Category: Pond

Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) feeding in a pond at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in VA

8/14/2015

There is always someone having fits about animal common names. A good example is the bald eagle, which is certainly not bald, and the use of the word "common" in front of a name like the common merganzer, because, somewhere it won't be common.

The word rat, however, it a species or even a group of species, but is roughly defined as "things that look like a rat" making it awfully self-referential in that one must know what a "rat" looks like. And they can look way different and be in entire different families. A similar situation occurs with "bats" which also cover a lot of different families but in general, if you see one, you know it is a bat.

A muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) sorta fits this mold of looking like a rat (and hence the name) but for distinction added is the prefix "musk" because they have a gland that releases an odor.

All that said, here is a picture of one eating dinner at a pond at the Meadowlark Botanical Gardens close to Vienna, Virginia.

http://www.nvrpa.org/park/meadowlark_botanical_gardens/

A muskrat (ondatra zibethicus) at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Virginia

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Meadowlark Gardens

3/21/2015

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Took a short walk at Meadowlark Gardens today. A few pics from the outing.

The one pond has a fountain

Not a great shot, but I love bluebirds

A grinny! The first chipmunk I've seen this year.

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Tracks across frozen lake

2/20/2015

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The pond at Fair Lakes was mostly iced over. But there was this track across the pond. Not sure what made this but it is most interesting.

Animal tracks across a pond

It continues to be really cold here, but this animal track is something to ponder.

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Cold but got out a bit at Fair Lakes, VA

2/18/2015

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An area with a lot of row houses. Nice places, and there is this pond in the middle of it all. In general a pretty good place to live. I walked around the pond there and took a few pics. Nothing amazing.

A mourning dove

Yellow-bellied sapsucker

A male cardinal

In general, this area is good for birding, but today just so-so for pics.

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Lexington Estates Park, Great Falls, VA

4/10/2014

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I can't find much historical information on this park, but it is a nice bit of green space with a mostly mature forest (a lot of tulip poplar as with so many parks in this area) and a small pond. I went out there today and found a single hiking trail through the park, which is mostly surrounded by subdivisions with nice houses on reasonable sized lots.

And just as I was finding a parking space, saw...

White-tailed deer! There are, of course, lots of these in the urban parks, but nice to get a good look at one in the sunlight.

This one was just off the park property in a backyard. It didn't take long before the tail went up and it went off into the park and disappeared.

Next I saw two red-shouldered hawks, and grabbed a shot of one flying in a kinda quarter view, which is pretty good for showing the ID marks for the hawk.

Red-shouldered hawk showing tail bands, ruffy forarms, and wing banding with that sorta white spot out near the wing tips.

And then there was the pond. All ponds are interesting for wildlife, and this one was no different. As spring is late here, it was nice to finally see some dragonflies at the pond. And I took this pic of...

Green darners (Anax junius) laying eggs.

Here the male is in front and has the blue abdomen, and is clinging to the female with the reddish abdomen. After mating, they fly around together like this and land now and again so the female can lay eggs under the surface on vegetation. This is the egg laying.

There is a good website on this species if you want more details at:

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Anax_junius/#reproduction

And finally, back to frogs. As previously noted, the wood frog is the first to breed in northern Virginia. Now, they are tadpoles, and the egg masses are just off-white blobs, as seen here...

Wood frog tadpole next to it's original egg mass.

A bunch of wood frog tadpoles

And it has been brought to my attention that I mentioned the end of the breeding season for the spring peepers, without showing a photo of such. Well, this spring has been awful cold and all things are not on schedule and thus hard to predict when and where to find things. I heard spring peepers a couple of times, but not in anyplace I could get to. So here is a photo of one from a few years back taken in West Virginia, just to cover that photographic ground, so to speak.

A spring peeper (pseudacris crucifer) from West Virginia. And note that this is a very small frog, maybe 3/4 inch long.

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Potomac Overlook Regional Park

3/13/2014

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With Spring really trying to break Old Man Winter's grip, it is time to get back to my park series. I still did some of this in the winter, but Northern Virginia parks really start to get more interesting come spring. Sure, some of the animals are harder to see with the leaves out, but then all the birds are singing and colors come out and it just more photographic fun.

So yesterday we finally had a warm day and I headed over to Potomac Overlook Regional Park. website: http://www.nvrpa.org/park/potomac_overlook/

This is a spiffy little park on a rise above the Potomac River (duh) with a lot going on. The nature center should not be missed, unless of course you do NOT wish to see the nice variety of live snakes and turtles within. Very nicely done, and for those cavers who read this, it actually has a "Kids Cave" downstairs with cave photos and information about bats and caves. Total surprise.

But just outside, I could hear what I have been waiting to hear, a group of...

Wood frogs! There were a couple small ponds with these guys calling away. Cold-tolerant critters and usually the first frog out.

Click on the video for a short bit to see and hear the frogs

And that wasn't the only sign of Spring. There were...

Crocuses! Actual flowers and color. This made me very happy indeed.

And I had been told that their was an aviary, and sure enough, there it was. These three beautiful animals were chilling out on the warm day.

Great horned owl

Barred owl

Red-tailed hawk

They also have a butterfly garden and other things that aren't really useful yet. But after exploring around most of the park, I decided to walk down Donaldson Run (located just off the property) to the Potomac River. This trail crosses back and forth over the stream a couple of times, so plan on rock-hopping!

The lower reaches of Donaldson RUn

And before coming to the river, there is a spot that looks like a steep little trail going up. Well, the "overlook" had to be up, right? Wrong, I ended up on a deer trail and had to backtrack. And it was while on this trail that I saw my oddity of the day. Several trees were painted with designed and a couple even had sayings painted on. Weird. But I was out of time for more, so headed out.

Mysterious painted tree along a deer trail

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Huntley Meadows

11/8/2013

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Huntley Meadows is the largest park in Fairfax County, Virginia. But has fewer trails than some. Granted, much of their trail is boardwalk over a swamp, so that's pretty cool and a way to get into a giant swamp without getting one's boots dirty. But being stuck on the boardwalk limits the photos.

Check it out at:

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/huntley-meadows-park/

And a now some photos from my 1.5 hour trip there today.

Canada Goose looking good

One of my bird profile pics, this one a Canada Goose

A song sparrow

Three mourning doves fluffed up for the cold wind that was blowing today

Female red-winged blackbird on a cat tail

The swamp at Huntley's Meadow in late fall

The bluebird was trying to eat the mantid, but the mantid put up a fight and...

The bluebird gave up after the mantid reared up and displayed it's wings. This is a very aggressive display, and I wish I captured it better.

The mantid eyeing me up after the ordeal. Seems to be a Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis)

The boardwalk at Huntley Meadows. Part of the reason I wasn't able to get closer to some things for photos, but all the reason I was able to walk around the swamp at all.

White-thoated sparrow.

Not my best painted turtle shot, but these will be gone into hibernation soon enough so putting this one up

And an immature Great Blue Heron to end today's blog post. Or...

A second shot of the Great Blue Heron (immature) with a bit more scenery around it.

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Burke Lake V2

10/30/2013

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I hadn't planned to go back to Burke Lake today, but...

When I returned home yesterday I found that the top of my hiking tripod was missing! Think, think, think. The only place I got tangled up yesterday was in a birch tree while trying to find a geocache. So today included a two-mile hike to the site, and yes a recovery of the tripod top that was stuck in a tree, and a two-mile extraction hike.

And here are a few pics I took along the way.

Okay, this pic is lame. But having a bald eagle 250 meters away still made me take the shot. Sorry it's not studly, but I haven't posted an eagle shot so something to improve on.