Chapter Twenty — Little Visitors
Cissy told us there were many critters in the campground…turkeys, pheasants, deer, birds. I asked about skunks. She said, “yeah, we have occasional skunks too.” eek. Hope we never see one of those! She claims there are no fish in the ponds, but we’re thinking she just doesn’t want people to fish in the ponds. We’ve seen ducks and an occasional crane in the pond. They wouldn’t be there if there were no fish. We’ve seen all but pheasants.
Sweetie came “home” one day and said he saw a turkey. Dang, I missed it! He said they’re close by eating seeds that fell on the ground from people’s bird feeders. One day, the turkey paid US a visit! It went behind the camper and by the next door neighbor. YAY! I finally saw the turkey!
This is a great place for bird watching. We’ve seen cardinals and heard a plethora of birds. I’ve had conversations with cardinals. I don’t recognize the songs of some of them. One day I had a nice conversation with some bird nearby. He’d sing, I’d whistle back. Then I decided to download an app from Cornell University. There was a nearby bird (didn’t see him), and it turned out to be a red-tailed hawk!
We almost always see bunnies running into the cornfields. One night, two bunnies were in the road and didn’t move! Sweetie had to stop the car for a moment. I’m sure they would have scurried off once we got closer, but we were pretty close! Were they so engrossed in bunny conversation that they didn’t notice us?!
We also had a snake right near the platform by the steps! EEK But it was probably more scared of us than we were of it. It slithered back into the pond, never to be seen again. Thank God!
Sweetie loves seeing the occasional beaver scurry across the road around the other side of the pond, from the field toward the pond. One night, he saw a possum scrounging around the dumpster that someone had left open.
One evening when the weather was nice, we had the screen door open while watching TV. Something caught my eye, and there were two little hummingbirds near the door, as if to say hi! As quickly as they came, they were gone. So sweet!
The best little visitors were a turkey family! Mama and Papa with five babies, crossing the road by the cornfields. Dang, I didn’t have my phone ready! So disappointed I missed taking a picture. They were soooo cute!!
K said he now has chipmunks in his trailer. What next?!
Here’s an update on the frogs…It’s been really dry here and there’s a lot of scum in the pond. It seems the pond dried up in some areas. So we’re not hearing the frogs at night anymore. I still keep my earplugs handy, just in case. But methinks they packed up their cellos and moved to a different pond. Quiet resumes…until morning when the mourning doves begin to coo. Get a bush!!