Morning at the Beaver Pond

It was back in mid-April when I spent a morning sitting beside my favorite beaver pond. The waterfowl migration was tapering off, but a couple of green-winged teal had stopped on their way north and a male wood duck and a female hooded merganser were in residence –

A late migrating fox sparrow stopped on a pond-side shrub –

Great egrets don’t nest this far north, but every year we see a few that have overshot their breeding grounds by many miles. There was one at the beaver pond this morning. It searched for fish and frogs along the edge of the pond –

And then flew up into a dead tree –

As I sat beside the pond and the day warmed up a number of painted turtles clambered up on a dead tree that had fallen into the pond –

Later an early-migrating palm warbler searched for insects among the sedges bordering the pond –

The entire time a number of tree swallows squabbled over a dead snag that had several old woodpecker nest holes –

The swallows didn’t settle their contest over the snag while I was there and the squabbling probably went on for several more days.

There’s always something interesting happening at a beaver pond and it’s always worthwhile spending time sitting along the shore.