I grew up in this area, about 3-4 miles from where I live now. I say grew up but I really only lived here for 4 years, high school plus one year. I was gone for about 35 years, coming back occasionally to visit my parents, relatives and any friends that were still around. As the years past the visits were less often. After my Dad past away it was easier for Mom to visit my family, wherever we were living.
Then I was able to transfer my job to the Twin City area and I began to think of retirement. The 4 years I had spent here in my youth were calling, calling me home. I was able to spend more time with my Mom and my brother lived nearby. I did some looking and found the property where I live now.
My mother passed away before I retired and never got to visit my wife and me in our retirement home but she knew the property we had bought. When we finally did move in full time it was a homecoming for me, not so much for my wife.
With time I was able to enjoy the memories of the early years, one brother and some of my old friends lived nearby and we fished, hunted, socialized and told lies to one another. Times were good but things were changing.
Over time I realized the frogs had disappeared. In the earlier days the little leopard frogs were everywhere, in the garden, in the yard, on the road at night. We would catch them to use for fish bait. If someone wanted them for bait I could catch a half dozen in a half hour. All sizes, some big enough to eat, though we never ate them. Where had they gone?
Something else was missing too. Some of you may have seen the flying grasshoppers, the big ones, brown, that would fly ahead of you as you walked down a country road in the summer. I’m lucky to see a few over the summer now, they just aren’t around any more.
And the snakes, the garter snakes and the hog nosed snakes that would hiss and flattened their heads like a cobra, they are gone as well. I’ll see a couple over the summer, around the garden. They used to live around the wood piles, the Momma garder snakes gave birth to live babies, 30-40 of the little guys, at a time. Now I rarely ever see any kind of snake.
What happened? I left for 35 years and the environment changed? It wasn’t caused by pesticides, this is not farming country. The winters are just as cold, summers just as hot. I know that the frogs ate the grasshoppers and the snakes ate the frogs. I don’t know much beyond that.
There is some positive news though. As a kid we hunted deer, that is, we hunted and we hunted and we hunted. There were very few deer around at that time. We might hunt for a week and never see a deer. Poaching was not unusual but something we never did. Now we have lots of deer, a few years ago, in a serious snowy winter, I counted 31 in my yard at one time, 25 was not unusual. The last few years we’ve had a limit of 3 per person and the herd has slimmed down a little. Much better hunting today. I don’t know why, logging and clear cut makes an under story of browse, may have something to do with it.
About 15 years ago I saw my first wild turkey in my yard. They had been introduced into the southern part of the county a few years earlier and slowly migrated north. We had never had turkeys here, now they come in the fall to eat under the bird feeders and find any corn that an old clumsy guy may have accidentally spilled. This past winter there were 4-5 Toms and a dozen hens that I had to shoo away to fill the feeders. They’re messy with their lack of toilet training so I have to scrape my shoes off outside. The Toms will peck on the window to get my attention and remind me that they’re hungry. In winter some folks talk of flocks of 50-60 birds in a corn field.
Another change has been the whistler swans that show up early in the Spring. They started coming 20-25 years ago, now they are nesting in this area and will live on some of the local lakes ’til ice forms. They speak a different language than the Canada birds and make a beautiful flight, trailing one another like one leg of a V. The Canadas haven’t been fully integrated here yet so they’re not the nuisance that some places face. They are a fairly new arrival as well.
There always has been a few eagles but they are growing in number now that it’s totally dangerous to get caught with as much as a feather. Evening fishing on a quiet evening, watching the loons and eagles warms a curmudgeon’s heart, it doesn’t matter if the fish are biting.
There is a lot of demographic change going on as well. In days long ago those souls that lived in this area had kids and more kids. Now we’re seeing the retirees arriving, setting up housekeeping in McMansions around the lakes. All the prime property is gone so it’s a lot on a secondary lake or buy on a prime lake and tear down the existing structure. Podunkville, where I went to school, has only a couple businesses. The local hospital, the senior apartments and the school where the kids of the aforementioned get their limited education. These entities exist primarily off taxpayer money. The town population hasn’t changed much over the years.
