As many of you know, my wife and I sold our big house on Route 23 and moved up on the hill overlooking our pond.
It was a dream for many years and finally came true. Every morning I wake up and stand at the bedroom window, looking out on what I’ve called “my million dollar view.”
On the pond there are two pairs of geese. A pair usually nests there every year and raises three or four youngsters. But this morning they had company. There’s three pairs and I never even put out a “For Rent” sign.
I’m not sure they will hatch out any youngsters this year. Three times this spring I’ve seen a red fox hanging out in the meadow on the far side of the pond. I know one of the geese was sitting on a nest, but that came to an abrupt halt.
I figure the fox either got the eggs or ate the little newly hatched goslings. I enjoy watching them, but the trouble with geese is what they eat and what they leave behind. They constantly eat grass and leave the digested remnants all over the yard.
But that too may change. Last summer and fall we watched a really light-colored coyote on the hill above the pond. He was checking out all the woodchuck holes for a possible take-out dinner.
Well, he’s back. The other day he was standing perfectly motionless, staring into a freshly-dug hole. I guess my rodent control has returned for another season.
We’ve also had a pair of mergansers on this pond this year. I know they are nesting somewhere close by because the drake is by himself all day. The problem with mergansers is they eat fish. Then again, maybe it’s a good thing. The pond was getting a little overstocked with fish.
The hummingbirds and orioles have returned to their feeders and I have my first bluebirds in the houses above the house.
There were five hen turkeys in the meadow earlier, but I only saw a gobbler a couple of times. There are a couple of guys who hunt turkeys on the farm, so I assume he ended up as somebody’s dinner.
As I’ve told you before, I feed all of our table scraps to the crows. I wasn’t concerned by moving up the hill. I saved up our leftovers for a couple of days and didn’t feed them down at the house.
Then one morning I went out into my yard and started yelling, “Hey. Come on! Come on!” several times and immediately got a response. “Caw, caw, caw!”
Moments later the first crow appeared. Heck, the other morning he — Charley, I call him — was in the driveway, looking into the sliding glass doors. It was nearly nine o’clock. I guess I was a little late putting out his breakfast.
Deer are out in the meadow every morning and early evening. I know that there will be a fawn born out there before long. The old doe doesn’t miss a year.
And then there’s the bald eagle. Usually in the mid-morning I’ll see him.
Yesterday he circled over the pond a couple of times before diving into the water a couple of feet from the dike. He seldom misses. He used his wings to push himself from the water and flew off with a nice bass in his talons. I’m sure he makes the rounds, checking out all the ponds in the area. Maybe there’s a nest somewhere close and the fish is taken back to the young, hungry eaglets.
I’m fortunate. We’re up on the hill away from that noisy highway with no one to bother us. We look out onto God’s country and have nature’s show every day. How can it get any better than that?