Fortunately, after nearly a week of pouring rain, the sun came out in a big way today. Walking down the trail, I could sense that spring is just about to explode. The vegetation is still mostly brown, but here and there I see green popping up from the muddy ground, and some of the trees are budding out.
When I went out for a brief walk last night, I saw one red admiral butterfly fluttering by. I fully expect to start seeing more butterflies and the first of the dragonflies very soon. My iNaturalist project shows that my first dragonfly of 2017, a variegated meadowhawk, was observed on February 11, 2017. The variegated meadowhawks seem to be the harbinger of spring and late fall.
Today, the turtles were out sunning. Almost every available log had at least one red-eared slider on it, basking in the warmth. Some logs had multiple turtles. As I began walking down the boardwalk towards the blind, I saw a nutria swim towards one of the logs. When it finally reached the log, it climbed on top of it and took ownership. The turtles which had previously inhabited it slid back into the water, relinquishing their sunny perch.
The first time I saw a nutria out here, I didn't realize it was a nutria and I got really excited, thinking I'd finally seen a beaver itself and not just evidence of a beaver's existence. Once I got home and looked at my photos and saw the long tail, I realized that what I had was a nutria. Last October, I saw a nutria in this same pond several times; I don't know if this is the same one or not, but it seemed very much at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment