May 10: Pileated woodpecker and skinks

Strong storms all night Sunday to Monday, so everything was muddy when I went for a walk with the dogs. But it was still cloudy, so the light was diffuse and easy on the eyes. We scared up a pileated woodpecker in the woods. They're always impressive – giants among woodpeckers, with bright red heads and mostly black bodies. They're the ones that get confused with the ivory-billed woodpecker, but they don't have as much white on their backs and wings.

Later when I opened an old bag of pine bark mulch to spread on a flower bed I planted Saturday, I found a lot more wildlife: centipedes, other creepy crawlies, and, delightfully, two skinks. One was a full-sized adult, with a fat body and gorgeous copper stripes lined with black. The other was smaller and still had its bright blue tail. It wasn't easy getting a photo!

May 11: Ants and egrets

I saw something unusual on my walk today: an ant ditch excavated all the way across the road. It was like the ants had a tunnel running the entire width of the road, and they decided to do spring cleaning and dig it out, opening skylights all across. They were very busy. It's a good thing there's not much traffic.

In the late evening, I was sitting out on the picnic table in back, reading a book while I waited for vegetables to roast on the grill. There's a holly tree just off the patio, and I could still hear the bees in it, just above the wind blowing in the big oaks. One moment, I looked up, and out across the pasture a flock of large white birds was flying from north to south, right past the backyard. I assume they were cattle egrets, at least fifty of them. It's unusual, so far from the ocean, to see a flock of white birds. It made me gasp.


Cattle Egrets Flying, Dan L. Perlman/EcoLibrary.org 2008