For bumpkins like me trading snakes and frogs for deer and whistlers is a reminder that the environment is constantly changing. The newbies won’t have known the before days. The in-the-ground resources that are still in the ground and NIMBY will keep them there, at least for now.
Evening fishing on a quiet evening, watching the loons and eagles warms a curmudgeon’s heart, it doesn’t matter if the fish are biting.
🙂
There are times you don’t want a fish to disturb your day drinking.
So after you retired from working for a bunch of turkeys, you now work for a bunch of turkeys?
Seems like it, the tax collectors never quit.
Change is the only constant.
Where I live in northern NJ there are so many deer because of minimal predators and minimal hunting that they are an incredible pest and danger to autos. Naturally whenever there is a professional hunt the tree huggers immediately come out protesting.
When I was kid I was bird shooter as I lived by the bay. I only went deer hunting for two seasons and never shot a thing. Two completely different experiences.
The PETA types and deer huggers have been shut down here. Here you have multiple culls going on in various suburbs most years. You can sign up to have the field dressed animal dropped off at your house if you live in the area.
My family never did deer hunting, so I’ve never been.
I’ve mentioned seeing a few of the buggers in my downtown area but even here in Big U town the “deer huggers” (lol) hold little to no sway. I think everyone knows they are a pest.
I heard the same about deer and turkeys in Southern Wisconsin. I know there were a lot of deer and a good number of turkeys when I lived (and hunted) near Madison.
The same was true in North Texas as well, perhaps to a lesser degree. There were a lot of deer there, though, ten years ago. Then a disease came through (can’t recall what) and knocked the deer back by, say, 80%. That was around the time I quit hunting, so I don’t know if they’ve bounced back.
Chronic Wasting Disease?
I’ve heard of that being in the local deer from time to time.
Hognose snakes are awesome. That is all.
Hognose’s primary means of defense seems to be projectile shitting. They are amazingly accurate.
Not. Awesome.
I’ve never noticed. Hognose snakes usually go in stages.
– Flatten head, hiss loudly.
– Bluff strikes (with mouth firmly closed).
– Writhing, flopping around, sticking their tongues out, all in a dramatic death scene that would embarrass William Shakespeare.
Now Garter snakes? Those little bastards will musk you. They’re generally not shy about biting, either. Pretty though.
Deport them all!
I remember seeing thousands of lightning bugs every summer. We used to catch them and put them in mason jars.
I have only seen 3 this summer.
I remember driving across the bridge from Red Wing, MN to Wisconsin and fearing we would die because the bridge was slick with mayflies and mayfly guts. I don’t think we have swarms of mayflies anymore.
Around here the lightning bugs are thick. The heavy and late rains seem to have knocked the population down from last year, but they’re still quite prolific.
The mayfly hatches on the bridges over the Susquehanna are still a thing.
The bridges are like ice at night.
Just like something as minor as a butterfly flapping its wings in Pacific Grove caused a tornado in Oklahoma, you and your damn mason jar caused the extinction of our beloved lightning bugs.
PONick, haven’t seen a single lightening bug this year.
During the hottest day this week (mid 90s) I looked out the window and saw dozens of them lighting up, so thankfully they’re still there.
I don’t really notice them either unless they’re out in full force like that.
I hope the swans are better neighbors than the Hate Birds/Birds That Hate®. Maybe they’ll be disagreeable enough to the geese to keep them from settling in nearby. (“Go back where you came from!”)
Are the senior apartments in Podunkville in an old remodeled early-20th-century school building? That’s an increasingly common trend in at least west central Ohio smaller cities/towns. Some even retain certain of the distinctive school features like really black (not Baby Boom green) blackboards in the apartments. A nice way to preserve that magnificent architecture.
The old schools are gone, the bricks sold. The new senior apts are plush, with a dining hall, a hair dresser, lots of amenities and medical staff. Not cheap though.
