Deer Prints, Broken Eggs and More!
Posted: 2 July 2014
It's been almost a month since my last early morning view of the lake - if you call 09:30 early morning - so it was time for another! Compared with the 5 June you'll notice the lilies nearest the house have grown considerably. There's also more in the middle distance too. The last of the yellow flowers on the left of the lake have gone as well. My worry is that things will continue to grow over the next two months and then I have to worry about the impact that will have on next year's growth. It looks like it's time for some more serious management!
The weather has been so wonderful I took a number of trips round the grounds today. My first was at about around 11:20. There were a better than average collection of what I take to be deer prints on the path in the north-west corner of the grounds. We seem to get quite a number on the new path, which because there are more places where it does not have such a good covering of grass as some of the longer established paths makes spotting the footprints so much easier.
Much later, just before 19:00, I realised that we have both ducks and a swan on the lake and that prompts me out onto the decking and then round the lake to get an other view. I say "swan" but this appears to be the same cygnet that has been a regular visitor for a few months, one I first spotted on the back dyke back in February. It seems those I spotted on the lake in March were just visitors.
While I was out I also took a couple of photos of the egg shells that I had spotted during my morning walk. They seemed insignificant then, but later I wondered a little about them.
The first I found in the middle of the path on the island. a few yards from the end of the bridge. The tress immediately above certainly hold no nests, so I assumed they had been carried there by some creature and left after eating the contents of the shells.
The second was no so exposed, under the cover of tall grass and nettles at the other end of the bridge. In this case the shell was not so completely shattered and did look as if it might have seen the normal emergence of a live young breaking free.
However, it too was not near any obvious nest and is why I had began to think during the day that these shells were the the product of some nest raid by a creature wanting a meal.
