Chills, and A Close Encounter

October’s first two weeks were the coldest in 20 years for many parts of the country and we are not an exception. On Oct 18, we did not get above 50 degrees F, indeed it looks like 46 was the high. Wood fires were stoked as a Nor’easter pushed up the ocean, giving us an island-on-an-island effect. Our house was surrounded by water on the four successive high tides.

After being away for a week, seed which I put out it immediately brought attention from the bird community. Two pair of mallards and a lone male pounced, moving up from the pond where they recently started to spend time after a summer with almost no duck activity. They were joined at the feeding station by a couple of mourning doves, a cardinal, a blue jay and, as the sun set, 12 white-throated sparrows.

One of the many local squirrels has also passed through for a meal.
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We marked the end of summer before Labor Day when our covey of White Egrets departed as the third week in August closed. It was an early departure and maybe a sign of the cold days ahead. An occasional black-crowned night heron and brief appearances by a large and handsome Osprey became the new pond attention-getters, along with battling kingfishers.

Fall visitors of note have been a handful of warblers and a pair of Towhees, who were just passing through – gone after two days of foraging. On Oct 20, another visited briefly. More than a few blue gnat catchers have been around, also migrating. Missing this year are Monarch butterflies who normally shown up in large numbers from late August to now. They may have decided to move inland, but the overall butterfly population was muted this year.

Downy woodpeckers, yellow-shafted flickers, chickadees, robins, nuthatches have steadily worked through the area along with the usual Canada geese and various gulls constantly overhead. On Oct 21, the first cackling geese passed low overhead, headed south. The next day, the duck telegraph was working overtime. Ten mallards clustered at the feeding area and a couple more were in the pond where a double-crowned cormorant was working its way through some of the small fish.

Fish, too, have been less numerous this year overall. A few sunfish, schools of various baitfish and the odd bass have been spotted with a handful caught on limited fishing expeditions. A large crayfish occupied my fish trap in the creek one day.

Floating a fishing hook with bread on it, meant to catch carp (infrequently around nowadays), resulted in three hookups on the pond on different days with the resident snapping turtle. I am pretty certain this turtle has been caught in past years by me; it seemed to understand the process. At first I had to reel it in to get it close enough to cut the line. The second time, after realizing what I had hooked, I eased the pressure and it managed to dislodge the hook from afar.


On the third occasion, the hook was well in and the turtle obediently came to me after a gentle tug, even making progress straight toward me with no urging. It halted a couple of feet from the bulkhead and I could see its size well – easily 15 inches across the carapace; perhaps 30 or more nose to tail. It responded to a tug to come in and lifted its head up so I could cut the line a few inches from its beak. It then backed up a foot or so and stared at me from below the surface, poking up after a couple of minutes for a better look. At length, it turned and ambled into the murky depths.