What's in the water?

The last time we got together, we were talking about all of the birds in the ponds on the golf course.  While the birds are pretty, there's a lot of other wildlife you can see in the water at Laurel Creek.  One thing you'd probably guess we have there are fish--and you would be correct! There's catfish, with a big head and mouth.

Then there's bass, too.  Remember I was talking about the Great Blue Herons--well, sometimes they get to enjoy bass for breakfast.

The biggest fish on the golf course are the triploid grass-eating carp, that help to control aquatic vegetation.  These fish have an extra  set of chromosomes, so they aren't able to reproduce, which is important--a few of them are good, but too many could be a problem.  They were put here many years ago, by the guys who take care of the golf course.

Besides all of the fish, there are a whole lot of turtles on the golf course.  One of the craziest things about turtles is that they are reptiles, which means they need to breathe air, like we do.  But somehow, turtles are able to spend months under water in the winter by breathing with their butt.

Sometimes it looks like there's a huge turtle party when all of the Painted Turtles get together.

Another kind of turtle is called a Snapping Turtle.  As a dog, I'm pretty curious, but have always been told not to go sticking my nose into a Snapping Turtle's business.

There are also mammals (like me) who enjoy the water.  Muskrats are rodents (like mice and rats), but are pretty cute looking.  About the only thing they do to the golf course is tunnel into the pond banks.

There's another rodent that often visits the golf course, which is even larger than the muskrat:  The beaver.   Sometimes in the early morning they swim right under the bridge between the Clubhouse and golf course.

Like all rodents, the beaver's teeth never stop growing.  They can do some serious chomping on trees, like these near #2 tee.

That's my wildlife report for now!

Birds, birds, birds...

It's Thor here, and in case you weren't aware, I am a big fan of the water.  When I'm near any of the 15 lakes and ponds on the golf course, I see so many birds.

This time of year we see lots of mother ducks and their babies.  It's pretty amazing that as soon as the baby birds hatch, they know instinctively to stay together and follow Mom wherever she goes.

Another cool bird I often see is called the Great Blue Heron.  It's really big and looks kind of prehistoric.  The Herons don't actually swim much, but hang out on the edge of the ponds while they're hunting.  I've seen them eat all kinds of things over the years!

We also have Egrets on the golf course, but I don't know if they're friends with the Herons or not.

Then there are the visitors, who show up, and may stay for just a few minutes, or a few days--like a Swan...

or even Egyptian Geese...

It turns out that I'm not the only one who thinks golf courses are great for wildlife.  The USGA has a short video which talks about this:  Wildlife on Golf Courses

It's a wild life on the course!

Hi, my name is Thor, and I want to share one of my favorite things with you:  Watching the wildlife at Laurel Creek.

A great dog lover, Mr. Daniels, took my picture.

But first let me tell you a little about myself.  To start with, I have the best job in the world.  I get to come to the golf course every day and check on all of the wildlife that lives there.  I've been doing this for seven years, and during that time I've seen all kinds of animals that call Laurel Creek home.

Some people don't think that golf courses are good for animals, but given what I see every day, I think that's just silly.  I mean  the golf course is 237 acres, which is really big!  40 acres of this is what they call wetlands, where almost no people go (even though a lot of their golf balls are in there...), and that's where some of the coolest animals like to hang out.

So, I'll try to tell you a little about some of the residents on the golf course.  But to be honest, since I'm just a dog, I don't know all that much science.  If you want to learn more about these animals, keep your eye out for the "blue words" which you can click on.  Come on, let's go!

A couple of the animals which live on the course look like they could be my cousins.  Just check out these "big dogs" I saw in the wetlands recently.

I am a little Shepherd, who heard a herd, it's so,
but when I tried to herd the herd, all I heard was, "No!"

So, apparently they aren't dogs after all, but  white-tailed deer.  There are lots of them on the golf course.  They really feel safe there and aren't very afraid of humans or me.  In other parts of the country, deer might have to be worried about wolves or bobcats, but around here, about the only thing which will hurt them are humans.  In the summer, we see baby deer, called fawns.

Last week, I saw another dog-looking animal, but this one wasn't a deer, it's called a red fox.  It turns out that I'm much more closely related to the fox than the deer.

I know it's hard to see, but that's because the fox doesn't stick around like the deer do.  It's actually kind of unusual to see fox during the day, but they often have their babies now, so the parents likely have more mouths to feed.  The baby foxes may be called kits, pups or cubs.

Sometimes we see nice big fluffy foxes, and other times they look pretty hungry.  A lot of people think foxes are carnivores (meat eaters), but they are actually omnivorous, which means they will eat both meat and plants.

Thanks for reading today--I'll be back soon to share more of my wildlife sightings with you!