BLOG 17: Where The Heck Have I Been??

Yeah, what the heck happened???

I worked for a good couple of months building an audience of 1 or 2 readers and then I just disappeared! Why?  Well little things like deaths in the family, homelessness, poverty...but now that I have my sleeves rolled up and nothing figured out I'm ready to dive in again for no apparent reason!

That's right! I'm going to continue to write weakly a weekly BLOG about nature and critters in my own inimical  fashion! (Didn't he mean “inimitable?”) 

HA! See that? My humor is SO clever I have  to explain it or people think I ain't got da good vercabulary!

Anyway...I am now living in Vermont so expect a lot of old photos and adventures from my years in Pennsylvania! 

What?? Oh yes...someday I'll drone on about my current situation but I'm waiting until it's all old news!

So...stay tuned...or better yet...tune out but then tune back in later! There will be new stuff here soon!

See ya!

And always remember, “But Above all things truth beareth away the victory”

BLOG 16: From Winter Into Spring

It’s been a chilly spring here in the Poconos so far. Well, I guess every spring starts of chilly, right? It would be more accurate to say this has been a very indecisive spring. I think nature is conflicted right now…spring doesn’t want to get out of bed and winter doesn’t want to go to sleep. For those who play Facebook with me that’s an old observation but I’m adding to it some new pictures! That’s a good thing, right? Well, whether it is or isn’t your there and I’m here and together we are going to forge ahead  . . . and you can jump blog at any time!

I am so surprised at how almost any time of the year you can still find creepy crawlies if you just take a moment or two and poke around  (like you have nothing better to do on a cold winter’s afternoon) 

These ice-glazed winterberries (Ilex verticillata) were photographed on January 25^th!

And a few feet away, animal tracks in the snow (squirrel?)

And a short distance from that I tore a log from the frozen earth and under it what did I discover? A tank bug ( pill bug, woodlouse...etc)  It was alive and moving…although very slowly.

There are always little beasties about, struggling to survive in the elements if you know where to look.

Here are  some more random pics I took with my cheapo Best Buy camera documenting the gradual return of critter life to the Pocono Mountains!

Here, you can see the lay of the land on March 15^th. It was still pretty cold and there was plenty of snow around.

But just on a whim I went outside and started flipping over some stones and check this out! A cricket!

I really had no idea they were up and about in suck cold weather. And how about this! A wooly bear! (Tiger Moth caterpillar-Pyrrharctia isabella)

Again, I had no idea they were active and wooliying around in the winter months! And just as I'm type this I found this interesting tidbit on Wikipedia,

"...woolly bear larva emerges from the egg in the fall and overwinters in its caterpillar form, when it literally freezes solid. It survives being frozen by producing a cryoprotectant in its tissues. In the spring it thaws out and emerges to pupate"

Who knew!?? And interestingly, as I mentioned in a previous Kieran's Critters (BLOG 14: A Critter in the Snow!) this rock remained a good source of salamanders from December all the way through March. Here’s the stone surrounded by white stuff on March 21^st and yet another salamander that was hiding under it!

On March 31^st when I was heading out at the end of the day I saw flocks of migrating geese were passing over the house. I grabbed my camera and got a shot of the very last V formation before the sun went down. Its times like this (many times like this) that I wish I had a zoom lens that actually did something!

April 1^st was when it really seemed that Mother Nature was taking this spring thing seriously and was going to commit to warming things up! You can't trust too many folks on Fools' Day but this Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)  that slithered into our yard seemed real enough!

By April 3^rd the white crud had almost entirely melted way and little bits of green were starting to blossom around the property.

And that brings us to today! By the way, how are you liking this? I’m a bit rushed today so I’m just packing in the photos with much less exposition! I actually think most of you will prefer this photo heavy, rhetoric lite approach (because if you don't I know I'm going to hear about it!)

Anyway, I drove off yesterday to a small, barely used park in my area that I don’t think most people here even know about (In fact I know they don’t know about it) and I wandered around to see what I might find! It was about 50 degrees today so not chilly but certainly not entirely comfortable either.

Here’s a nice little section of the creek that runs through the park. I’ve never seen any creatures in it besides Blacknose dace (Rhinichthys atratulus) and water striders even in the middle of summer but I’m sure it must harbor other wildlife I’ve just never spotted.

In addition to countless Red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) I found here’s a beautiful, almost golden colored, Northern Two-Lined Salamander (Eurycea bislineata) ( see BLOG 13 ) My cruddy little camera really doesn't capture it's true radiance!

