Wandering and Wildlife

After bashing my left pointer finger twice this morning with a planishing hammer (unpublishable words were said), I decided it was time to take a break from jewelry making while I waited to see if my fingernail would turn black. So, I decided to take a walk around the bottom of my property. It's a nice hike this time of year - before the tall weeds and briars make it too difficult to navigate. I started on the southeast side and clearly found the head of one of the springs coming out of the ground:

It's hard to see in this photo, but water was freely flowing up from under ground. Below is a picture of the bog that these springs feed. It covers about a quarter of an acre of low space and it stays wet even in the most severe drought.

This is where the peepers and toads (and who knows what else) live. They've been serenading me in the evenings for the last couple of weeks. Hear the sound of a peeper here, and a toad calling here.

The bog drains into Laxon Creek. All along the banks of the creek are what I call "fugitive" jonquils. In times past someone upstream must have planted some along the creek bank. Over time flooding and erosion have deposited them in various places all the way to the river. Below is the large bunch on my property and there's several more smaller ones down stream.

A nice shot of the creek looking upstream. It runs across the front of my property from east to west and into the New River about 200 yards away:

I spotted a nice-sized trout in one of the deep pools, but he was too well camoflaged to get a decent picture. Below looks downstream to the bridge. (And more fugitive jonquils.)

I was also checking for signs of beavers. They've tried twice to dam up this creek - one time building under the bridge. I don't mind if they stay in the river, but if they flooded this property my house would end up under water. Both times I've had to get Trapper Mike, a Wildlife Damage Control Agent, out here. Beaver were hunted out of this area at one point, but have come back like gangbusters and can really be a nusiance - cutting down trees and other vegitation along the stream banks, which causes erosion and degradation of water quality. The best thing I saw on my morning walkabout was a fox running through the pasture across from me. I'm glad to know that the coyotes haven't completely overtaken their habitat. Foxes don't seem to want to eat house cats for dinner like coyotes do.

Along the way I spotted this piece of tree root. Doesn't the bottom of it look like the profile of a deer? Maybe I'm just seeing things...

Oh, and here's my bashed finger. Ouch.