mystery woodland nest

During a warm spell a couple of weekends ago,

we started to uncover our outdoor furniture.

Imagine my delight to have found this sweet little woodland nest

tucked inside the bottom edge

of the tarp covering one of our chairs.

 pine needles

moss

dried leaves

 upon closer examination

there's a little bit of plastic

and some hair.

maybe it's ours...

who knows!

 Does anyone know 

what delightful little creature

called this nest it's home?

I really have no clue,

but if you think you do,

please post a comment!  

I'm thinking a type of mouse,

but I could be completely wrong.

side-view

You can see the flat edge of the nest in this photo.

I don't remember exactly how it was when I discovered it,

but it seems that the flat edge may have been against the ground, 

so, in this photo, it could be upside down 

from the way it was actually inhabited.

stocking the pond

Mother nature has stocked our pond

with various frogs, water bugs, dragon flies, and water snakes...

And some cattails, too.  

We've added irises, water lilies and some other greenery around the edges. 

Then I found Turtle, and put her in.

Then Boo found another turtle in the road right by our house.

So we've got Myrtle and Yurtle.

We think Myrtle might have left, but Yurtle is hanging out.

He's a much more chill kind of turtle.  

I love him!

He floats and basks for hours on end. 

He seems very happy here.

-----------

So, end of story?

Oh, no.  Not a chance.

You see, I have this problem... 

where I'm always daydreaming about what else we can do.

And I thought, well, we have a pond, 

why not have some fish, right?!

So we talked with some fish folks and 

they told us we could definitely stock our pond with some fish.

Our pond is not big enough (deep enough, cold enough) 

for the types of things most anglers look for - trout and bass.

But it is perfectly good for channel catfish, hybrid bluegills,

and nishikigoi....  (koi!)

First came the channel catfish, bluegills

and some fathead minnows 

(they're food for the other fish...  c'est la vie, it's the food chain, baby!)

 

We're lucky to have a place like  Fish Haven Farm so close by.

All you have to do is show up with your cooler, and they do the rest.

They bag up the fish you choose, 

give them enough water / oxygen for the ride home and you're all set to go.

We give the lamest names to the creatures sometimes.

Obviously - Myrtle and Yurtle.  

And all of our chickens have pretty wacky names.

And now, the koi.

Above you will see

Orange Cap, Big Daddy, Orange Face, and Whitey.

Then we got another batch of koi and gave up naming them.  

They look way too much alike, and they move too fast in the water.

 

But every night when we go out to feed them, we try to count and see if we see all 12... 

They're so much fun to watch!

Sometimes we can see them just swimming 

throughout the day when we walk over and take a peak.  

 

They really add another level of biodiversity and enjoyment to the pond.  

The various fish are bringing in more bird life, that's for sure.

Today I saw a belted kingfisher perching by the pond!

(Maybe he was after some crayfish... or minnows?)

A birder friend warned me that the new fish might catch the eye of some beautiful predators...

Apparently herons really love to eat koi. 

We actually did get a visit from a green heron the other day,

but I think the larger koi are too big for the green heron.

But the smaller koi we got might fit the bill  pun intended!)

Certainly the minnows would.

Or the crayfish that migrated over from the neighbors massive pond.

We shall see.

It's the cycle of life, and I certainly wouldn't complain to get to see some herons at our pond...

but we definitely don't plan on feeding them such expensive dinners!

Even the smallest individual koi is $8.  The next size up is $15.  

There's a whole world of crazy collectible rare koi out there - 

some are thousands and thousands of dollars.

We'll stick with the budget variety, thank you very much.

Oh, and I nearly forgot!:

Besides the fun of watching them, an unexpected benefit of koi

seems to be that the water snakes are not a big fan of co-habitating with them!

Since we got the koi, we rarely see the snakes anymore.

Three cheers for nishikigoi!

green caterpillar thing with fake eyes...

We were checking the bee hive one evening 

when I noticed this funky thing hanging out on a nearby tulip tree leaf:

the fake eyes are sooooo cool!

and the periwinkle dots all around, what a work of art!