But this was what was most interesting to me. Yep, this muddy spit of seepage believe it or not. I know,   not very picturesque!

But when you slog through the mud and get right up over it and the sun hits the water just right it really is quite beautiful. I love the color of all the leaves and plant matter lying still in orangey, iron rich mud. 

Being careful not to step in the water and injure any aquatic denizen’s further examination of this puddle revealed amphibious egg masses!

This, by the way, is why I’m not thrilled with a popular activity in these parts called “off roading” where people (mostly young guys) drive all-terrain vehicles (ATV) or QUADS or whatever else  through the woods, delighting in splashing through water filled ditches. Very often they’re smashing right through little worlds like this. It’s perfectly legal and wood frogs (these are Wood frog eggs) aren’t endangered…but it just bothers me! I know, you're rolling your eyes and playing  a tiny violin. Hey, if I can’t make a fuss on my own blog where can I??

Anyway, I was getting increasingly cold squatting  on the spongy banks of this ditch as cold orange goo seeped into my sneakers but I was intent of snapping at least 1 picture of a wood frog. I have no idea how long I was sitting there (too long) but I finally saw some movement and gently pulled some leaves aside and grabbed the quick shot of a submerged wood frog.

This time of year in the chilled water of their breeding pools they seem to be this almost black color but later in the year they are a light tan and occasionally I have fond ones that are almost red or even pinkish! And I’m not proud of admitting I harassed the thing but I did…just a bit. I poked the mud near him and when he hopped up and out onto the grassy bank I snapped this final spit second photograph

So there it is! I wish I had more time to explain and analyze and theorize and reflect but these are busy times for me and I’m happy I was at least able to bring you this brief survey of my findings over the past weeks and months.  I’ll be back sooner or later with more Kieran’s Critters! As always any questions or comments are always welcome!

If you have any complaints you can take ‘em to the nearest forest puddle you can find and deposit them in the orange mud.

Merry Meet and Merry Part and Merry Meet Again :)

BLOG 15: CreepySnitch & Friends

“The world outside my window this afternoon is cold and hollow. Frozen tears plummet from the smoldering sky and a grey sorrow lies across the landscape and oozes into every cranny and crevice. The wind blows now, and the tears fall sideways and winter howls in misery.  And as the lonely sun dissolves behind silver trees there in the dark corners of the forest  floor ‘neath roots and leaves,  along faint pathways hewn cross snow and ice, and  in little places here and there through the bitter darkness the mice remain quick and busy and productive.  These tiny wanderers of the woodlands are indomitable!”   

--Nareik Legov (Days on the Mountain)

Some time ago I was spending the night at a friend’s house around Christmas in an apartment in Budd Lake NJ. The sliding glass doors were kept open just a crack to run some electrical wires outside for the satellite dish. That was all one adventurous mouse needed to slip into the warm abode where he proceeded to help himself to sunflower seeds set aside for the birdfeeders.   A few of these snitched seeds I would imagine he carried off to some cozy borough on the outside but a goodly amount of them he stored in one of my friend’s expensive leather boots!  He also braved drifts of synthetic snow and circumvented an obstacle course of  porcelain ornaments so he could reach the base of the Christmas Tree and refresh himself!  The tree’s stand was kept filled with water. 

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring . . . um except for this mouse -- he was stirring a lot! (I don’t think Clement Clarke Moore knew much about mice!)  Then sometime in the wee hours the door came slamming down on my Havahart trap and our culprit was caged!

Wild mice can carry all sorts of parasites and bacteria and I never recommend anyone collecting them and keeping them as pets.  I’ve never been one to listen to good advice though…especially my own! I couldn’t bear the thought of turning this little gentleman loose just so he could infiltrate the building again at some other point and be killed by people less forgiving than myself or my friend.  And so I set him up in small tank with a water bottle and a wheel and some cardboard real estate. Mr. CreepySnitch has resided there peacefully for a about four years now,  with all the seeds and other goodies he could ever desire!

CreepySnitch at home

I was uncertain for a while whether Creepysnitch was a Deer Mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) or a White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) and I still go back and forth on the matter from time to time. Both species are widespread throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania along with the House Mouse (Mus musculus) which is a different looking sort of critter with darker more uniform coloration and smaller eyes and ears. 

CreepySnitch ready for the big wheel!

In favor of the Deer Mouse ID is Creepy’s off white belly and his 2 tone tail (dark on top and very light on the bottom) and his tail’s overall length being as long or longer than the rest of his body. White-Footed mice have whiter bellies, a tail that’s nearly one-half their total body length and that isn’t distinctly bi-colored.

