mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-05-11 10:28 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2022-05-11 10:28 pm
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May 09: Hudson Gardens (Part 2: Animals)
Part two of my photos from Hudson Gardens on Monday: the animals! We did see lots of birds - ducks, geese, very loud redwinged-blackbirds, robins, finches, swallows, heard a bluejay... but none of my pictures of them turned out terribly interesting.
So we've got bees, turtles, fish, and a frog!
A very big bumblebee on the pansies in the kaleidoscope planter. They visited just about every flower it seemed like. (I wish there was a better measure of scale; they were enormous!)
And the definite star of the day, in my opinion:
A snapping turtle! This is the first snapping turtle I've ever seen in the wild! I had seen that the gardens listed this as a species it was possible to see on the grounds, but we never have. Also pretty darn big - the shell was maybe 14 inches or so from end to end, not counting the head or tail?
One of the first things when you enter the gardens is a fish pond. The waterlilies are just barely starting, but the fish were still out. Not the best picture of them, but up toward the upper right corner is a cute spotty fish that Alex fell in love with.
And I always love seeing happy bees. :)
A wasp, working on her nest. I am trying very hard to get over my resentment toward wasps. I was stung in the eye as a kid, and had a vendetta against waspkind afterwards... but I'm trying to remember that they too are good, helpful pollinators, and that it's silly to hate a particular species, when I really like insects as a whole. And it is neat to watch them work on their nests.
A turtle, sunning on a log in the wetlands area.
The community beehives!
This was definitely the most active of the hives! And I liked that I caught a bee in flight when I took the picture.
Alex was the champion frog-spotter of the day! This was the only frog we saw, and I was very glad he saw it!
Another picture of the snapping turtle. Look at that tail! They were in the Monet garden (reflective waterway that will have a ton of waterlilies later in the year.) Glad we got a chance to see them; once the lilies are full grown, I imagine it would be even harder to spot them!
And last but not least, a very big carp. Probably between one and a half and two feet.
It really was a nice day, and I was glad we went. (But boy is the sunburn miserable. It's starting to just barely blister across my chest and it HURTS.)
So we've got bees, turtles, fish, and a frog!
A very big bumblebee on the pansies in the kaleidoscope planter. They visited just about every flower it seemed like. (I wish there was a better measure of scale; they were enormous!)
And the definite star of the day, in my opinion:
A snapping turtle! This is the first snapping turtle I've ever seen in the wild! I had seen that the gardens listed this as a species it was possible to see on the grounds, but we never have. Also pretty darn big - the shell was maybe 14 inches or so from end to end, not counting the head or tail?
One of the first things when you enter the gardens is a fish pond. The waterlilies are just barely starting, but the fish were still out. Not the best picture of them, but up toward the upper right corner is a cute spotty fish that Alex fell in love with.
And I always love seeing happy bees. :)
A wasp, working on her nest. I am trying very hard to get over my resentment toward wasps. I was stung in the eye as a kid, and had a vendetta against waspkind afterwards... but I'm trying to remember that they too are good, helpful pollinators, and that it's silly to hate a particular species, when I really like insects as a whole. And it is neat to watch them work on their nests.
A turtle, sunning on a log in the wetlands area.
The community beehives!
This was definitely the most active of the hives! And I liked that I caught a bee in flight when I took the picture.
Alex was the champion frog-spotter of the day! This was the only frog we saw, and I was very glad he saw it!
Another picture of the snapping turtle. Look at that tail! They were in the Monet garden (reflective waterway that will have a ton of waterlilies later in the year.) Glad we got a chance to see them; once the lilies are full grown, I imagine it would be even harder to spot them!
And last but not least, a very big carp. Probably between one and a half and two feet.
It really was a nice day, and I was glad we went. (But boy is the sunburn miserable. It's starting to just barely blister across my chest and it HURTS.)
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The hives look really neat.
Yikes, that's a pretty bad burn.
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(Midnight came across a baby snapping turtle (according to Pip) last night. I'll post the photo later, along with the story.)
Sunburns are the ~worst!
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Haven't been stung by a wasp yet, though I avoid them as much as possible just the same. Totally understandable if you hated them after being stung in the eye, of all places.
Lovely photos, sounds like you had a great time except for the sunburn. ^^;; Hope it gets better soon.
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The community beehives are really nice. Some are plain, but I like the variety of decorations that different keepers have.
Ugh, this burn is the worst, though at least the blisters are gone.
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Baby snapping turtle!? I'll have to scroll around and find this pic and story.
Sunburns are miserable. At least the blisters are mostly gone, though it still hurts and feels bruised, and is also itchy which is a bad combo.
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The sting in the eye was miserable, but the only wasp sting I've ever had! I've been stung by honeybees a few times (we had a hive in one of the walls of our house when I was a kid, so there were lots of them around.) I never took those personally, though, because usually I understood why the bee had done it. (Except one that stung me after I fished it out of a birdbath, trying to save it from drowning. Rude.)
I'm trying to be understanding toward wasps, but they're never going to be my *favorite*, I'm pretty sure.
Thank you! The sunburn was really the only damper on the day. It's slowly healing!
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Sunburns really ARE miserable. (I remembered to put on sunscreen before I went out to mow today.)
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Sunburns suck! I'm glad you remembered sunscreen! I definitely need to get some extra bottles of it, so I can have them stashed EVERYWHERE.
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Gosh, I didn't know honeybees could have hives in house walls; I always figured they'd stay away from places with a constant human presence. It sounds both really cool and really scary at the same time.
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Honeybees will make hives anywhere they can find the enclosed space! They aren't too bothered by people, either. It was kind of nice - we had a lot of fruit trees at that house, and having our own team of pollinators was pretty helpful! Though... most people may not be that chill about having that many bees living in the wall, honestly. We may just be mildly weird.