Ημερολόγιο της/του matthew883

So far, the beginning of this month has been amazing - tons of birds are out, I'm seeing more frogs, insects, and crayfish at the stream near my house. I've caught more crayfish and frogs in the last two weeks than I caught this time last year, which is a great sign. I also caught my second garter snake for this year.

Also, I'm obviously expanding my variety of species of animals I'm photographing. I've found a few new species, including a very interesting species of raptor (bird of prey) hanging around my house - and there's not just one, there's like two or three. I'll include my most recent observation of this raptor with this journal entry.

I've also been trying a new hobby - Recording bird calls and sounds.
Although I'm doing my best with this, but there's just so many birds constantly calling, it's hard to pick out just one to record. Then, when I try to record them, I get multiple calls per recording and it's difficult to pick out the one that needs to be identified. I'm not really sure how to solve this problem.

I've also been exploring a lot recently - I followed the creek at the bottom of the hill my road is on - I went downstream and followed it through a small "canyon", which was essentially a small gorge of rocks that the stream travels through. After it gets past that area, it slows down and spreads into a marsh, filled with tons of reeds, cattails, and evidence of beavers.

On the other end, the upstream way, I followed this up to a large man-made pond, which was fed by another stream. I followed this one up to another even larger marsh, but I wasn't allowed to stay due to signs around the marsh saying it was conservational property. So, I left and went back downstream to the areas I was familiar with. While I passing back through the small gorge, I picked up on a trail of turkey feathers and followed them until they ended, which wasn't too far. I don't know if a turkey got attacked or something, but there was no sign of an attack - no blood, tracks from coyotes or a bear. Just an odd trail of feathers. I also looked around for evidence of man (a hunting ladder, boot-prints, etc), but there was none to be seen.

If someone could respond to this post and tell me what the cause of the trail of feathers could be, I would love that. I also want to add the detail that there wasn't just down feathers - there was large, 6-7 inch long feathers too, and their color was brown with tan striping.

Man, today is awesome - It's my birthday, and I'm now finally 18, a legal adult and part of society! I also now have tons of new responsibilities and permissions!

However, I'm a bit worried - I'm now old enough to be drafted for war, and I've been hearing that the U.S. might be helping Ukraine with the battle against Russia - I could potentially be drafted into that, and I'm really worried. I'm a very sweet and caring guy, and I don't like being violent or abusive - I could never shoot a gun at someone!! The only thing I am willing to kill is parasites, like ticks, fleas, lice, and leeches. I just don't have a bad bone in my body that would allow me to perform such a task as hurting and injuring another person. The other thing is I can now be kicked out of the house, which I'm not worried about.

Yesterday, I went on a walk and found a vernal pool with several frog or salamander egg masses, after school I will go and take some pictures of them. There was also some frogs hanging out by the pool, but they jumped in so quickly as I approached I didn't get to see them. So today after school is going to be great. I'm also going to be looking for more new species to photograph, including some black racers that are rumored to be hanging around the woodpile near my school.

I'm so happy today, and I hope everyone else is as well!