Critter Magic

Larry and I were "noodling" in the lake yesterday afternoon, when something spooked a vulture in the trees high above our cove. Once that one bird started from its tree, many others followed suit. There were at least two dozen huge birds circling around the tree tops above us. It was really creepy and we both felt like we were playing a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's, The Birds, movie. We were mesmerized and couldn't stop watching them swoop and sail through the air; landing on branches above us or disappearing behind a tree top.

There have been lots of dead fish floating on the lake recently. And, there was a smell of dead fish in our cove. We saw a filleted fish left behind the other day. But, why so many huge birds in one small area? There were not that many dead fish around. The majority of fish floaters were in the deep water area near the dam. My brother-in-law told us when a fisherman catches a deep water fish and brings it to the surface, letting it go will kill it because it cannot handle the temperature change. "Catch and release" is not a healthy thing in this circumstance. It would be kinder to keep it and eat it.

This morning we sat on the pontoon enjoying our coffee. As we talked about the night before and our coming day, a May fly was doing Yoga on the little table. At least that's how I interpreted it's movements and its holding positions. It's supple body, elongated as a narrow worm, was curved in  a "U" shape to the tip of its slender tale from its outstretched front paws, held together in perfect alignment with the rest of its body, completing the "U" shape. Amazing. I wasn't even high to be able to appreciate its beauty. Then, all I had to do was look up and everywhere there were caught or dead May flies. Everywhere. Dead bodies floating on the surface of the lake and filling spider webs all around the boat canopy supports and in the dock railings. It is pretty gross to see that many just hanging there obstructing the view. But there you have it. The flies must have a second hatching. That's all we can figure. Usually they are around the end of May or the beginning of June. We've never seen them in August.

One last annoying critter thing. We have little black worms that I believe are tiny millipedes everywhere. I thought all the curled up little things on the floors everywhere were spider turds. But I realized recently that they are really dead worms. They appear seemingly from nowhere and are everywhere. We don't remember having them before. We've been at the lake house eleven years, and don't remember them. They don't hurt you, they are just annoying to have crawling all around, so we kill them or flush them. Why can't they just stay outside? It has been so wet around here. We've decided it's because of the intense dampness. The house has a pervasive mildewy smell. I hate it. I've seen a bit of mildew on the dark wall paneling also. It's pretty gross, and even running the air conditioners for two weeks hasn't helped the smell much. I burn lots of Yankee Candles. What else is a smell sensitive woman to do? This is part of country lake livin'.

Where's the magic in this story? It's in the "now you see 'em, now you don't".