Thursday, March 20, 2008

Thursday, 3/20/08

Today we walked our regular route through the pastures and woods for the first time since receiving that 10.5" of rain earlier in the week. Everything was still a bit damp, but in pretty good shape. We were able to wear hiking shoes instead of rubber boot. Hiking in those ill-fitting, heavy and hot rubber boots takes half the fun out of taking a walk.

There was some erosion in places along the trails leading down the bluff and in the woods, but nothing too severe. The cows evidently did a pretty good job laying out those trials. Most of the wildflowers that are emerging were still small enough that they were not damaged either by the rainfall itself or the running water. Bloodroot, trillium, dog toothed violet and may apple are the primary species growing down in the woods.




I don't think I've ever seen our pond quite this full.








There was an abundant supply of tadpoles and frog eggs in the pond before the big rain and there still is. As the extra water drains from the pond fairly rapidly, some of the frog eggs are hanging up on recently submerged weed stalks.

Are the tadpoles eating the eggs are just using them for cover?






This unfortunate creature is a cicada grub. It was forced from underground by excess water, I imagine. The grub uses the heavy duty, claw-like forelegs for digging its way out from underground when it's time for cicadas to emerge. This individual is about two months early.
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hate to see the cicada but would welcome the same for all the Japanese Beetles (grubs) we got or had last year that laid new eggs. Gosh I never saw so many and tried everything to get rid of them. Including traps.

The thing that worked the best for me and it was almost a full time job was to wear one glove and pick them off and squeeze them.

Have a nice holiday weekend.

Abraham Lincoln
Brookville

Lisa at Greenbow said...

The photo of your pond is just gorgeous Marvin. It is good to hear you didn't have any more damage to your property. That was one wicked storm. I am sure your tootsies were thrilled to be in hiking boots rather than wellies.

Lana Gramlich said...

Wow...that cicada's freaky looking! Never saw one "premature" like this...How interesting!
I love your pond, btw!

Tom said...

You sure did get a down pour... glad to hear that nothing is to bad for you and the livestock...
I comment below on the road.. I did not mean to make light of the situation as I know that the roadways are of great importance to you.
Tom

Q said...

Dear Marvin,
Your pond photo is nice!
Beautiful pond.
Hope you are able to get to town okay.
Fun photo of Raccoon!
I think Jo did a great job!
Our Raccoons come around midnight.
I think it is easier just to put raccoon food out in saucers!
Thanks for the laugh,
Sherry