Haha yep, there’s an old school in Casstown that is now apartments. Back in my teenage years when it was sitting there abandoned, my friends used to go in there and poke around (I never got to go). They brought back all kinds of junk they found in there, including a strange implement of leather with some sort of metal blade attached. For some reason, in my morbid teenage mind, I imagined that it was one of those wrist-mounted knives that Croatian Nazis used to kill inmates:
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srbosjek
There’s another school in Piqua that is now senior apartments. There’s also a very old one-room (but very roomy) schoolhouse out in the country that could be a great home if somebody would put the work into it. The roof is visibly sagging, the six large windows are all broken out, and much of the subfloor is missing. But most of the structure looks sound.
I lived in a converted one room school house outside of Madison for 10 or 12 years. Built around 1900 by the Cornish stonemasons who came through that part of the country, paid for by probably a dozen or so local farms. One story, with an exposed basement. Total livable square feet probably around 1500 square feet (generously).
I see there is still a listing up:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/2030-Highway-92_Mount-Horeb_WI_53572_M71343-88665
One of the things I’ve noticed when riding around here is how wildlife varies year to year. Last year we had lots of rodents. This year it’s snakes. In previous years it was lizards.
Some changes have happened over longer scales. We used to have the small bird-chopping windmills nearby, so there weren’t many raptors. That allowed pigeons to take hold. Now that the small windmills have been replaced with slower windmills, the raptors are back, and the pigeons are gone.
When I was a kid, we never saw a turkey, at least not one with feathers. A few years ago they were everywhere. Wild pigs were unheard of, but now they roam the hills and tear up yards.
Things change, and it’s a mistake to think everything will be static.
I notice a variance in the type of bug that I deal with inside the house even though my lifestyle and level of cleanliness from year to year is generally the same… One year it was fruitflies. Then moths. It’s been earwigs for several years now.
I’d actually prefer house centipedes over anything – they’re harmless to humans, gobble up every other type of bug, aren’t interested in human food, and take great efforts to remain hidden from you. I get along with them.
The bane of my existence for the last several years has been stink bugs. I have no recollection of even hearing of them when I was a kid. Then seemingly all at once, they were everywhere. This year, so far, it hasn’t been that bad. ::vigorously knocks wood:: My MO is to trap them with a paper cup and one of those business reply cards from a catalog or magazine, then fling the bug into the toilet and flush it.
GT:
If it helps, I don’t recall stink bugs as a kid either, just started seeing them up here in the past 10 years or so. Have the spotted lanterflies made an appearance down there yet?
I have not seen nor heard of spotted lanternflies appearing locally. For the record, we do seem to still have a decent population of lightning bugs, but I tend to spend more time outside in the morning or late afternoon than at dusk when the lightning bugs are most likely to appear.
GT:
The spotted lanternfly. Annoying invasive species that’s spreading through Ohio. I’ve only seen a couple of them, but there’s nearly daily news stories about killing them, and burning their egg sacs if you find them.
Well, the problem answers itself. 😨
Changes ill be made
Things change, and it’s a mistake to think everything will be static.
You’ll never get a fat study grant from the government with that attitude.
I won’t get many donations to my environmental NGO nor much airtime on a news channel either.
Growing up here, there’s been a decline in the lightning bugs/fireflies over the years, but they still twinkle most summer nights. Coyotes have moved into some of the suburbs where they weren’t there before. River otters have come back to several of the rivers, which based on local reports was huge, as they said they avoided polluted waterways. The Canadian soldiers invade every spring, perch and walleye are in the lake, and our pro sports teams continue to disappoint us in new and crazy ways.
But then again, I’m not even up to 2.5 score yet.
On what sounds like it is a related note Screeching Weasel are invading your territory in August. I’m eyeballing it and kinda thinking that it might be as close as they get to me any time soon.
I’ve already got tickets for that show as well. If you pull the trigger, feel free to reach out.
They’re going to be in the Pittsburgh area as well but Cleveland is a bit closer, I’ve never been there and Pittsburgh didn’t really make much of a first impression on me. I’ll definitely let you know if I pop in for the show.
