Suburban Wildlife, Again

I've had some suburban wildlife encounters recently. And all species lived to tell the tales.

Last week, I took S and the dog out for a morning walk around the bog. This is a school year ritual. On my off days (Wednesday and Friday), we get C on the bus, then M, then go out for a long walk. On our way home on Friday, we noticed a large slowly-moving lump on the road up ahead.

People drive pretty fast on this road, even though they shouldn't. There have been/are plenty of carcasses to prove it. I was worried this poor turtle would get nailed by some idiot speeding and jabbering on their cell phone at the same time, so I hurried up ahead to see if there was anything, reasonably, I could do. About the same time I realized that between S and the dog there was little I could do other than wave drivers around it, a gentleman stopped and we found a big stick to urge it along (lucky for the turtle, I think).

The turtle was none to pleased. This thing had attitude to spare. It kept trying to snap it its rescuer, turning back to try to bite the stick with every movement forward. Eventually the turtle made it to the side of the road and headed down to a small pond.

Later that afternoon as I pulled into our drive, I saw a hedgehog hurriedly waddle into a pile of oak logs waiting to be cut. We've seen plenty of rabbits around, and chipmunks of course (relocated one just ten days ago after setting out a chocolate chip cookie in the trap), but this is the first time I've seen a hedgehog around here.

It reminded me of when we lived in another northeastern state years and years ago and tried to cultivate a fairly large garden. The first summer of gardening was great, but the second was a disaster with the varmints that kept tunnelling their way into our peas and carrots and lettuces. We battled those things all summer long, digging deep and wide trenches around the garden, and laying fencing flat to discourage burrowing before turning it up and filling in the trench. Then one day as I turned onto our street I saw a lump of hedgehog roadkill. I was sad for the critter, but happy also. We never had a varmint issue again.

Anyway, I headed straight for the garden after pulling in. I verified that our fencing hadn't been breached (yet), but knew I'd better start keeping a sharper lookout.

On Monday I took the dog out for another walk around the bog. As I came around one curve in the bog, there was a great blue heron not 30 feet away at the edge of the channel around the bog. I held Miss T back immediately, hoping to watch it for a moment, but in an instant it took off, flying low over the bog. I hoped we'd see it again on the other side of the bog, near the supply pond, but no luck.

I wonder if this is the same heron that has been showing up and hanging out at the bog for the last couple of years. Maybe this year I can get a photo.

I looked at the local Audubon site for recent bird sightings. A few straggling goldfinches have been sighted in the area. We had a lot of goldfinches around the sunflowers this summer and blue jays in the bird bath, and I miss seeing that color. I still hear hawks around. Owls should begin migrating south soon enough. Maybe that owl will come back to our yard this winter.