Last night, before going up to bed, I stepped out onto the deck to listen to the frogs and peek at the stars. Last night the stars came down to greet me. The fire flies are out! Not in force, not yet, but there they were, blinkies dancing. Lots of creatures have made themselves known in the past week.
The turtle came up onto the bank during the week to lay her eggs. I have such mixed feelings about this. Sammy chased her back to the pond, but not until she had deposited and covered the eggs in her freshly dug hole. Every year, EVERY YEAR, she comes to the same place, works very hard to dig a hole, lays her eggs, covers everything and stamps it down before returning to the water. And EVERY YEAR, someone, (the skunk, this year I smelled him come) comes in the night, digs them up and eats all of them. EVERY YEAR! One year I covered the area with hardware cloth and worried that the young turtles would make their way out, but even that year, someone got to them. I wish Sam had chased her sooner. She needs to find a different spot. What a laugh watching a young cat walking after a turtle to the pond’s edge.
the opened hole, what’s left of the eggs..
The shells are soft and thin. Walking back up the hill from the pond I startle a little snake sunning himself. They see me so often, I wonder they startle. Perhaps they also know that Sammy follows and loves to carry them around.
Coming back up the drive, a black bear runs across in front of me. This time it is my turn for an adrenalin rush. Remember to sing, remember to whistle, make noise, I remind myself. I sing the words I know to the Teddy Bear’s Picnic and hum the rest. Anyone know all the words?
picnic time for teddy bears….
Back at the house, brushing last night’s webs from the windows (the spiders are back) I find these beautiful moths, a Rosy Maple and a Sphinx.
There’s more, lots more, but I’ll save it for another post.
Comments
22 responses to “walk with me wednesday”
There’s a stillness and a quietness to this post that’s really beautiful.
That turtle is determination incarnate! The maple moth would make a beautiful colorway. I’d love to walk around your neighborhood one day.
I was just thinking the same thing as Margene about the colorway. I feel so bad for that turtle!
Here you go:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/teddy/teddypicnic.html
That’s so sad about the turtle. 🙁
Beautiful moths, though! And please, be careful around the bears.
What a great walk today! A shame about the turtle, they instinctively lay their eggs by a body of water (usually in the same spot)regardless of the conditions. When that happens here, there’s a mandatory stay away order til the babes go into the ocean. I never saw a pink moth! Very cool!
“…if you go down to the woods today you’re of a big surprise,
if you go down in the woods today you’d better go in disguise,
for every bear that ever there was,
will gather there for certain because,
today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic…”
An old Anne Murray favorite, and, apparently, one that I won’t ever forget the words to. The moths are beautiful!
I felt as if I were there with you – thank you.
Wow! That was potentially a very dangerous situation. Good thing you can keep a cool head!
Those moths are beautiful. As long as they have no interest in textiles, that is. 😉
Poor turtle. I remember a rabbit wanting to do the same thing–she kept trying to dig a burrow about two feet from the back porch, within easy reach of both cats and humans. Dumb bunny!
A few years ago I got to meet the “turtle man” of Wellfleet Bay. He has Boy Scouts make predator excluders for him to protext diamondback terrapin nests. Basically, it’s a chicken-wire cylinder that is open on the bottom. You can see it a little in the second picture on this page: http://www.terrapindiary.org/lewis01/07-07-01.htm Once you’ve placed around the nest and several inches into the ground, you have to check every day to make sure the babies don’t get trapped. But it seems to do a good job of keeping out most predators.
BEAR? I would have had a conniption.
Event filled walk, clearly. I like all the signs of life and conflict.
Beautiful walk…so much to see and take note of! The skunk and the turtle have some weird sort of circle of life thingy going on, eh?
Watch out for the bears…time to take the air horn with you on walks now!
What a beautiful moth..and then a bear oh my! ..and a snake…oh, nature is in full swing what a wonderful walk!
I miss the fireflies. You always share the most wonderful things. TY.
Looks like the moths have provided you with new colorways!!
Hope all is well up in the northern climes….:)
Wow – you really do have wildlife up there, don’t you? Fabulous!
Pity about the dandelion sock…
Thank you for this lovely post so full of natural happenings. What a shame about the turtle eggs. The rose maple moth is beautiful but what do they eat?
The Teddy Bear’s Picnic has been running through my head a lot lately – maybe because I’ve been reading the book to my granddaughter. Elizabeth left out a word: “…you’re sure of a big surprise.” My kids loved for me to sing the song & play it on the piano while they “read” it.
Fire flies , bears, turtles, beautiful moths, there sure is SO much to see at your place ! I have never ever seen fire flies but they always sound so magical to me. Like something out of a fairytale….
At our house it’s birds whose nests just don’t make it. Like the one that built it’s nest in the wreath on my front door. Hey, bird, you didn’t notice that it opens and shuts twenty times a day? Or the robins who built a nest in the brick windowsill right below the thermometer that reads 100 degrees in the afternoon sun even when it’s not that hot anywhere else. We wanted to help them, but couldn’t figure out how.
Those moths are so beautiful!
Sigh. I’ve missed so many lovely posts while I was off the computer. Good thing the bear wasn’t planning on having a picnic with you! Your yarns in the earlier post are really beautiful, makes me want to jump up right now and knit more stuff.
I do love your walk posts, Judy. Thank you!
those moths are gorgeous!!