To confuse thing however (and what’s the fun of nature if it can’t ever confuse you?) in his “The Mammals of Northeastern Pennsylvania” John Serrao mentions that the Deer Mouse’s tail “ends in a tuft” and that the White-Footed mouse’s tail is “without [a] white tuft at [the] tip.”  Creepy doesn’t have any "tuft" or maybe he just doesn’t to my untrained peepers!? 

Also, subtle color variations according to age and geographic range can introduce variables into the mix that  complicate the standard methods of on-site identifications.  

Young Deer Mouse with darker pelage from Tannersville PA

Want to get even more mixed up?  If you happen upon any natural history accounts pre-1920 you’re apt to hear about a creature called “Peromyscus americanus” the “white-footed deer mouse.” So, sometimes you never really know what the heck you’re reading about!

From "Wildlife of Orchard and Field" by Ernest Ingersoll (1902)

Hey, is there a mammalogist in the house that can clear all this up for us? I’d appreciate it! Thanks! 

Another befuddling variation!

Deer mice are fully grown at a little over 8” and many people are surprised to learn that in addition to seeds, berries, nuts, acorns, plants and fruits they also eat small insects and centipedes!  Makes me wonder why we never saw Jerry running around with a cricket or a big meal worm!? 

WOW! That was alarming! I have a weird sense of humor...sorry about that!

Anyway, Deer mice stuff their cheeks with food the way hamsters do and carry provisions off to their home which could be in a hollow log or an abandoned bird’s nest or a log pile or even, unfortunately, the walls of your house! Seal those cracks in the foundation folks!  In “A Field Guide to Your Own Back Yard” John Hanson Mitchell writes, 

“The nests look very much like a ball of dry grass or feathers and twigs and, unless you know what to look for, will be overlooked by your average back-yard explorer...”  "they will nest in the oddest sort of places…I once found [one] in the air conditioner of a small industry.”

Mouse nest found in Kinnelon NJ

And just one closing note; I have found several references that describe White-Footed mice and Deer Mice as “singing.” Robert Snedigar reported in 1939 that,

“Persons fortunate enough to witness and hear an exhibition of one of the celebrated ‘singing mice’ have sometimes assumed that the tiny songster was seeking by music to enter into lady’s affections. In these singing mice, different sorts of sounds have been described as the song, but ordinarily it is spoken of as a bird-like twitter, weak in volume, variable in pitch and intensity of tone.” 

And while I’m normally loath to link my readers to other websites this recording “The Song of the Deer Mouse” made by filed-naturalist  John Sankey from  Ontario, Canada is worth 10 seconds of your time. 

MOUSE SINGING

Sounds more like high pitch "clucking" but then again, so do a lot of modern singers! CreepySnitch has never sung but he does sometimes “buzz” rhythmically! It’s a rapid, vibrating of one of his back feet against his cardboard home that he  sustains for a good 20 seconds, rests and then starts up again. I tried to record it for this blog but I was unsuccessful. As soon as I can capture a bit of it I’ll add it here. I’ll bet you just won’t be able to get to sleep now until the day arrives! (note the sarcasm)

Wild Deer Mouse from Stroudsburg PA

OK, my apologies! I’ve gone way long on this entry.  Thank  you for reading and, as always, I invite any questions or comments you may have about Deer Mice or White-Footed Mice or White-Footed Deer Mice  or anything else I covered, or neglected to cover, in this installment of Kieran’s Critters!

A wild Deer Mouse in the Poconos

Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!

BLOG 14: A Critter In The Snow!

Where the heck have I been? Well, I’ve been right here! Trust me…you're the one who hasn’t been showing up! I know that seems ridiculous but you’re just a bit disoriented at the moment, trust me!  Sit down, take a deep breath, and I’ll give you a few moments to get your bearings.  OK? Feeling better? Great…onwards!!!

(I hope you bought that)

So, as you know (or maybe you don’t) the deep freeze has well set in, in the Pocono Mountains.   The creatures have all “shut their doors and locked the locks until the vernal equinox” (to quote a jazz song). I mean, if you are a lover of creepy crawlies like me than the months of snow and ice have very little in store for you!  It’s an interminable wait until spring! 

But I said “little in store” not “nothing in store!”

On Groundhog’s Day in 2013 I found a comatose Red-Eared Slider floating in a pond in East Stroudsburg (she’s OK now!) 

 This slider I found  in an icy pond was probably an abandoned pet!

And back in 2005 I found an injured musk turtle, also in February, by the pond at Muriel Hepner Park in Denville, New Jersey! 

