Photo Hunters: Drink

Cat Drink

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Duquette Flats (part of Barton Mtn is on the right and
my house is under the mountain but can't be seen)

When the cats live in the woods in spring, summer and fall, they drink wild water. One of the wild waters here is May Pond Brook. It comes from May Pond behind the ridge to the south of me and flows through the meadow on the other side of my road directly across from my house. This meadow/wetland is called Duquette Flats after two bachelor brothers that owned and farmed the land decades ago.

There used to be a large hay field there but about twenty to thirty years ago the beaver moved in. Beaver are protected, so the farmers lost their field but I have a wonderful wetlands now. Besides beaver, I see herons, eagles, hawks, cranes, ducks, geese, snipe, moose, deer, coyote, mink, fishers, woodchucks, and my favorite, otters! It is a wonderland of life. In the spring you actually can't hear your radio inside the house because of the spring peepers. Those are my favorite nights with their promise of the perfect summer that is soon coming.

Flowers in May on a tree that hangs over May Pond Brook.

In the photo below you can see part of the flume. A flume is not a waterfall, where water falls freely over a rock ledge. On a flume, the water slides over a huge boulder or ledge as it flows downhill. You can slide down a flume, and kids here do so! They also dam up the brook behind the flume to create a swimming hole in the cool woods. All this is within walking distance through the woods near my house.

The top of the flume during an autumn dry spell. The Lowell Range of the Green Mountains is in the far far background.

There are gentle rapids at the top of the ledge for
us that are too old to go sliding down rough rock!

We followed the brook up to May Pond one spring and one autumn and found other beaver dams. You can see the drowned trees in the far background in this photo:


Further upstream we found another dam!


We had to walk way around the beaver ponds:

The brook is so tranquil and clear:


The problem with these beautiful wild waters is giardia, or, as we call it here: beaver fever! It is an intestinal parasite that causes . . . well, you can imagine what it causes! And the cats come home most autumns with beaver fever. After treatment from the vet (only pills are needed to cure it), they are ready to stay in for the winter!

Don't drink wild water unless you test it for giardia first! There are pills you can carry to drop into the water to make it drinkable.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you are having a great weekend (we are having another two feet of snow!)

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