Pond of the Dancing Trees / Tweetle Beetles!

Springtime in the Barrens, when the ponds are full and green, and the Tweetle Beetles are lusty!

Just a bit of advice: Show up! Never miss the dance!

It was to be the only sunny day in a while, and my husband and I had talked about going to Quehanna for some day hikes. But after spending a fair amount of the prior day in the car, we didn't feel like driving far. So we took our bikes and daysacks up Tow Hill and into the Barrens to check out the ponds.

My husband was with me, and he brought with him a sense of direction that I absolutely was not born with. He jogs all of these trails and knows them all by heart. For myself, I tend to stick to the couple of parts of the Barrens I know really well. It's easy to get lost there.

But on this day, since he was with me, we went to parts of the Barrens I hadn't visited in a while. The ponds are all full, and huge, and glorious, and green. They are as big as, or bigger, than I have ever seen them. Which is impressive, really; we've been going there for 20 years. (I bought the house near the Barrens in early May 2004; closed on it on Memorial Day weekend.)

Above is a shot of one of my favorite ponds, and I think of it as the pond of the dancing trees, because of those trees in the back that form interesting angles as they lean. I'd say the trails are lined with lady's slippers, but some are and some are not.The ones that don't are empty. The ones that do are packed with pink. I don't know why they grow some places, not others.

As we were walking along the one trail, we came upon some beetles on a rock. I took a bunch of pictures and looked them up when I got home. As it turns out, they are carrion beetles, but I like to think of them as Tweetle Beetles, perhaps engaging in their own private paddle battle, from the Dr. Seuss Fox in Socks book. Like so:

"When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles . . . they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle!"

Carrion beetles are also known as nature's undertakers. They feed on dead organisms and help relay nutrients back into the soil. First, there were several beetles on a rock. Then one beetle crawled atop another. Then a third beetle climbed on top of them (see extra photo). So we briefly had a three-beetle situation! Then they all dispersed. Party's over! Everybody, go home!

I looked them up and discovered 50 facts about carrion beetles. Here are two that, together, cracked me up!
10. Carrion beetles oftentimes have a smelly odor that follows them around.
11. Because of this smell, it often makes other animals feel uncomfortable.
(So you interview the local porcupines, and they admit that, yes, the beetles are stinky, and it makes the porcupines feel uncomfortable! LOL!)

The area where they were located was indeed a bit stinky. But I'm not sure if there was something dead there, which drew the beetles. Or whether the beetles themselves brought the stink along. Who can verify the origin of that smell? And it seems rude to point fingers, but if fingers must be pointed, let's point them at the Tweetle Beetles - I mean carrion beetles - in the extras!

I've got two pictures from the Barrens, so let's have two songs. First, for my pond of the dancing trees, I've got Garth Brooks, with The Dance, some of whose lyrics appear below. Second, for my randy, stinky Tweetle Beetle friends in the extras, I've got Lynyrd Skynyrd, with That Smell.

Our lives are better left to chance
I could have missed the pain
But I'd have had to miss the dance