Wildlife in the City

Suburban Coleus

As I walked around our small nearby lake this morning, I saw two rather large snapping turtles -- one in the grass thinking about a hike across the road on which cars park between the lake and a small woods, and another settled onto a wooden footbridge.  I'm guessing they were actually looking for places to lay their eggs; the one in the grass had stirred up some of the dirt around her by the time I had made the mile walk around the lake and come back to check on her, but the ground is hard there and I don't think she'll have much luck.

The Canada geese were there with their six growing goslings, and a mother wood duck slipped off the bank, followed by seven or eight young.  The ducklings are so tiny and so well camoflauged by their matching feathers, speed, and quick changes in formation, that they are impossible to count!

Half an hour later as I reached my own block, a neighbor's cat scurried across the pavement with something plump and limp in its mouth, most likely one of our ubiquitous chipmunks.  Once across the street, the cat slowed and sauntered leisurely down its driveway, looking back a couple of times as if to challenge me to just try and remove its trophy.

Walked: 4 miles.