The Yard Pond

[Curmudgeon]

These are from the pond in the yard, less than 100 feet from the house. No wood ducks yet. The pond freezes many nights. The woodies might be a bit late. Hooded mergansers have been around for a while. I always like the territorial conflict. The hoodies in conflict in the one shot had a heron in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

[NFA-ADK]

Very cool!  If I ever get property upstate that will be a must have!

[Pygmy]

Nice picts, Curmudgeon...I have been seeing both woodies and hoodies on local beaver ponds for a couple of weeks...

I love your picture of the heron... I'll never forget watching one eat a 3 foot long water snake by a pond in my sister's back yard in Florida  a few years ago....He swallowed the snake whole and it did not take him long to do it, either !!

[virgil]

Nice. Hope the birds are still around in October. 

[G-Man]

I saw what I thought was a white great blue heron on way back along the tracks in ohio. Looked it up as a great egret.. haven't seen one in NY at all wish the train was going slower ..

[Pygmy]

2 hours ago, G-Man said:

I saw what I thought was a white great blue heron on way back along the tracks in ohio. Looked it up as a great egret.. haven't seen one in NY at all wish the train was going slower ..

I  see an egret now and then here in the Chemung River drainage...They are not real common here, but not rare either..

A couple of years ago there was one hanging around just downstream  of the Centerway Bridge in Corning for a couple of weeks..

[Lawdwaz]

Woodies have been buzzing around my work in Clarence for a couple weeks too.  Almost (not really) get sick of hearing all the big Canadian Honkers all morning at work too. 

What I do like is when they come in low and kinda' slow;  I pull the imaginary SBE stoked with a stiff load off 3.5" magnum loads and dust 2 and sometimes three birds with one well placed shot.  Then I close my eyes and old Jenny comes out of Dog Heaven for the retrieval.  Ahh, imaginations and memories are a wonderful thing.........

Edited April 11, 2018 by Lawdwaz

[fasteddie]

My friend in Walworth has a small pond . Last year he put 30+ sunfish in it . He hasn't seen any fish and wondered what was taking them . I showed him a couple of trail cam pics .

 

[The_Real_TCIII]

Ive read that a heron will eat 6+ trout a day

[Curmudgeon]

2 hours ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

Ive read that a heron will eat 6+ trout a day

 Certainly, that would depend on the size of the trout. 

[fasteddie]

3 hours ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

Ive read that a heron will eat 6+ trout a day

I wonder who does the counting .....

 

[sodfather]

I think if I was a duck I'd want to be a Hooded Merganser. I'd have a great look and would taste like crap..

[Curmudgeon]

3 hours ago, fasteddie said:

I wonder who does the counting .....

 

In my youth, I would eat 6 trout a day while in the back country - little brookies.

[Pygmy]

5 hours ago, Curmudgeon said:

 Certainly, that would depend on the size of the trout. 

They could eat a pretty good sized trout...Adult bullfrogs are no problem for them...They are AWESOME predators....

[Doewhacker]

My dad has been into the rookery nearby daily to snap pics, interesting birds. While there he gets ducks, owls and Osprey that are close by too. 

I’ll never forget the story of my male bird dog grabbing one Heron that happened to be hunting up the small creek that runs right in back of the house within 12ft. He rounded the corner of the garage and saw it while my wife screamed and he quickly latched on to it. Luckily he listened to her when she told him to leave it or that bird would have been dead in short order. 

[Curmudgeon]

Hey Virgil,

Good news. There are woodies. They've been on the pond, and Mrs. C found some checking out cavities in the old sugarbush up the hill. You'll have ducks in the fall.

In the 3rd shot with the hoodies, note the kingfisher on the branch. Then there is a shot where it hit the water in front of the camera.

[virgil]

Awesome. I was up there a few weeks ago and saw a few ducks in the creek. 

 

[Curmudgeon]

Here's some more.

[virgil]

Nice. 

[XGX7PM]

Any recent card pulls?

[stubborn1VT]

They sure are handsome.  Thanks for sharing the pics.

[Curmudgeon]

I'm glad someone is looking at old threads. I don't keep a camera out at the pond most of the year. However, to fill some of the off season space, here's some photos from the summer. I'm not interested in only game, or only vertebrates so see what you think.

My granddaughters spent a couple of weeks here catching stuff and filling a kiddie pool last summer. Among the most interesting things they found was this leech. It stretched out to about 4" long. What's fascinating is the couple of dozen baby leeches attached to its belly. They stay with the parent until the parent puts them next to a host. Then, the young attach to the host and lead independent lives.

[crappyice]

I'm glad someone is looking at old threads. I don't keep a camera out at the pond most of the year. However, to fill some of the off season space, here's some photos from the summer. I'm not interested in only game, or only vertebrates so see what you think.
My granddaughters spent a couple of weeks here catching stuff and filling a kiddie pool last summer. Among the most interesting things they found was this leech. It stretched out to about 4" long. What's fascinating is the couple of dozen baby leeches attached to its belly. They stay with the parent until the parent puts them next to a host. Then, the young attach to the host and lead independent lives.

The most horrific scene in cinematography history involved leeches




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[The_Real_TCIII]

That’s really interesting but leeches give me the heebie jeebies. I won’t put one on a hook lol. The waterfowl
Pics are outstanding


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[XGX7PM]

Have this thread bookmarked, when the day comes that ł dig my pond ł will absolutely have a camera with a similar setup.