Injured Stinkpot that was being picked  at by crows!

And just this last December 22 I encountered another cool critter!

There was snow all over the ground but the air temperature had briefly climbed into the high 40s (Fahrenheit) one morning and just on a whim I flipped over a flat stone which normally is in a very hot, sun baked portion of our yard.  I thought there might be a 1 in billion chance there was a sluggish garter snake under it…hey, you never know!

The lay of the land in December of 2013

In 2008 The Pocono Record   published a story about Monroe County naturalist Brian Hardiman who found a Rat Snake basking in the sun on a snowy October 30^th and in the same article, Pocono naturalist,  John Serrao mentions a Garter snake he found in November! So who ever knows until you investigate!?

So I turned over the slab of red shale and  there,  in almost a state of complete torpidity, was this Red- backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus). Please don’t ask me what the heck “torpidity” means! I probably just made it up!

 I know that certain native amphibians like the Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) and the Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) produce a natural type of antifreeze in their blood, a glucose which enables them to survive bitter temperatures! A matter of fact, Woodys are the only frog found as far north as Alaska and Labrador! Red-backs, however, I thought steered clear of any and all winter weather, squirming their way down to almost 4 feet beneath the frost line! I have never seen one this late in the season! 

Arrow points to the exact spot where I found the salamander!

James Petranka in “Salamanders of the United States and Canada” writes, 

“In the Atlantic coastal states, individuals are often active in winter during prolonged periods of warm weather.” 

So maybe this isn’t that unusual but this wasn’t a prolonged period! It was a few hours and then the temps plummeted again!  

Anyway, someone was as impressed as me because one of my shots of December’s salamander was published in The Pocono Record on January 12^th of this year!

Well, that’s all I have for everyone right now! 

Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again!

BLOG 13: The Cool Yellow Ones!

I doodled this on my pad while I was gathering some notes for this blog and thought I’d share it here with you.

I'm actually making light of a very serious issue which is that no matter how good an actor or actress this amphibian is, he (or she) is only given bit parts. It’s very slimy treatment if you ask me…even for  salamanders which are slimy to begin with!

OK, enough of with the shenanigans,   allow me to introduce you (for real this time) to the star of the hour, The Northern Two-Lined Salamander (Eurycea bislineata).

If you’re having trouble pronouncing “Eurycea bislineata” just remember it sounds a lot like “Eurycea bislineata.”

Not helpful? I guess you can see why I never became a teacher!

Anyway, I have found these to be some of the speediest salamanders encountered in the Northeast. They’ll wriggle faster than your eyes can follow into the safety of a nearby creek or stream.

When I was a small boy my friends and I called these sals “the cool yellow ones!” They somehow seemed more alert, elusive and exotic than their drabber colored and more accessible woodland cousins. We would have to get on our bicycles and peddle a good half mile or so to a brook that ran behind the local tennis courts to find them. On a productive day after a few minutes of flipping over smooth stones we’d see a flash of gold and catch a glimpse of a fleeing two-lined. It was rare that we were ever were able to put our hands on one though because they were just that quick!  It was probably for the better though because none of these delicate salamanders appreciate being handled no matter how gentle you think your being.

Are we all done? Oh, that’s right! You might like to know something about this amphibian’s habits and haunts! I got so sidetracked with the reminiscing that I forgot I was also supposed to be supplying you with some worthwhile information as well!

The Northern Two-Lined Salamander is a very skinny critter measuring about 2 ½ to 3 ½ inches long.  They range from northern Virginia and Ohio up to Southern Quebec. Like the red-backs discussed in Blog 8, “Here Comes The Plethodons!” It belongs to the diverse group of lungless salamanders meaning that they breathe entirely through their skin and the lining of their mouth.

They are found in and around highly oxygenated rock-bottomed brooks, springs, seepages, in woodland swamps and on river floodplains. They less commonly live under rotting logs in damp forests a good distance from running water.

I have personally found them on the pebble strewn shores of kettle lakes and on the banks of the Pocono creek! If you have an unpolluted stream nearby go run out and turn over a few flat stones  . . . you’ll probably see one! Take a photograph of your find and post it here! I’ love to see it!!

What? You have better things to do with your spare time? OK, then just skip it and keep on reading!

Here is a great little description about E. bislineata from a book published in 1930 about pond life. The author, like me, was impressed with their agility;

“The adults hide beneath flat stones in the water-soaked mud and sand of brook-sides, slithering and jumping out with amazing rapidity when disturbed. The larvae, distinguishable by their gills, grow nearly as long as the adults and stay in the same places, whence they dash out with flash-like suddenness when the stones are moved”

“Whence,” how cool is that!? Who uses “whence” anymore in 2013?

