otter pond
An active otter found our pond this morning and has spent a long time exploring its depths for food, periodically climbing onto a rock to rest and warm up. In fact, it’s still out there now as I write this, some three hours after Jeff first knocked on our door to tell us he’d spotted an otter. It seems to be taking advantage of the extensive frog population (which may now be not quite so extensive).
The otter has been amazingly unperturbed by the humans gawking from nearby. A few neighbors gathered to watch and stayed long enough for the kids to elaborately introduce our new pavement to the art of chalk drawing. And Sue snuck right up to the pond’s edge to take some photos of the otter — one of which I’m posting here. A little later, I was able to get close to the pond and take some photos too, with the otter barely lifting its head from the rock where it was lying, appearing unconcerned as I approached. (The otter was strategically on a rock surrounded by water, and perhaps it noticed that I wasn’t wearing a swimsuit.)
Some of us have been thinking the pond needs a good name, and this morning, a few of the kids came up with an excellent idea –Otter Pond. Works for me.
It was quite a morning for wildlife. From neighbors gathered to watch the otter, we learned that a female moose had been meandering earlier this morning through the hayfield across from the Steele Rd entrance to the neighborhood.
And a monarch butterfly emerged from its chrysalis this morning in our dining room. Lila had caught the caterpillar a few weeks ago during a Nubi Explorers outing, and it had formed a chrysalis a couple weeks ago. The butterfly is drying its wings just outside our back door now, and we’re hoping it’ll soon be on its way to Mexico.