I’m being casual even though my hair was removed last week, and I don’t like my bony body image. Notice how cool I am with this gras, though.

Scary thing: as I was composing this, maybe three and a half hours after our farm visit, I found a tick running up my neck. Running is better than stopped. Now headed for the shower & a detailed TICK CHECK….

During our trek today, we drove under what seemed like horizontal columns of insects, small flies or gnats or something soft-bodied. They seemed to favor the space above the road/blacktop, but, fortunately, most of the time above our vehicle, too. Except for some spots. Our Prius now has new organic matter decorating it.

Sometimes when I return from my wanders the Guru asks what wildlife (he means critters in general, I think) I spotted. Today I saw two horses (with police-riders), the Canada goose family by the drainage lake (now down to one gosling*), Piper the cat, several dogs with their walkers, wild birds…. And yet it was a pretty quiet day.

* Hypothesis: second gosling was a casualty of carnivore hunting, perhaps by cat, rat, stevedore, dog, or raptor; however, no feather-spot detected in cursory perusal.

Ms/Mr GB Heron, center, just in front of the Muscovy trio.

Right there on the walkway, the GB Heron—perhaps since dawn? Dunno. We didn’t speak.

Can you see the two-gosling cluster between the foreground parent and the rocks? One is facing me and chomping on a leaf. The goose diet here must have little variability.

I walked this morning because of precipitation rumors in the morning meteorological reports. They were right; it’s raining now.

Here’s the story in this picture.

There, at the base of the cypress, Mother Goose. Back, visible through the branches, napping on one foot on the muddy delta, Papa Goose.

As I understand it, once the eggs hatch Mama will waltz the family to a new location, far from the nest-smell that tempts/attracts carnivores.

In this case, the nest location is precarious, between a sidewalk and a lake* that’s really a catchment for runoff, and no spot around this smallish artificial lake is any better than this one. And the lake is surrounded by walls, with no good goose resettlement area. And no island.

Of course, given that the sidewalk often hosts dog-walkers and their usually leashed companions, Mama and Papa may not make it that far in the parenting process.

* The lake is labeled Phase 1 here. I watched a crane operator farther south for a minute, taking a break from excavating somewhere near “Splash Pad” to read, not merely check, his phone. Meanwhile, an ambulatory worker was checking a giant pump; after all, this area is downhill and downstream of the walled lake (funny; there’s actually a Walled Lake, Michigan—see: another story!).

After attending a pie-party (quite special!—guests all brought pies, some savory, some sweet), we walked-talked around Green Lake as the sun was running out its day.

In fact, we walked-talked to such an extent that I neglected to photo the bald-eagle-atop-the-pine, although we watched him (her?) for more than five minutes.

These tropical imports, on display, gave quite a show as the youngsters were allowed to drop fresh leaves into the feeding cube. That big one is a soldier ant.

My theory after watching two busy jays (Cyanocitta cristata) in the backyard for ten minutes: with the leaves on the ground, the temps in the low 40°s, and the sun out, the tasty bits are in the shady spots.

Never did catch them in the sun.

For better bird close-ups, check out the the Marquis’s photos….

It’s like autumn is here early and the ants are taking refuge…on my counter.

We did try some evasive maneuvers.