Old house across the street, April 20. 2011

There is a pretty old, abandoned house across the street and back in the woods. I have no idea how old it is, or who used to live there, and no idea how to find out. 

It must have been very beautiful at one time, and I can't help but wonder what it might have been like to live there!

The front

Looking in the front door, beautiful old wooden banister.

Looking into the basement through a small ground level window, beautiful, BIG old fireplace.

Basement directly across from the fireplace, stairs to main level.

Around the back. Love the big chimneys!

I would love to have gone in, but I was alone and afraid to fall through the floor and no one would ever find me!

This is a smaller building in the back of the big house. It was fairly large in it's own right!

Outbuilding of some sort.

Looking in at main floor level, it's caving in!

Another view of the main floor ceiling caving in.

Looking down the treacherous stairs to the basement.

Doorway into the basement, spider web can be seen if you look closely!

Looking through above mentioned doorway into the cellar.

April 9, 2011 Trip to local pond

On a tip from a local birding expert, Steve and I set out to look for some Great Blue Heron nests near a pond not far from where we live. 

The pond has quite a few pairs of nesting Canada Geese.

And Herons!

It wasn't long before we saw a nest!

It was about a quarter of a mile off, across a swampy area with some vernal pools. We saw a few interesting things along the way:

Large vernal pool

Heron tracks!

Raptor pellet that Steve scooped up off the ground.

Pellet, broken open. Lots of hair and some small bones

Tiny stream and Skunk Cabbage

Broken Canada Goose eggs, probably stolen from a nest by a fox or raccoon.

Yellow Spotted Salamander, Steve found under a rotten old log.

Not sure what kind of fungus....looks like a brain!

There are geese in the back!

Deer leg bone

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, the nest, and as a bonus, the Heron stayed in it for pictures!

 

 

We hope to get back there soon to see if the baby geese have hatched and to see if there are any signs of Herons sitting on eggs! There was another nest, it looked somewhat sparse, and there were no Herons near it. Those were the only 2 we saw. But according to my bird friend, there used to be and entire rookery of nests there in years past. 

It's just never going to end....

SO, I was just preparing to answer Lolly's post about the lightning when all of a sudden....