Ribbit ... Ribbit ...

I was at our pond this afternoon planting some ornamental (super hot) peppers, something the deer won't eat, when I heard this splash at the water's edge. A large frog had taken an interest in my gardening and wanted a closer look. This frog, unlike the others in the pond, let me place the camera within a foot of it. The black dot in the very center of the frog's eye is the reflection of the camera.

Grouse Chicks

As a followup to the May 22nd post of a Grouse Nest that Jason Abell found, I returned to the nest today and retrieved the time lapse camera that had filmed the nest for the past week. The camera took about 4,000 photo before it ran out of memory, but that was enough to record the event of the grouse chicks hatching.

May 26th, 10:51AM - None of the eggs have hatched.



May 26th, 12:05PM - The grouse is back sitting on the eggs.



May 26th, 2:14PM - The first chick appears.



May 26th, 3:07PM - The chick is back under the mother grouse and an empty egg shell is seen.



May 26th, 4:00PM - Three chicks next to the mother grouse.



May 27th, 9:01AM - A heavy rain overnight but the grouse hatched at least 9 chicks.



May 27th, 9:35AM - Mother grouse and the chicks leave the nest and don't return. In less than a day after hatching the grouse chicks are out of the nest.

Newborn Fawn

The spring rains have made the grass grow this year and I almost stepped on the newborn fawn as I was walking through a field at the cabin property.



I was able to walk around the fawn for a better view and got a few photos before the fawn took off for a new hiding place.

Silt Fence Maintenance

Another quiet day at the well pad except for a crew from Varsity Landscaping checking and repairing the silt fence.

Grouse Nest

Jason Abell managed to locate a grouse nest on his farm while fixing fences and shared the location with me. Unlike the geese on our pond, grouse are harder to find and even harder to photograph.



I have placed an automatic camera about 4 feet from the grouse nest and will try to get some photos of a nesting grouse and maybe some photos of the chicks.

Mapping the well site

Greenway Engineering was at the cabin today setting up a GPS base station at a known reference location. Using this known location and a GPS base station they will record location data around the well pad to create a 3D map of the completed site.



Recording GPS locations.

Pad Construction

The last of the construction equipment has been hauled off the site.



With the construction equipment gone the fuel tank is no longer needed.



The fuel tank is loaded on a truck and removed from the site.

The bears are back

A couple of the neighbors have seen a bear with cubs in the neighborhood within the last week. I placed a game camera at one of the bears favorite spots and got the following photos.



I will place some more cameras in this area and see if I can get some better photos.

Goose Family

Another cool, drizzly day and the mother goose was trying to keep the little ones warm and dry under her wings during nap time. There's always one that doesn't want to sleep.



Nap time is over.



Time for swimming lessons.



Family photo - Mom on left, seven (7) goslings and dad on right.



Swimming lesson in the rain.

Pad Construction - Day 49

Work on the well pad construction is coming to an end as the gate on the access road was installed today.



Only a couple of pieces of equipment are left on the site waiting to be moved to the next job. View from the northeast corner of the pad looking south.

Click on image to enlarge view.

Pad Construction - Day 48

More work on fixing the access road from the truck traffic that hauled rock to the pad area.






The truck loaded with crushed stone for the road had to back up from the entrance before dumping.

Goslings

After a month of sitting on a nest the big day has arrived and I got my first look at the little goslings. It was hard for her to hide the goslings as they squirmed around under her. Pieces of the egg shells are in the nest.



The weather was cool and drizzly, and Mother Goose tried to keep the goslings day and warm.



Some of the goslings are ready to head for the water.

Pad Construction - Day 47

The dry weather of the past week changed over to rain today. No construction work on the site today but the drilling superintendent was on site today looking at the pad and cellars.

Pad Construction - Day 46

A small crew was on site today putting the finishing touches on the pad area crushed stone.



The pad area is covered with 18 inches of crushed stone.



Another load of stone dumped.



The final layer of fine crushed stone is applied to the road.



The well permit was posted today on the bulletin board at the entrance.

Visiting Geese

I have been making several trips a day to our pond to check on the nesting goose and for a moment I thought the little ones had hatched.



It turned out to be another pair of geese from a neighboring pond, 1/4 mile away, had walked over to visit and show of their goslings.



The visit was friendly to start with but after a while the second pair of geese had overstayed their welcome. The resident gander had a few words with the visiting gander but he didn't take the hint.



In the afternoon, the turf war got even more heated and feathers started to fly. The two ganders battled for over a minute as the visiting goose and goslings watched. In the end, the visitors decided to stay on the far side of the pond.



By the end of the day none of the eggs in the resident goose nest had hatched.



Back on the nest after checking the eggs.

Pad Construction - Day 45

The forms were removed from the concrete this morning and protective covers placed over the cellars.



More stone was hauled to the pad area and graded to fill in around the cellars.



View of the pad area.



A crew worked on erosion control of the dirt stockpile at the top of the pad area. Grass seed applied.



Rolling out the straw blankets on the dirt stockpile.




Nailing the straw blanket down with long wire staples.