Beaver Ponds

These ponds were created by beaver. I see these ponds out of my front windows every day. They are beginning to freeze over now. The temperature at 4 AM this morning was 15°F (-9.4°C). The meadow used to be a hayfield until the beavers damed May Brook, which is behind the ridge in the background of this photo. The area is known as Duquette Flats after the bachelor brothers who farmed here in the mid 1900s. The ponds are home to otter, geese, ducks, heron, mink, and weasel and are a source of food for fish, moose, deer, coyote, fox and other animals. Hundreds of redwing blackbirds nest here in the early summer. 

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Technorati tags: beaver Duquette+Flats
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Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea)

Until I saw this bird in the view finder, I didn't even know it was in the field of sunflowers. And at that moment, I saw my very first indigo bunting. After some research, I found that the vocalizations it was making were alarm calls. It was flitting just below the top of the sunflowers. I'm sorry that I alarmed it but glad that I caught it on my camera.

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Technorati tags: indigo+bunting Vermont sunflowers Passerina+cyanea
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