Cattails

In the spring, the cattails are all dried up and shedding their seeds. Instead of the compact, brown beauties we see in the autumn, we see these downy creations in their stead.

My youngest and I trekked through the swamp in the bottom of Vale (not sure if it's the cemetery here or the park) and had a grand adventure watching for frogs and snakes and crayfish and fish and several species of birds.

This day, we saw a woodpecker - hard to see; easy to hear - mallard ducks and Canada geese. In fact, a pair of geese are swimming toward us in the photo. The male was banded round his neck with a plastic band and large black numbers that were easy to read from a distance. The female had no band.

We did see small fish in the shallows, but the crayfish were apparently all hiding from the sun, because we didn't see any. Walking through the cattails was somewhat laborious because rubbing up against them dislodged the seeds on their downy parachutes and they easily get up your nose and cover your clothes in very persistent down! It was a wonderful day down by the water. Speaking of which: I can't find a name for the pond here although some very old maps name the stream that feeds it Cowhorn Creek.