I did a little googling and I think it's a Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillar.

They eat leaves and as they get bigger, drink nectar from things like

joe-pye weed, jewelweed, honeysuckle and milkweed -- 

all things we definitely have in our little habitat here.

Apparently they do this amazing mimicry thing.

When they're larvae, they are dark brown and "look" like bird droppings, 

so no predators are enticed to eat them.

When they're closing to pupating, as this one is,

those fake eyes and swollen thorax  makes them look kind of like a green snake...

 That seems like a bit of a stretch.

I didn't have trouble telling that it wasn't a snake,

but I guess your average predator might make mistake the identity.

They're too busy scouring for food sources to take the time to really examine them, maybe.

 When these caterpillars feel threatened, they rear up 

and expose their tongue-like thing which is red and forked, helping out with the snake illusion.

Nature is just so groovy, eh?

eastern painted turtle

I've wanted turtles in our pond for soooooooo long!

Two years ago I bought two red eared sliders and two painted turtles

 and introduced them to the pond, but they quickly left.  

They moved on to bigger ponds... 

And sadly, one walked down the road and did not have a happy ending. 

----------

Two weeks ago when I was driving home from work,

I saw a turtle crossing the road. 

I had seen a big honking snapper on the same road just a few days before,

so I was tuned in to the fact that it's turtle mating season.  

If I hadn't been specifically looking out for turtles, I might not have noticed it at all.

It might have registered as a rock, or road debris of some sort.

 Well, this turtle was just about in the middle of my lane, and all I could envision 

was the awful stream of commuter traffic and people not paying attention 

crushing it inadvertently.

I could not have that.

I thought about it and realize that within the next five minutes, 

probably 20 cars would come by and 

it would be directly in the path of their tires, before even making it to the middle of the road.

Oh no no no!

I had read that the "right thing to do" if you see a turtle crossing the road 

(if it's NOT a snapper, don't ever pick one of those up!) 

is to park, gently lift the turtle and place it at the other side, where it was headed.

Essentially, give the turtle a human hitch-hike out of the danger zone.

So, why not... simply put it in your car 

and take it to home to your pond to see if it will live happily ever after with you?  

Well, because there's a good chance the turtle 

is trying to get somewhere to mate or lay eggs

and if you take it, it will probably try to head off again, 

only this time not knowing the territory, 

and will be likely to encounter even more dangerous traffic...

 Well... our house is literally right around the corner.

So I didn't think there would be too much harm in a very, very slight relocation experiment.

I was so excited that I forgot to check the plastron (the belly part of the shell / underneath)

 to try to figure out how old he/she might be.

Based on the size, this is probably a she.

And a fairly mature she at that.

But I can only guess.

 an Eastern Painted Turtle

chrysemys picta

so beautiful...

 The time before when I bought turtles, I just put them into the pond.

This time we decided to put the turtle NEXT to the pond, so it would be her choice to enter the pond.

   

And given that she instinctively felt that I was a threat, 

I thought, well, maybe she will think that the pond is a safe haven from

big bad me. 

 I walked away for a few minutes to put some logs in the pond for her to bask on,

and by the time I got back to check on her, she had scooted herself right in.

That was the last I saw of her for over a week. 

I worried that maybe she was lonely.

But then I read that turtles will tolerate others, but they're quite happy alone.

They're born alone, to fend for themselves.

Other turtles can mean competition.

-----------

I spotted her once, swimming near the surface,

but after many more days of no sightings, 

I started to think that maybe she, too, left our pond for a bigger body of water.

 Then a few days ago, I was talking to my sister on the phone and saw movement at the pond.

And there the beautiful turtle was!

Instead of basking on the logs I put in the pond,

it seems that she prefers the lily pads...

And she had company, too, if you look carefully amongst the lily pads,

but they are co-existing fine enough it seems.

I don't think either one poses a threat to the other, based on size.

 It seems promising that if she's stayed around this long,

maybe she'll stay awhile longer!

We can only hope...!