Turtle eggs in the septic field!

Much as I am looking forward to moving to the farm we have bought, I am really going to miss this place when we go. Every night now, the garden is filled with hundreds of fireflies. I have never seen so many all at once. Apparently they like swampy places, and our lot sure fits the bill! I love to stand outside and watch them. Occasionally they even land on me. They are using their flashing lights to attract each other for some mutual loving.

And the raccoons... well, let's just say there are more than two. We saw three at once last night. As far as I can tell, it's a mother and her kids from last year. I have been reading about raccoons, and this seems the most likely scenario. Hubster and I ate supper outside last night. Our table is on the lawn. Two of the raccoons came out while we were eating and had their own dinner of birdseed. The largest one kept getting whiffs of our barbecued lamb chops and looked a bit envious, but kept her distance. It was quite funny eating supper with the raccoons (they were a safe distance from our table.)

There are also an amazing number of dragonflies here. My maternal grandmother evidently had a phobia about them, but I think they are beautiful. Here's a picture of one that landed on our porch:


When we paddle on the river behind us, the dragonflies like to land on our kayaks when they need a break. Yesterday one landed on my arm. My favourites are the ones with emerald-green bodies and black wings, which they hold upright more like a butterfly than a dragonfly.

And Saturday morning we woke up to this:



Mama snapping turtle laying her eggs on our septic field, and also in my flower planter box! In the top photo, the turtle is towards the lower left, and her eggs were buried in the grass-free area just behind her. She buried some others in the top-most flower box. Then she crawled slowly back to her marsh.

I read that snapping turtle eggs take 12 - 16 weeks to hatch, so we will probably have moved when the babies emerge, which is a shame. But we're honoured Mama Turtle chose to nest on our lawn.

Next, hummingbird time. Here is a male ruby-throated hummingbird:


Sitting in a nearby tree:


And here's a female, after I cleaned the bird poop off the window (which you can see in the photo of the male!!):


Wolf Lover Girl mentioned that she wasn't having much luck attracting hummingbirds to her garden. Sometimes it can take a while. Here are some sites that might help:

http://www.hummingbirds.net/attract.html

http://www.birdwatching.com/stories/humfeeder.html

And a note to anyone feeding hummingbirds: make sure you keep those feeders scrupulously clean! Mould and other nasties can kill the little birds. You are better off not feeding them if you don't have the time to clean your feeders regularly. But really, it's well worth the effort. Hummingbirds are amazing little things, not to mention fierce. I have several feeders on the go so that there is enough for everybody, and they still come along and knock each other off the feeders!

So there you go. The only picture of poop to day is the bird doo on the window next to the male ruby-throated. I'm being good.