Neighborhood Pond
/Earlier this week I made a circuit of our neighborhood’s stormwater pond. I noticed the painted turtle on a rock just breaking the surface. The morning was still cool, and the turtle was warming up. It stayed were it was the whole time I was at the pond.
As I continued around the pond, the light changed enough to make the water look more interesting around the turtle. This was my artsy photo of the morning.
A few years ago, the county cleaned out our pond and eventually replanted the slopes with vetch and clover (I am guessing…since there is a lot growing there now). The crew that maintains the area has finally decided to not mow the slopes as frequently, so we have flowers.
Another area they aren’t mowing has turned into a milkweed meadow.
There were mating milkweed beetles on several plants close enough to the edge for me to photograph without being in the taller vegetation.
But – the highlight of the morning was a fledgling red-winged blackbird! I was hearing a lot of red-winged blackbird calls and had seen both males and females around the pond as I walked. A female flew up from some cattails and, when I looked more closely at the area she left, there was the fledgling. It is still mostly bald on its head and the tail feathers are very stumpy.
The female kept an eye on me from the cattails a little further around the pond.
Unique activities for yesterday:
Wegmans shopping. Grocery shopping has become a bit more adventurous these days. This is my second time in the ‘new normal’ for grocery shopping. I’m not quite comfortable yet.
I printed out my list in the order I traverse the store rather than hand writing it like I did the first time; the scanning app the store provides really does need to incorporate a list function since switching in and out of the scan app and the Our Groceries app (that I use for my list) is too much flipping around on the phone.
Shopping every two weeks rather than each week is still a little challenging but I am sticking to the strategy. This time my cart was very full because the store had both toilet paper and paper towels – which it hadn’t the week before.
I am getting used to wearing a mask; it didn’t feel as strange as it did last time. However, the day was very humid, and my glasses fogged more frequently.
Overall – it was another good experience and right now I can’t think of anything I’ll be doing differently when I shop again in 2 weeks.
