Last night, Bob and I woke up to a sound we couldn’t quite identify, not quite a dog barking, not quite a cat yowling. It was more like a raspy howl. I jumped out of bed and looked out the window to see a fox in my driveway, howling over and over. He was there for a few minutes, and then he got up and ran into the street, running down toward the ponds, still howling.

It still amazes me how much wildlife we have all around us, even though we are in a suburb of Washington, D.C. We are just about a mile due north of the Maryland/District of Columbia line, between the Capitol Beltway and downtown Wheaton.

Today, Bob and I took a walk down the street, right where the fox was probably headed last night. There is a network of man-made ponds to capture the storm water from Wheaton. There’s little green space in Wheaton, and the rain that comes down on all the impervious surfaces (parking lots, roads, etc.) has to go somewhere. The water eventually drains to Sligo Creek via little creeks that run through the neighborhoods. Whenever there is a major shower in the area, the potential for erosion of these creek beds is significant, which is why the ponds were built. They hold all that water, and send a controlled amount of water to the creek downstream.

A side benefit to this is that lots of species of wildlife are attracted to this area. Here’s what we saw today:

We didn’t see another fox, but we saw a pair of deer at the edge of one of the ponds.

Dozens of Canada geese; one pair had a gaggle of five goslings.

Several wood ducks: two females with clutches of chicks numbering seven and eight each, and one male. The males have fantastic coloring. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Wood_Duck.html

Two black-crowned night-herons. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Black-crowned_Night-Heron.html

A green heron.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Green_Heron.html

One female belted kingfisher.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Belted_Kingfisher.html

One killdeer.
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Killdeer.html

A couple of small turtles and one large one, possibly a snapping turtle.

Tree swallows, song sparrows, robins, grackles, a phoebe, a mallard duck, and a red-winged blackbird. We saw a baby robin that seemed to have just mastered flying, and a baby grackle that was on the ground but didn’t look like it knew how, yet.

Six tiger swallowtails clustered together in the mud, extracting minerals and nutrients from the soil.

A school of about thirty brown bullhead fish.

When I was shopping for a house twelve years ago, I found the ponds down the street. I saw my first night-heron there. It just about sold me on the place right then. Even from inside my house, I can see all kinds of wildlife, because there is an open field across the street. Behind that is a patch of woods, and behind the woods and to the right are the ponds.

I’ve never been such a fanatical birder that I keep a life list, but I do have a couch list. Follow this link to a piece I wrote about it on Julie’s Tacky Treasures: http://www.tackytreasures.com/tackyhtml/couch-list.html. I accumulated thirty three species on this list before I stopped. It’s unlikely that I’ll add any more to the list because I moved the bird feeder from the front yard where I could see it from the couch, to the back.  But if I do, that page is where I’ll report it.

Every year, I go down to Charlottesville for a weekend camping in the woods with 200 or so of my friends. We play music, dance, eat, drink, and best of all, laugh. If I didn’t have this party to go to, how would I measure the quality of my life? This is the best, the place where I feel most welcome. Even if the rest of my life isn’t quite this grand, it’s important to know that the possibility is there.

This is the twenty-second year in a row I’ve done this. Bob has come with me the last three years, and it’s so wonderful that he gets it, too. Now that he’s got the hang of the ukulele, he was even jamming with us. Who knows how good he will be next year?

I haven’t been playing that much this year, but somehow, my fingers got themselves in gear and I played my banjo faster than I have ever played it. Thanks to Sheila for inviting me into that jam. It was a ride of a lifetime. I’m still popping ibuprofen for my shoulder.

Paul and Susan are my camping buddies. At first, it was just Paul and I. I don’t even remember when I first met Paul. We like to camp together at parties and festivals like this. He used to always bring the women he was dating to this event. If they didn’t get it, then he didn’t see a future for them. Susan took to it like a duck to water the first time he brought her. Not long after that, they became engaged. I really enjoy her company. The best thing is that when Bob came along, he fit in perfectly. So, now we are two married couples that share a campsite. It feels so warm and welcoming.

Hugh and Anastasia show me how to have a good time. Their campsite is always filled with people, food, instruments, and toys. We held the second annual Ukulele Summit there. We shared charts and tunes and tips for playing. Hugh got out his steel guitar, and we sounded really Hawaiian! Anastasia sang, and Steve sang and backed us up on guitar, too. Steve invented the “capon,” which is a capo with a small rubber chicken on it. It’s definitely a tacky treasure, and I’m going to enter it into the Tacky Treasures Road Show for him.

We’re on the banks of a river, and a walk down the rocky shore is always a treat. People are swimming, fishing, and building cairns with the river rocks. I found a tree where a pair of downy woodpeckers are building a nest hole. It was amazing to watch them work, and I was happy to be able to share what I found with Bob.

This was the thirty-fifth year in a row that this party has been held. There are only three organized events connected with it: silly skits on Friday night, at the end of which they sing the theme song of the party; tee shirt and raffle ticket sales on Saturday morning, to raise money to defray costs; and the raffle on Saturday night. Everyone is happy for the winners. I’m happy for all of us.

See my photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tackyjulie/sets/72157605129657095/