number of egg clusters (pictured below), but it is way late for this salamander's eggs to be around and the eggs did not look like ones I've seen before, so I'm not sure what to make of the eggs. I'll have to go back and take a look in a week and see if the eggs have developed any.

Eastern Pondhawk

- an adult male.


I very much like dragonflies, but not sure I like this species as they prey on other dragonflies.

Hickory Tussock Moth

those black whisker-like hairs can "sting" or cause skin irritation in some people so be careful :)

Musk mallow

another delicate flower...

Short-winged Blister Beetle

Though the picture doesn't show it too well, this guy is a cool metallic blue color. I attempted to take a couple pictures holding the beetle on my finger tips. Turns out it was a good thing I was wearing gloves as apparently this kind of beetle has leg joints that exude a type of liquid that causes blisters on skin. Yucky.

Cormorant sighting

over the past couple weeks some of the regulars at the lake have repeatedly seen a lone bird swimming in the lake who periodically dives underneath for many seconds before resurfacing. Finally today I got a good chance to get a look at the dude. Using my binoculars, I patiently followed the back and forth swimming for 15 or so minutes, but couldn't get a decent look at anything below the neck as the bird stayed immersed. However, the bird eventually climbed out of the water and onto some driftwood and apparently decided to dry his wings. Thus, I was provided a wonderful view of the whole bird. Man I wish my binoculars could take pictures. After consulting the all knowing field guide (backed up with some internet searching), I'm saying I got my first look at a young, Double-crested Cormorant. Cool.

Junior

Apparently our cat, Junior, has mastered the art of relaxing at the lake. She was out cold.

Moth Mullein

these petals are the most delicate I've seen. They were nearly transparent when wet with rain. I love the purple haired filaments. The shape of bud is pretty cool too.

tropical storm hanna

hanna brought a ton of rain throughout the majority of today, but towards sunset the clouds broke enough to provide rainbow conditions. light rain continued to fall as I took some pics.

not the blue heron or maybe...

got in my boat yesterday, rowed to a "corner" of the lake a couple hundred feet from shore, anchored down, and began to relax, eating popcorn and drinking lemonade. While glancing at the shoreline, I noticed the bobbing head of what I thought was one of our Great Blue Herons. It was walking, stealth like, on the shoreline. It came out and stood on a large rock (the one on the right pictured below) and I couldn't get my camera out fast enough before it had moved back into the wooded area of shore and continued on. Dang it! That would have been a cool shot.

Periodically I would see the dude a little farther and farther up the shoreline. When I was done relaxing and was ready to head back in, I decided to row up the shoreline some and see if I could drift along quietly and perhaps get another chance at taking a picture. I did find the bird again, but he/she did not make getting a picture easy. When I was near, it partially hid behind a pine tree (with its rump sticking out), was close enough I could practically sneeze on the bird, but was hidden behind dead tree limbs, and did come into a clearing occasionally, but only when I was farther away and unable to get a good picture.

This pursuit continued for a half hour or so and then I got an incredibly, lucky break. While going after stuff to eat (I presume), something spooked the big bird (perhaps one of our water snakes?), it let out a squawk, jumped back, and flew out into the lake straight at me (now that would have been a cool picture). When the bird saw me, he made a hard right and landed on the nearest driftwood. Apparently my presence at that point wasn't nearly as spooky as the bird's most recent encounter and I was able to get the following pictures:

And my favorite:

I still haven't figured out which bird exactly this is other than to be fairly certain it is a heron. Blue Heron's are suppose to have dark legs. But whatever the dude is, he/she sure was fun to watch.