June 21, 2010

Yesterday, Arielle sent me the blog site and I read the diary for June 18th. She skillfully edited my writing, and I appreciate her efforts as the editor of my diary. Thank you very much, Arielle!

One juvenile Nutria had a good stroll this morning. Its footprints started at the left side of boardwalk leading to the covered bridge, went through the covered bridge to the outside bridge with handrails, and to the cut stone area that is the beginning of entrance to the boardwalk. The cute footprints gave me a smile as I imagined the young Nutria’s adventure in this morning.

Six Nutrias were in the middle of breakfast feast at left side of the entrance. The young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron did not mind these Nutrias. Just as I went through the covered entrance, I saw the bird carried a big crayfish between its beaks, coming up in a hurry to the bank from the water. I saw the crayfish was wiggling and moving claws, but the bird carried the crayfish high to the top of bank where a tub of the sick Snapping Turtle was once placed.

That young Yellow-Crowned-Night Heron suffered from choking while trying to swallow a big crayfish yesterday morning. This morning’s catch was big, and I was curious how the bird would handle that big crayfish.

The bird held the crayfish in a horizontal position and turned the crayfish with its beaks several times. Every turn the bird made with its beaks, I heard cracking sounds from the shells of crayfish. Then, with its beaks, it changed the position of the crayfish vertically, and amazingly, the bird swallowed that big crayfish in one gulp. After the bird consumed the crayfish, the bird walked down to the water, sipping the water as usual, and started hunting again.

The three American Coots were swimming peacefully along the boardwalk to their hunting place and the three Chinese Domestic Geese were resting near the kayak dock, under the Cypress which carried many green cones. Geese are eating their breakfast much earlier these days.

I saw one Red-Shouldered Hawk flying toward the wetland and I followed the bird. The hawk was perched on the handrail to the entrance. As I was watching the bird, a squirrel started coming down from the electric pole next to the entrance. The hawk flew down to the root of electric pole and looked up at the squirrel. The squirrel noticed, but didn’t show any fear toward the hawk. It slowly kept coming down in front of the hawk which was just watching the descending squirrel, and walked toward the Swiss Sky Ride structure slowly. It was anything special, but I felt as if I saw a beautiful harmony of nature.