Remembering Summer...

I have all these really great pictures from my Adirondack summer so I've been thinking lately that it would be nice to post some with some stories.

7.11.11

This is a picture from Connery Pond.  It it one of my favorite spots in the Adirondacks.  It's super easy to get to and just absolutely beautiful.  I'm totally jealous of the two houses that actually get to live on this pond.  That's Whiteface Mountain in the background.

 A cruise around this pond by boat led me to find my first spotting of a midden pile other than plant matter!

midden : a refuse heap created by an animal

 I was super excited to see piles of empty shells hidden under these little spots that looked like great hiding places for critters to hang out and eat.  I'm guessing it must be raccoons...not sure though.

Connery Pond is also one of my favorite grasshopper peeping spots.  At the time we were there in the summer they were everywhere and with each step popped out many many grasshoppers!

I spent quite some time watching chunks of midden fall from a tree where a rascal red squirrel was eating above me.  At first... I heard some crunching sounds coming from the canopy so I snuck up to the base of the tree to see how close I could get.  I'd been practicing my forest stealth walking skills so by that time in the summer I was pretty undetectable (atleast so I thought).  I got real close and watched the little bits of munch fall around me for a good 5 minutes.  I was getting excited so I turned my head to look up because I really wanted to see who was in charge of the large amounts of food crumbs that were under this tree.  And of course, one big chunk came right down right at my eye.  Luckily I was wearing glasses so I was unharmed but I still never know if the squirrel knew I was there and did it intentionally....  Do they do that?

And it seemed like a visit to Connery Pond wasn't fully complete until it was finalized with a fried chicken salad and banana split!  Maybe that has something to do with it being one of my most favorite places....