Lucky Ducks

 "Our" resident wood ducks now have a new location for their assisted living home in our cove. We've had a duck box on a pole standing in the water, but it's been pushed sideways by ice and hasn't really been upright for a number of years now.

After much planning, Dale hatched a great plan to suspend the duck box over the cove, making sure to thread PVC pipe onto the wire to stop predators (squirrels, raccoons) reaching the box to eat their eggs. It has turned out beautifully - I sure hope the wood ducks approve and grace us with their presence very soon.

This is the remains of their nest output from last year

I'm always intrigued at how the shells look like deflated balloons

Larval Pathways

I was intrigued by these patterns on a few twigs lying on the lawn. They looked rather creative, like nature's version of scrimshaw.

Google lens kept suggesting this was striped maple bark, but there's no bark at all - this is under the bark layer. Each one has a ring around the branch, with lines reaching out from it in both directions. After much prodding on the Internet, I've decided it must be from one of the insects or beetles that lays eggs in a girdle around a branch. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae move off, eating a path outwards from the original area until they emerge from the bark. 

It does not appear to be the bug known as a twig girdler since that chews a girdle through the entire branch causing it to snap off. I don't know exactly which insect it is, but it doesn't appear to be the Emerald Ash Borer, whose pathways are usually s-shaped and sinuous.

Impressive!

Orange Treasures

I was able to notice some really cool orange items in between the renovations and clean up in Orange, MA this week. 

First up, a black bear's calling card on the lawn, with orange seeds embedded within

Next, an orange jelly fungus known as witch's butter

A neighbor's delightful (though non-native) crocuses with orange centers

And a 3 star orange glow from the fire pit

Embedded in Ice

I love the fragility of these wispy looking leaves embedded in textured ice

Oak leaves frozen in time, looking mirage-like

The remains of a flower head glowing in the sun above the dippled ice