Just in time, the rain has come to end the drought (mostly).
The rains of the last week or so has restored water levels in the creeks here. You can see the worst case conditions in the image below:
In a previous post you saw a male hooded merganser. Here is the pair we found in the no-name pond. These ducks tend to breed across all of New England and into Canada on the east coast. They reportedly winter in southern New England and points south. This leaves the question, are they going to depart for the south soon or is Maine now a reasonable wintering ground?
Note to the files: today was the start of hunting deer with guns season here.
During my week off, Murphy and I wandered around in the back woods. We see deer and the usual line-up of common creatures practically every trip but other more interesting targets are a rarity. On this visit to the no-name pond, we spied a couple of ducks on the far side. I could tell one of them had more white than usual but only took some photos hoping to catch something in focus enough for identification purposes.
After a trip to the far bog and checking on the beaver colony, we surprised a large group of turkeys at the far edge of the hayfield that lies between the bog and our house. I was able to keep Murphy hidden and caught this pair of birds just before they disappeared into the woods behind them.