Halloween is quickly approaching and I can barely restrain myself. My Halloween post is my very favorite post every year and appropriate items are beginning to make an appearance in the park. They make me giggle with childish glee and wonder whether I'll find enough to post my Halloween blog later if I lose control and start posting eerie things now. What am I worried about? It's the wetland, of course I will!
All of the arachnids (spiders) are hard at work. Spider webs are everywhere, waiting to slap unwary visitors in the face or stick to their caps or hair, dangling spiders in their faces. Don't you love the slap of sticky spider webs across your face in the morning?
Many of them are hard at work spinning silvery strands of silk into beautiful fabric for ballgowns. The fairies are preparing for their annual Fall Ball, you know, and gowns are in demand all over the park. Every fairy wants to be dressed in the very finest the park has to offer.
Leftover threads snatch falling leaves from the air, then the breeze spins them around like magical whirligigs.
Here and there, mysterious eyeballs are poking up out of the ground. Are they watching you as you cruise down the boardwalk, chatting, or running, or pushing a stroller, not paying attention to what's around you. You may not be watching the park, but the park could be watching you. Bwaaaahahahaha!
Beware of sharp snaggly teeth hiding along the edges of the boardwalk. Will they snap at you and grab your toes as you wander by?
This female wood duck was swimming around in Marlake making noises that sounded for all the world like crying. Her plaintive pleas nearly broke my heart. Where is her mate? Where are the other wood ducks. Are they migrating? Did she get lost?
Although the wood duck sounded lost and lonely, she wasn't entirely alone in the lake. She may have been lonely for ducks of her own species, but two pairs of mallards shared the lake with her. As I was standing there looking at the lake, Scott Buck came out on his back porch. All four mallards immediately left the lake and waddled over to the porch, looking for a hand-out. I could hear and see Scott waving his arms at them and yelling, "Shoo! Shoo!", then he went in the house. As soon as he shut the door, the ducks spotted me and immediately started their waddle in my direction. If they can't con food out of the man in the house, maybe they can con some food out of the nice lady with the camera. Sorry ducks, you won't get anything to eat from me, either. You need to eat proper duck food. It's not good for you to become dependent on human food.
This beautiful slug must be on his way to the Fall Ball. He's all dressed up in his very best spots. He looks quite the dapper gentleman.
Mother Nature is busy dusting the wetland floor with beautifully colored leaves. Sometimes the fairies sit in these leaves and ride them through the sky, smiling and laughing, yipping and crowing, squealing and screaming, and having a wonderful time. Can you hear them?
Cattails were bowing their heads in the wind. They kind of reminded me of stands full of cheering fans at a football game, doing the wave.
The northwestern thatching ant ranch between benches two and three is closed for the season. That doesn't mean that the thatching ants are gone though.
The northwestern thatching ant hill is doing very well, indeed. So well, in fact, that I didn't want to get too close to it. There were literally thousands of ants swarming on and around this hill. Can you see their big red heads and their round black eyes?
Last, but not least, I leave you with Laser Cat. That's my cat, Miss Belle, watching television. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Sweet dreams, my friends. Sleep with one eye open. You never know where she might show up next, nor what she might do while you're sleeping.
Teri I. Lenfest
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