Life on the Pond has settled down considerably this past week. Where have all the critters gone?
We have had a pair of Canadian Geese and several Mallards that have been constant residents since the ice melted in late April. A couple of Koots showed up occasionally. I’ve seen turtles poking their heads out of the water and a couple of muskrats swimming back and forth across the pond before disappearing into the reeds. We even had a pair of swans land on the pond about a month ago. They only stayed for the morning, then were gone. There’s good variety of wild birds. I won’t list them all, but the one special one is the Baltimore Oriole. Scott puts out grape jelly in the Oriole feeders. I’m sure they come by several times a day since we have to replace the jelly frequently.
A month ago, the Spring Peeper frogs cause a deafening chirping very late at night. It’s likened to the ring of a sleigh or Christmas bell but VERY loud. Scott even thought it was someone’s car alarm blasting very late at night and called the non-emergency police line to have someone come check it out. I thought it was some night bird in distress. Nope, just frogs we had never heard before. That frogs stopped about 10 days ago and now, we have the regular low melodic “ribbit ribbit” croak of the lime-green tree frogs from dusk to around 11:00 p.m. Then they go quiet, and we have peace for sleeping. Here’s a link to an image and sound tape of the Spring Peeper https://youtu.be/UwVEI5M-948
This past week, I have not seen the geese, no Koots, and only one Mallard with four fairly mature chicks swimming very early in the morning. When I looked later in the morning, they were gone and have not been back.
I assume that that the bulk of the water fowl are off nesting. It’s early June so the timing is about right. Female water fowl set on their eggs around 25 to 30 days give or take a few days. Perhaps the adults will be back with their little ones in a couple of weeks. We were hoping that they would nest in the reeds that surround the pond. The geese and Mallards seemed to have been checking out and testing a few areas in the reeds over the past several weeks. We were hopeful that one of those areas that we could easily from our living room windows would soon have a nest full of white eggs. No such luck!
Scott has several hanging feeders in a big maple tree by the pond and a couple feeders on our privacy fence just outside our sliding glass door. We can walk down to the pond from here. He scatters duck feed on the ground for the water fowl. It’s fun to watch the parade of ducks, geese and birds enjoying the feed every day. I have counted over 20 different kinds of birds and water fowl since moving to the townhouse exactly 3 months ago today.
This pond is the reason we move into this particular townhome. We really aren’t townhouse kind of people. We like more privacy, more ability to garden and do our own thing around the perimeter of the house. The HOA restrictions don’t allow for the kind of “improvements” that we would like to make. However, the pond is a bonus that makes these other endeavors that we can’t do tolerable.
Scott’s passion is feeding the birds. He has become knowledgeable of the various bird seeds and grains that bring the wild birds and provides appropriate food for each kind. This passion started when we first lived in Western Wisconsin, in Hudson from 2017 to 2023. We had 2 1/2 acres of woodland. We begun to plant perennial pollinator plants and native wild flowers. Our vision was a mass of pollinator plants for butterflies, bees, other insects and, of course, birds all happily doing their thing under a canopy of tall trees. The vision was slowly coming together, until we sold the property and moved to Montana September 1, 2023.)
In the backyard, Scott had several feeders of various kinds in the backyard which attracted approximately 25 different kinds of birds. My passion was watching and recording the various birds and the dates that I saw each kind. I love watching the birds. All the colors, songs and habits of the birds are intriguing. The unusual ones are such a gift. The Indigo Blue Buntings, Wow! Those were rare and we usually only saw them once or twice a summer. The brilliantly red Cardinals were special and we were blessed with many. Bluebirds came by infrequently. And, of course, the Pileated Redheaded Woodpeckers were an amazement. We had a family that lived in the woods and came by occasionally. They seem to be a remnant of the dinosaurs.
When we moved to Montana in September 2023, we once again took up our passion for attracting birds to our home. We lived in the foothills of the Snow Mountains in central Montana just 9 miles from Lewistown. We had a front deck that provided an opportunity to attach shepherd hook feeds to the railings and also put tall shepherd hooks and feeders in the yard. I counted 36 different kinds of birds in that area of Central Montana. When we first moved there, I didn’t think we would experience many kinds, maybe 20 if we were lucky – the expected Sparrows, Robins, Chickadees, Blackbirds, Crows, and Magpies. I was amazed at so many different kinds than just those.
We also had a family of raccoons that enjoy night time eating frenzies at the feeders. They came to “dinner” around 2:00 a.m., cleaned out the feeders, if we forgot to take them in, and then ambled away into the dark. We had a motion sensor light that went on every time the critters came up to the feeders. That was our signal that they were out there. Scott has a habit of staying up into the wee hours of the morning so he knew when they had arrived. Occasionally, Scott would wake me up to watch them. Other than eating all the seed designated for the birds, they were fun to watch.
Now, we’re back in western Wisconsin, the New Richmond area. Our home is a tri-level with the living room upstairs. We have a bank of windows that overlook the pond. My morning routine is to fix my cup of coffee and sit by the windows for an hour or so watching the activities around the feeder-tree, the tree where Scott has several feeders hanging from the branches of that maple tree by the pond’s edge. And watching the activities on the pond. Currently, the feeders are attracting Redwing Blackbirds and Starlings. Robins still hop around the yard picking out worms. The geese and ducks have been noticeably absent from foraging under the maple tree and pond bank where Scott sprinkles cracked corn and the like.
I love the views from my windows. The entertainment is priceless. The resulting research regarding the wildlife, their habitat, and behaviors has been educational and intriguing. Perhaps, I will travel back in time and give you a view from some of my other windows. That will take some time travel to bring back those memories.
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