June Pond Life

On June 1^st I was wandering around and happened upon this deer.  She was not alarmed at my presence allowing me to approach quite closely while seemingly posing for this portrait.  She is standing in corn stubble from last year.

This painted turtle arose from the water as I arrived at the pond on June 6^th.  You can note that he is yet wet which lasted only a minute or two in the sun that day.  They like to bask in the sun from time to time.  This is the time of year they lay their eggs, buried in the earth a few inches deep where they hatch unattended.  The babies will rise from the ground and head for the nearby water as soon as they are hatched.  I’ve seen several places where they have buried eggs recently.  The green spots on its back are some sort of algae from the water.

Also on the 6^th I bumped into this fine rabbit.  Like the above deer it didn’t seem particularly bothered by my appear4ing in its domain.  Until I moved closer it continued to sit munching plants contented as could be.

Lazily swimming along Bucky Beaver was eyeing me quite closely to see what my intentions were.  As I made no move to harm it, it continued to swim lazy circles for a couple of minutes before deciding I wasn’t worth bothering with.

Then he ducked his head and disappeared into a gentle swirl of water making me wonder if he had been there at all.  However the camera said he was.

Although I wasn’t too close, and my camera leaves much to be desired in any sort of telephoto work, there are three deer in this photo that I spotted after leaving the pond that day.  There are the two closer ones, and another way over to the right and further away.

I know I should get a life, but anyway I watched these two bullfrogs for probably fifteen minutes or more.  The one way over to the right would grunt out his harrumphs over and over several times before pausing to hear results from any interested female.  Once in a while the one on the left, which was smaller, and presumably younger, would also try his luck, but upon his first youthly groan the larger one would attack him.  There was no bloodshed, just a hurried movement in some direction from the smaller one.  The larger one was winning the contest in that it could advertise, but the smaller one could not.