Bona Dea Update

Bona Dea was cool and cloudy. Just right for a stroll around on this Easter Sunday. There were 2 Double-crested Cormorants sitting on the old snag in Lake Dardanelle. One with its wings spread out as they do all the time for some reason. There were 2 Pied-billed Grebe ducks swimming near by. The new road they are building was muddy after the recent rain and it was hard to find a crossing spot over to Swinging Bridge Trail. The female goose is still on her nest. She got off when I was there and she and her mate were at the spillway watching the water pour over. A flock of Carolina Chickadees came for a visit. A Turkey Vulture flew over along with its American Crow buddies. A Belted Kingfisher, fish catching bird, was heard near Prarie Creek. Also a big Pileated Woodpecker was heard in the same area. At the old swinging bridge I walked over to the east side that usually stays underwater and noticed where it looked like a White-tailed Deer had stripped bark of a tree. Don't think it was a Beaver due to the way the bark was stripped. It looked like it grabbed the bark and just peeled it upward. Thought I might see a big turtle in that area but no luck today. No ducks seen down there as most have already left the area in their migration or nesting sites. Pairs of Canadian Geese flew over. Another pair has apparently found a nesting place on the east side of Black Water Swamp close to Waldon Way Trail. A Gray squirrel was seen in the area of the old swinging bridge. At the spillway I feed the Blue-gill Brim fish. There were Largemouth fist there, real small ones, but the Bass don't take the food for some reason. They liked to back into the outflow of the spillway and swim out. A Red-eared Slider turtle kept swimming around the group of fish hoping to get some of my fish food. I don't feed the them because they will not let the fish eat and are a nuisance. I do feed the smaller Musk Turtles that come there in the summer months. I have to keep the fish away from them. I haven't seen a Great-blue Heron lately but today one flew over Waldon and Goose ponds. I also saw a Muskrat swimming from the nesting goose island in Waldon Pond to where I was but it must have seen me and decided to head back. It was swimming close to the east bank by all the weeds. They get in the weeds and hide and eat the tender vegatation. They are brown with a rat like tail. Haven't seen a Beaver or Groundhog or Amerdillo yet. There were Tree Frogs hollering all over. I noticed at home today that there was a noise I thought was coming from in the house. I went to the back and heard that it was coming from just outside the patio doors. It quit when I went there. Then tonight the frogs are all over the yard in the trees here and in the neighborhood. They usually are not here in those kind of numbers. I did see at the spillway a bird that I could not readily ID but it may have been a Warbling Vireo. The sound on all about bird website sounds like what I have been hearing around the old swinging bridge area. There was only one.