Trego's Mountain Ear

As I hauled an armload of firewood from the woodshed, the ducks on the pond got loud.  Stopping to look, I watched the bald eagle fly low over the water, eventually moving to the top of a larch at the base of the hill.  The ducks and geese abandoned the shore and moved to deeper water . . . I guess their assumption is that the bald eagle doesn’t want to swim.  They seem to be correct.

Two days later, the marsh hawk has returned.  His low level flight for voles along the edge of the pond has the ducks panicking again – but the lesser Canada geese remain on the shore, certain that he may be a predator, but is not a threat to them.  In a couple of months, when they have goslings to protect they will have a different attitude.

The ice is gone from the main pond – and in the next couple of days it will be gone from the circle pond.  The island will again be accessible only by water and air – and will again be the elite goose nesting place.  We’re used to seeing a single goose nest on the island, but Gander is aging, and it looks like one of his goslings, along with her consort, has accompanied the parental geese back early in the Spring.  We may have two nests on the island – which we can watch from the second floor windows or by walking around the pond.  With increasing eagle presence, there may be a new predation problem.

The snow-free field now has a mob of crows searching through the short grass – I really don’t know what they could be finding.  Definitely still too cold for insects.  Possibly, I hope, the mob hunts voles. 

It will be a while before the red-wing blackbirds return.  Last year, Casanova, who earlier had five consorts nesting around the pond, didn’t return.  He had been an aggressive little bird, harassing ravens away from his pond and nestlings.  In 23, he had 3 replacements, but none so territorial against the larger predators.

And the larger species – the whitetail deer are grazing the grass as it begins to green up and start the Spring growth.