Sure the river otters are back, but the fire otters had to leave.
I forgot to mention the disappearance of the snowshoe hare. In the long ago days we ate those critters and my job was to bring them in. They were plentiful, eating the soft bark of young poplar trees. I’ve seen one in the last 30 years, now the cottontails are just beginning to show up but not many yet.
The good news this year is that the mosquito population is near zero, deer flies not so plentiful this year.
THE FUCKING COTTONTAILS ARE ALL IN MY GARDEN EATING MY PEAS!
I trapped a couple young ones last year, took them swimming. None this year so far.
I believe the neighborhood fox took care of our rabbit overpopulation. Maybe hawks helped.
The neighbor’s cat, who on Easter morning killed the baby bunny that was hiding behind our futon frame, has moved away. Now that the coast is clear, I’ve been seeing at least one local rabbit out and about occasionally at our end of the street.
The snowshoe hares still live around where I am.
It’s hard to understand, they like brush, which is plentiful, poplar/aspen is plentiful. Foxes, bobcats and coyotes have always been here.
We have some jackrabbits around us. How they survive the snakes, hawks, bobcats, coyotes, and mountain lions is a wonder to me.
I’ve notices similar changes over the 15 years I’ve lived here. We are on a border between subdivisions and corn fields, so there are a lot of critters here. We used to have tons of green tree frogs on the house in summer, but their numbers have gone down. (This year might be an uptick, I hear them a lot). Some years we have foxes. For years we had zero rabbits, now there are tons of them.
We used to have tons of green tree frogs on the house in summer
We had about a dozen tree frogs hanging around our pool. Before we treated it for the summer, I netted out hundreds of eggs. My wife kept saying they’re all dead and threatened to throw them out, but I said just wait. Now we have at least a hundred tadpoles swimming around in tank. Very happy eating lettuce.
The kids are fascinated by them. It reminds me of the Grow-A-Frog I had as a kid, but this much better. When they start morphing into froglets, the kids will get to keep a few to grow into frogs and the rest will go to our pond.
https://www.northernnewsnow.com/2025/06/25/charges-man-believed-be-mushrooms-during-hwy-61-crash-that-seriously-hurt-worker/
“Patches Magickbeans”, if that is his real name, certainly sounds like a shroomer.
Who’s missing?
The Deer population has increased in most locations. My pet theory is that less and less hunters and farmers shoot them. Mostly this is due to the more money and cheaper food. My grandfather and his family would get multiple deer every year for food and save the money they would have used for meat for something else like coal.
Now most still eat the deer they shoot, but it is not a necessity. In my teen years I knew of several folks who still supplemented their loss of employment in winter with “hunting” for meat. I imagine this was much more common than now.
My friends and I talk about that as well. Fewer ATVs (more sidebys though), snowmobilers, hunters and fishermen, the youngest generation spends more time on their phones, etc. The fish limits go down, age limits on running boats and snowmobiles go up results in less interest by the youngsters.
It helps a lot if a kid has a Dad or mentor that will start kids out early and young.
I haven’t seen a grasshopper in forever. Used to keep cleaning them off the windshield so we could see to drive and hose them off the radiator to keep the car from overheating.
Have only seen one snake sine we moved back to MT. Place used to be crawling with them.
Sometimes, when the plane is going down, you just have to grab your stick and pull hard
Grrr
https://x.com/TheTomKnighton/status/1937950360817086756
Many men crash after ejaculating.
I thought this was going to be “Hamburger: The Motion Picture”.
“Wrong joystick, Mrs. Vunk!”
Speaking of wildlife in greater or lesser abundance, anybody got cicadas at the moment?
The frogs outweigh the cicadas here south of the river. Havent much heard any cicadas at all
Cicadas were rare here, now I think they are non-existent.
Yeesh. I haven’t seen any, but I almost crashed my bike during the Summer of the Cicada because one of the fuckers collided with my forehead and ended up stuck between my sunglasses and my eye.
