mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-08-28 09:37 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2024-08-28 09:37 pm
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Monday: Pelican Pond
On Monday we decided to go over to Pelican Pond (and there were pelicans!) We wanted somewhere we could do a short-ish walk with Bella, but also didn't want to have to go too far.
The sunflowers are doing very well right now. Plus a very nice bumblebee!
Grasshoppers, perched very perfectly on the top of some bent over teasel.
And one of the things I thought was the coolest:
An absolutely enormous wasp nest! It was HUGE, and just barely above head level to the side of the path. It was pretty active, with a lot of wasps coming and going, though they weren't at all aggressive. One started doing a really minor guard position once I'd been there for a minute, so I backed off.
(I almost texted a picture of the nest to my mom to ask her why she hadn't told me about it, since she walks there more often than we do, but I didn't. Then on Tuesday she texted me a picture of it, because that was the first day she'd seen it, haha.)
Ducks! At least a few of them were probably babies from this year; they were quite little. In the upper right you can see a tiny island area that birds cluster on. Lots of cormorants and three pelicans!
We did get to go out on the dock just a short ways, which is where I took the duck picture from, because we wanted to see how Bella would feel about the swaying surface. She didn't care about that, but there was a man on one side of the dock, fishing, and he had a dog with him. He stood up and just stared at us as soon as we stepped onto the dock, then kept staring us down, even though all we were doing was looking at ducks and spider webs. Even though there's room for multiple people to not get in each others' way (the dock is sort of a "T" shape, and he was out on one of the T branches), we decided to leave. (Maybe his dog isn't dog-friendly or something, though it didn't seem to have any reaction beyond looking at us, but whatever.)
So many sunflowers blooming right now. This one had a no-spotted ladybug.
Framed by the sunflowers: two more pelicans!
There were eight pelicans total, which is the most we've seen in one area for a while.
Those two pelicans (a third to the right), and a cormorant.
Watching these pelicans was quite entertaining. The two of them were just following this one cormorant while it was diving. Maybe figuring it would find fish, and hoping to poach? For fun? I'm not sure! But they'd follow it, and it would dive down and come back up somewhere else, and they'd spot it and head back toward it. They chased it for quite a while, and it was quite funny.
A pair of what I think are some type of milkweed bugs (making more milkweed bugs) and an ambush bug!
Nothing seems to mention ambush bugs camouflaging to match the flowers they perch on, but they seem to, at least to some degree. The ones on the sunflowers are much yellower than the white ones on the daisies in the park. (Though they don't turn purple to match the sage; those ones are also usually white/cream.)
No pictures that turned out, but we did get to watch some crows harassing a small hawk, I think maybe a young cooper's hawk? It came back for a second pass after the crows ran it off, trying to dive at a squirrel. The squirrel probably would have been way too big for it even if it hadn't missed, ha.
Down in the more forested area, a very nice daddy longlegs. (Those legs do be long.)
Cormorants!
Mushrooms!
And bees on a thistle.
It was a nice day, warm, but with a gentle breeze and enough cloud-cover to not feel too overwhelming. A bit more humid, though. Bella acted like she was DYING by the end of it, though it was about the same distance as her usual morning walks with Alex after they drop me off at work, lol. And of course after a power-nap in the car, she was ready to go-go-go again, ha.
The sunflowers are doing very well right now. Plus a very nice bumblebee!
Grasshoppers, perched very perfectly on the top of some bent over teasel.
And one of the things I thought was the coolest:
An absolutely enormous wasp nest! It was HUGE, and just barely above head level to the side of the path. It was pretty active, with a lot of wasps coming and going, though they weren't at all aggressive. One started doing a really minor guard position once I'd been there for a minute, so I backed off.
(I almost texted a picture of the nest to my mom to ask her why she hadn't told me about it, since she walks there more often than we do, but I didn't. Then on Tuesday she texted me a picture of it, because that was the first day she'd seen it, haha.)
Ducks! At least a few of them were probably babies from this year; they were quite little. In the upper right you can see a tiny island area that birds cluster on. Lots of cormorants and three pelicans!
We did get to go out on the dock just a short ways, which is where I took the duck picture from, because we wanted to see how Bella would feel about the swaying surface. She didn't care about that, but there was a man on one side of the dock, fishing, and he had a dog with him. He stood up and just stared at us as soon as we stepped onto the dock, then kept staring us down, even though all we were doing was looking at ducks and spider webs. Even though there's room for multiple people to not get in each others' way (the dock is sort of a "T" shape, and he was out on one of the T branches), we decided to leave. (Maybe his dog isn't dog-friendly or something, though it didn't seem to have any reaction beyond looking at us, but whatever.)
So many sunflowers blooming right now. This one had a no-spotted ladybug.
Framed by the sunflowers: two more pelicans!
There were eight pelicans total, which is the most we've seen in one area for a while.
Those two pelicans (a third to the right), and a cormorant.
Watching these pelicans was quite entertaining. The two of them were just following this one cormorant while it was diving. Maybe figuring it would find fish, and hoping to poach? For fun? I'm not sure! But they'd follow it, and it would dive down and come back up somewhere else, and they'd spot it and head back toward it. They chased it for quite a while, and it was quite funny.
A pair of what I think are some type of milkweed bugs (making more milkweed bugs) and an ambush bug!
Nothing seems to mention ambush bugs camouflaging to match the flowers they perch on, but they seem to, at least to some degree. The ones on the sunflowers are much yellower than the white ones on the daisies in the park. (Though they don't turn purple to match the sage; those ones are also usually white/cream.)
No pictures that turned out, but we did get to watch some crows harassing a small hawk, I think maybe a young cooper's hawk? It came back for a second pass after the crows ran it off, trying to dive at a squirrel. The squirrel probably would have been way too big for it even if it hadn't missed, ha.
Down in the more forested area, a very nice daddy longlegs. (Those legs do be long.)
Cormorants!
Mushrooms!
And bees on a thistle.
It was a nice day, warm, but with a gentle breeze and enough cloud-cover to not feel too overwhelming. A bit more humid, though. Bella acted like she was DYING by the end of it, though it was about the same distance as her usual morning walks with Alex after they drop me off at work, lol. And of course after a power-nap in the car, she was ready to go-go-go again, ha.
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Also, the bees are really cute!
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The bees were adorable!
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Sheesh, that guy sounds weird.
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Bella is SUCH a drama queen, though.
And yeah, kinda weirded out by the random guy. He was probably fine, and maybe it was something like wanting to make sure the dogs didn't have a bad altercation, but like... dude, we aren't bothering you, you don't own the dock. :/
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Those shrooms look like pollack roe.
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They do! Or maybe some sort of exotic dried fruit?
'Bella acted like she was DYING by the end of it"
And both have short resets.
This pond is wonderful!
Re: 'Bella acted like she was DYING by the end of it"
"Woe is me, surely I shall simply die of the exertions forced upon me!"
*five minutes of power napping in the car in my lap*
"And we're good! Let's go! Play with my leash! Play with this toy! Time to do crazy runs around the kitchen and crash into the stove!"
It's such a nice little place to walk, and it was a perfect day for it.
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The wasp nest was super surprisingly enormous, haha. Especially to have so close!
I find it kind of funny that we get pelicans, too. They should be a coastal bird! We don't ever get brown ones, which I think are purely coastal, but the white ones even breed here, I guess, which seems so weird.
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Very clear grasshoppers!
The smaller sunflowers look great against the dark/blue backdrops.
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The grasshoppers did come out crystal clear - cooperative models!
The contrast of the sunflowers against the water was really nice. It's a beautiful stretch to walk past.
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Thank you!