I was up just before six this morning – enough coffee in the pot that I could nuke a cup and move to the porch chair and watch the bull elk in the field – well, I either have a small field or a large front lawn. I’m not real sure what he’s doing here as his antlers grow – but he is fun to watch.
The deer continue to graze, unbothered, with the elk alongside, and geese wandering through the tall grass – the necks and heads still show above the tall grass, and the shifting grass shows where the goslings are hanging out – usually between the two parents.
In the pond, as I tilled the garden the other day, a coot hen with four hatchlings swam along the east edge of the pond, calling her greeting. Both Goose and Gander are gone – but I can’t help wondering if she was the little coot that joined with their last flock of goslings. He was in the habit of watching me work in the garden. I suppose it is a good thing to entertain geese and a coot along with the other chores of the garden.
The little diving ducks are large enough to be claiming most of the pond – showing briefly in one spot, diving, then returning to the surface in a new spot a half-minute later. Along the edge, perched on tall grass, the red wing blackbirds call. Later today, as the mosquitoes begin to fly, the swallows will come off the hill and do their mosquito control thing. And the marsh hawk (Northern Harrier to the birding purists) will soon fly over the field is his attempt to control the voles and deer mice.
All is well in my corner of the world.
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