April 5, 2012. From Haidar to Zmiyiv
Having confirmed that the first individuals were arriving at the common toad spawning site, we walked back to Zmiyiv on foot. To keep the previous page of photos taken at the ponds and their surroundings from being too long, I'm posting the photos taken during the return trip here.
European mistletoe – brighter than bright and bearing berries.
Yellow star-of-Bethlehem.
Siberian squill.
A starling is barely visible among the branches.
The Donets has low water, but a faster current than usual.
Standing on the riverbank, you can hear the splash of waves.
A gull over Zadonetske.
In the floodplain everything has been dried out by the wind.
No tracks will remain on this mud anymore.
The photo is unremarkable, but I'm including it for the record.
In the grass – a sand lizard.
It had ventured only a short distance from its burrow and quickly returned when we tried to photograph it. We passed through areas where lizards are plentiful, but we saw only one. I think this is because the emergence of lizards is only just beginning. The same applies to grass snakes. A little later, walking the same path we took, one would inevitably encounter many grass snakes. We saw only one – it was descending the hillside near Zmiyiv.
It was probably one of the first to awaken.
Yellowhammer.
Song thrush.
Singing.
Common buzzard.
When snow covered the ground here, something was digging tunnels beneath it. The first frogs have appeared at the river as well. Judging by the yellow coloring on the back of the thigh, this is Pelophylax esculentus, a hybrid. Last autumn the current of the Donets was blocked at this spot. Snags sticking up from the bottom and interlocked with one another collected floating debris, forming a dam under which water flowed. A continuous carpet of Salvinia and everything else stretched upstream for more than a hundred meters in September. Now the river has freed itself from most of the debris, but the framework that created this dam last year remains.
The water near it is practically churning.
Will a new cover of debris accumulate at this spot, or will the water eventually remove the main logs that caused it all?
Below the "rapids" there is plenty of fish.
Fry and ripples on the water.
Here an upward-directed current of water breaks the surface, forming a continuously rippling standing wave. Disgraceful.
Puddles next to the Donets.
So far nobody is spawning in them.
For Pelophylax ridibundus, the marsh frog, it is characteristic to freeze on the bottom when in danger.
This is just downstream from the bridge.
Strange – there didn't seem to be beavers here before... Presumably, those who shot at this barrel with a shotgun felt like crack marksmen.
Yes, beavers have appeared below Zmiyiv.
And they are not shy about felling large trees. The cross-section of the tree bears tooth marks; you can see the tree was gnawed unevenly, directing its fall toward the river.
Around the felled tree – a neat circular clearing strewn with wood chips. And this tree they didn't fell for some reason, although they had gnawed into it.
Another one!
When the beavers were gnawing the wood, this butterfly wasn't here yet.
Classic scenery.
And this tree was felled much earlier, probably before winter.
On the part reachable from the water, even the small branches have been trimmed and the bark neatly stripped. Incidentally, last year's dam (which I still believe is man-made... or beaver-made) is located downstream. I really love this spot on the hill.
The Siverskyi Donets and its floodplain – spread out as if in the palm of your hand.
Up on top – grass fires.
A group of children runs across the fields, setting last year's grass ablaze. There is a theory that pyromania is a trait our ancestors acquired over many millennia of using fire. These grass fires cause serious damage.
And they're not afraid to set fires near houses!
The flourishing of agriculture.
