Animal Encounters of a Third Kind

A snapping turtle laid her eggs on the sand bank across the street from the garden.  It took all afternoon and into the evening. She attracted quite a crowd of onlookers while she did her primal thing. Fascinating!

I found some good information on snappers at the CT DEP and the Peabody Museum web sites.

Two weeks ago a ruby-throated hummingbird was swept into the garage as the garage door came up and we drove in with the car.  Sara and John saw something right away but didn't know what it was.  They were sure it was up and to the left above the garage door rails. Then I found a hummingbird on the steps going up to the house.  After some speculation we finally figured out that the tiny hummer was covered in cobwebs.  And there were many cobwebs above the garage door rails we discovered later!  John used tweezers and small sewing scissors to remove the cobwebs (which were wound tightly around its body) while Sara gently held its small body.  She had held and resuced a hummingbird once before in Ohio when she was seven. Two hummingbird encounters in her lifetime!

All cleaned up

and ready for release

Maybe there's still some cobweb here

The hummingbird was gone in a flash once the last bit was removed.

Then, today I saw a groundhog near the bird feeder.  No photos of this creature--

and I hope I don't get any. I don't want it in my garden!