😖
only the annuals
I am in a new development, the ground was cleared so there are none. Makes me sad. Once I get some trees going I am going to see about importing some by burying some larvae underground.
The constant use of anti-grub (for Junebugs) has taken a toll on cicada larvae too.
North Central Texas, all the grasshoppers and cicadas you can wish for. Tons of toads, not many frogs. Hogs, coyotes, and whitetail deer abound. Saw a big bodied buck on the way to work this morning, just starting his antlers. No eagles, but lots of Red-Tails and Harris Hawks. I like watching the Mockingbirds chasing the crows off. I have to chase off the Purple Martins who keep trying to nest on my porch. We had a very wet spring, mosquitos are out in force. And chiggers can all DIAF.
Ha! We got a surprise early release today for…*checks notes* supporting President Trumps EOs
Ultimate troll
???
Seriously
DOT employees released for supporting EO establishing task force to oversee preparations of FIFA and 2025 Club World Cup and 2026 World Cup.
That makes no sense. How does that add up?
No clue man…but we were getting massive early releases under Biden/Bootyjuice for nearly everything
But the front line air traffic controllers are still on duty, right?? 😳
GT:
Well, once they get back from the five martini lunch.
“Sorry, all flights are grounded for the rest of the day”.
We dont have controllers anymore, its all xAI now 🙂
I assumed you guys just nuked Alabama and called it a day.
https://x.com/HustleBitch_/status/1937986607438504150
When I moved to Colorado, I was confused by the Pelicans on the reservoir in my neighborhood. Pelicans are sea birds, right?
It turns out that their migration path has always been over this area, but when people moved in and built a ton of reservoirs, suddenly they had a large food source. So fuck the long migration, northern Colorado is a good place to spend the summer.
I always questioned a lot of animals’ sanity when it comes to their ridiculous migrations. I mean… really?
Evolution doesn’t optimize for best solution, just good enough.
The Monarch butterfly flutters hello.
I think of evolution as the culling of what doesnt work.
Except for homo sapiens, Suthen.
The non-working seem to have a multiplier.
The Great Society seems to be working even better than LBJ thought. 60 years with a lot of negative gains
No government program may ever be allowed to die
“Once Congress has passed legislation stating that a program like the Job Corps must exist, and set aside funding for that program, the DOL is not free to do as it pleases; it is required to enforce the law as intended by Congress,” Carter wrote in the ruling.
Department of Labor spokesperson Aaron Britt said the department was working closely with the Department of Justice to evaluate the injunction.
Congress obviously intended for this program to continue in perpetuity without interference or oversight.
Well, as long as a zillion other government programs are there to ensure a never-ending supply of “low-income youth”, of course this program must continue too.
“Enforcing” the law is not really the same thing as “running a program/bureaucracy”.
What has changed around here is due to the proliferation of fire ants. Ground nesting birds have suffered the most. The ants eat their eggs.
Snipe, quail, woodcocks, turkeys, whippoorwill……I miss them.
As for the rest…we are swarmed by critters here.
Wood ticks will always be with us, looks like.
Yes Sir. I haven’t caught them yet but I am certain the cotton tails go around at night and throw them out like confetti. I have had more ticks this year than in the last ten years.
Also, near zero mosquitoes here. I have never seen that before. It is very curious. Not to worry though, the chiggers are making up for that. I think every critter in the state of louisiana has gnawed on me this year. I even got a blister Beatle on my hand.
I have had to lay down strict limits on when and how much to feed the critters. They nag me when they run out….bees are the worst.
Fire ants are here. Their presence has become background noise. Just trying to keep the mounds out of where the grandkids play, and mow over the rest whenever I happen to mow. Diatomaceous earth seems to keep them out of my AC and septic aerator pump. BioAdvanced fire ant killer dust seems to move the nuisance mounds.
I was hoping the fire ants would kill off the chiggers. I hate, hate, hate chiggers.
We don’t walk around barefoot here.
“Enforcing” the law is not really the same thing as “running a program/bureaucracy”.
It’s the plain will of the people, as anybody can see.