A Rare Encounter in Brightwood

I walked in the park early Thursday morning.  When I was passing the meadow area, next to the pollinating patch I thought I saw a shoe left by someone.    When I took a closer look, it turned out to be a turtle mom delivering her eggs.  After finishing the delivery and covering the cave, the turtle headed for the pond.  On the way the turtle took a peek over the fence of Rob's Demonstration Garden.  The beautiful flowers of butterfly weed not only entertained human visitors but also were appreciated by the turtle.  Seeing more people walking dogs nearby, fearing the dogs might go after the turtle, I held the turtle and took her to the shore.  During the course I queried the turtle how she handles the situation of being in an upside-down position.  The answer was "no sweat!"  I marveled at the swiftness of the creature's maneuver.  After saying farewell to each other, the turtle returned to the pond.  

In this park I have seen turtles laying eggs before.  This is the first time I saw one traveling a long-distance, all the way to the stone dust-covered trail and digging holes for laying eggs.

At the shore I found two more places where eggs were freshly laid and hidden by other turtles.  Next to the additional delivery rooms, nature gave a celebration by decorating the place with purple loosestrife flowers.

The dryness caused tree leaves to turn yellow prematurely and fall into the pond, looking like a shower under the morning sun.  Dragonflies did not seem to mind the weather as long as there was still water in the pond.  Two of them flew together and made a brief touch-down on a love boat, and then took off for a honeymoon in an undisclosed place.

A mother mallard duck took her 7 newborn babies on a tour in the pond with a wood duck guide.

Spider webs are unfavored in homes.  It is a different story in the woods.  They not only help to reduce the number of mosquitoes and flies, but offer colorful 3-D art presentations.  Watching them vibrating in the morning breeze sometimes keeps me standing still for quite a while.