An Un-Black Skimmer

Beatty’s Guest Ranch is famous above all for its hummingbirds and its rhubarb. But Tom and family have also constructed a beautiful pond, an important fostering site for the Ramsey Canyon leopard frog and attractive to all sorts of other wildlife.

On Saturday, we watched elegant black-headed garter snakes swimming through the water, inspiring inelegant hops and plops when they appeared too close to a loafing frog. And the surface of the water was patrolled by a variety of dragonflies.

I think this big, bright animal is one of the skimmers. Enough to make me wish we could dig a lake of our own!