Sept. 17, 2006

A noisy heron just flew over the pond - perhaps he was annoyed that I was approaching his desired landing spot.

It's overcast, foggy, and misty this morning, although I can see blue sky above me suggesting that it will burn off. Strangely, it's breezy already at this hour, but anything to ward off the mosquitoes is welcome. Another heron flew overhead, although this one appeared white.

Bird calls have died down considerably from the summer. I can hear an occasional twirp or song in the distance, but I cannot identify it. I also heard ducks at the east end of the lake, but I can't make them out through the mist.

Cottonwood leaves - brown or occasionally green, are scattered on the grass all around me. The tent months on the Tilia tree are no longer crawling among the leaves. The boughs with their tent homes are bowed by the weight of the presumably morphing worms inside.

The squirrels are still chattering a bit, but even they are not noisy as they were a month ago. A woodpecker is thumping softly on the large cottonwood.

The cabin has become an extremely noisy place on windy evenings. The hickory nuts of the shagbark (I think not pignut) behind the house dropped onto the roof, sometimes from great heights so that it sounds as though someone is throwing large stones on our roof.

We went for a lovely hike at Pinkney yesterday - this time on the lesser used trails north of Hell. We saw no one else on the trails except one hunter coming in as we were leaving.

A very small flicker has just started pecking away at one of the small trees near me (maybe 3" in diameter). It might be a cherry or chokecherry tree - many of its leaves have been eaten by the tent moth! Another bird - perhaps a sparrow - poked into one of the moth tents, then successfully snagged a love tent caterpillar.

We gathered several types of mushrooms - some large boletes a hen of the woods, and some small puffballs.

We also went by the George Biological Reserve and marvelled at the huge, cyclone deer fences.

Out of nowhere the surface of the lake in front of me is covered with small bugs - surely a feast awaiting the bass. The bugs must know better than that somehow as the fish are not taking notice. Ah, at last glimpsed some fish movement to the west among the branches of the fallen cottonwood ("ideal fish habitat" as HT would say).

9/12/06

There are still plenty of pesky mosquitoes around - currently they are swarming around me - especially my knees since my long pants are taught there. It's a humid morning - quite summerlike after the fall weather we've been having.

Two ducks took off not long after I sat down. I really need to learn my ducks - many of them are not mallards and are quite shy.

Plenty of grasshoppers and crickets are still doing their thing. HT saw another fox on Jackson Plaza, but we've yet to see one in the woods.

The mosquitoes are too much - I've moved to the porch.

Walking through the woods toward Pall (East) the huge, majestic ball sized fungy are perched on the woods floor like large, glowing eggs. According to our mycology books, they are edible, but somehow they appear less than appetizing.

The sun rises quite late these days. This, combined with the low clouds this morning make it seem like one of those quiet, bound to be rainy days.

We had a caretakers meeting yesterday with DLF. She's trying to figure out how to get more attention to the properties and possibly to get some income from them. It seems as though her boss really wants to sell them off, which would be a complete shame. These properties are the genesis of SNRE, and they are known and loved by the communities surrounding them.

9/2/06

Went for a walk today... not many mushrooms out. We found a random banana peel quite off the trail though. We also found on the west side of Lot 2 (Block 5) a small log, 2-sided structure. It had a fire ring in one corner and someone had erected a stick "wall" on one side between 2 trees.

It must have been erected prior to our tenure by the by the looks of it (it certainly was older than 3 mos. - more likely 6 mos. or more). I know that a homeless person was living in a soil pit across the lake (covered w/ sticks) at some point while MR was here - perhaps this was a remnant of it.

We have started the anti-mouse campaign in the house. Set sticky traps - one behind the trash and one under the shelves - and set two traditional ones - one in oven drawer and one on top of fridge. The buggers managed to haul off the the cheese in both of them! So now we put peanut butter on it to see if that works. We've seen one run across the floor twice. They can also be heard upstairs in the ceiling... probably gathering their winter stores.