Now that's more like it

When I first arrived at Howell's today, it seemed like I was in for another quiet evening. So I wandered around, looking for some more wildflowers to photograph. Which wasn't too hard at first, as several stalks of this flower were growing right beside the edge of the pond—I believe it's a yellow flag iris:



A buttercup:



A white baneberry:



And I think this is a Canada mayflower:



Finally, on one of my trips along the road I noticed movement as I paused to scan the water, looking up just in time to spot a heron flying toward the far end of the pond:





After a while, I decided I'd go back to what's worked so well for me in the past: hanging out at my usual end of the pond and seeing what might happen. After a bit, I noticed some movement in the water, and became pretty sure it was a turtle moving around. I was walking along the bank, trying to keep an eye on the spot where I thought the turtle was, when I heard a wood duck call. In the past when I've heard it it's meant a duck was either about to land on the pond or take off from it, so I looked up at the water to see if I could spot it. This time, the duck making the noise wasn't announcing its arrival or departure—it was issuing a warning about what was lurking at the water's edge:



As far as I could tell the gray fox did not enjoy duck for dinner this evening, but it did walk along the water's edge a ways:









Once the fox was gone, the mother wood duck decided it was safe to take her brood out for a swim. Despite how far away they were, it was still cute to watch them trailing after her: