Bona Dea Update

Bona Dea was cooler and mostly sunny today. The spillway was running pretty good due to the 1.28 inches of rain yesterday and early this morning. American Crows were flying around and a Carolina Chickadee came by for a visit at the spillway. I fed the Blue-gill Brim fish and they and some Largemouth Bass fish were backing up to the downflow of the spillway getting their excercise by floating down to the edge and then swimming out of the flow. Basking turtles were out on the snags and logs in the ponds. No cormorants were seen in Lake Dardanelle across from the park. The female nesting Goose had gotten of her nest to excercise and eat and was over in Goose Pond away from her nest in Waldon Pond island. The male had walked up on the trail to keep an eye on her and the nest as he was in the halfway point. I walked up to him and he started hissing and coming at me with his mouth open ready to bite. I have a video of this in the next post. Down by the old swinging bridge, I took a photo of an old River Birch tree with its white bark. Back at the spillway a Fox Sparrow,brown bird, hopped out in front of me and I had to make it a star with this photo. I took some photos of a water plant in Goose Pond. I don't think I have seen it in any other other ponds at Bona Dea. I will try to ID before I post the photo. I walked over to Black Water Swamp area and took these photos of a Bumble Bee taking nectar from a Hembit weed. These are the purple weeds seen all over in folks yards around here and in the park as well. I walked across the trail by the Swamp water and took a photo of the many very, very small Duckweed floating freshwater plants. You can get several just on your finger tips they are so small. A Pileated Woodpeckers call could be heard on the trail and the Northern Cardinals were calling out. At home I noticed a Carolina Chickadee was eating out of the birdfeeder. Also in the front yard was a big Brown Thrasher bird in the holly bushes.