I also want to share this nice little doodle from the book! I guess I’m doing this without permission so I my apologies to the publisher “G.P. Putnam’s Sons,” please don’t sue me!

In the Poconos the two-Lines mate in the fall and the following spring, as late as mid-July, the female deposits 12 to 100 eggs on the underside of a submerged rock.  She guards her brood for 4-10 weeks until they hatch into aquatic larvae. 

Typical 2-Lined Habitat

 For some strange reason, in all the years I have been traipsing around the New Jersey and Pocono wilds I have never come upon a female with eggs. Maybe that’s because my encounters are always along the shoreline and they “nest” in deeper parts of the water? Who knows! Just another thing to ponder over my morning coffee I guess!

Here is the best photo I have managed to take to date of this salamander in its larval form. Not great I know but my little Nikon has trouble photographing through the surface of a gurgling creek.

Adult Two-Lineds feed on granola bars, tofu and fruit salad but only if it’s certified organic!

Huh?

I just wanted to make sure you were still with me and hadn’t trailed off or something. You have to really dig critters to be hanging in there! 

OK, so less appetizing but much more accurate; adult Eurycea bislineatas feed on beetles, spiders, sow bugs (same as pill bugs), ticks, mayflies, springtails (same as snow fleas), thrips and a host of other tiny insects and worms. Thrips, by the way, also called “corn lice” are minute 1 millimeter long sucking insects. I’m sharing that with you because I didn’t know what they were so I thought you might not either. 

Well, guess what? You made it through another Kieran’s Critters! You are to be commended for your intrepidness and spirit of adventure! Any comments, ideas, suggestions, critter stories or imaginary words are always welcome. If you have any complaints at all about anything I stated here please write them out  in small 1 to 2 syllable words on the back of a $50 bill and send them to: Mr. E. Bislineata, care of Kieran Vogel at 123 Lois Lane, Somewhere, PA 314159.

Thanks again for reading!

Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again!

BLOG 12: The Earth Measurer

I’m currently reading a really interesting book called “Wildlife of Orchard and Field” by Ernest Ingersoll published in March of 1902. 

The natural history books back then were so different from today.  The accounts of flora and fauna are treated so poetically and with such a personal touch.  In our era of immediate communication and hyper connectivity with our text messaging and Twittering and reality TV are there people out there who can still write like this? Is there even a demand for it? Just read this small excerpt where Ingersoll describes, on page 84, the terrain after a sudden, late-spring snowstorm,

“ Beyond a wide swale, that yesterday was gold and green but now is glistening wintry white, rises a small eminence where a dissolved view of trees and buildings is momently formed, then hidden, then brought out again, mirage-like, in the most curious and dreamlike unreality, yet always with singular beauty. Gray is the only color—a soft, purplish, silvery gray—and the silhouette the only style of drawing. By their outlines I guess that the wavering, slender spike amid the glistening haze is the church steeple—that squarish blur the belfry of the courthouse—the next irregular smudge a certain collection of house-roofs; but all seems as foreign and unsubstantial as shadows, so quaintly are they now clouded, now lightly revealed, by the swirling, satiny snow-flakes that fill the air with particles luminous in themselves yet obscuring the landscape.”

I mean, forgetting for the moment that he used the word “glistening” two times in only three sentences isn’t that just delicious writing? Someone today would simply type, “It snowed like hell” or “Outside was a blizzard as thick as pea soup” or something like that. Our language is devolving!

But who cares about any of that, right?  Hey, one thing that Ingersoll didn’t cover in his 347 page masterwork was moths! And that’s exactly what we’re going to discuss here on this brief installment of Kieran’s Critters!

While lizard hunting the other day in New Jersey I saw something odd along a rock wall.  My friend Kerry thought it was a speck of yellow paint and to me it looked like a potato chip! And that reminds me of a Peanuts comic I read years ago:

Do you have any idea how long it took me to actually dig up a copy of that strip? Anyway, moving right along . . .

Because of that comic you probably think I'm talking about a butterfly, right? Well I'm not but it might as well be! This is the gorgeous False Crocus Geometer (Xanthotype urticaria) and to be honest I'd like it just for the name alone!

When we moved in to inspect this “potato chip” and saw that it was actually a moth we were only able to snap a picture or two before it fluttered off! I imagine these are pretty common in New Jersey but we’ve never seen one before so we were pretty excited about our discovery!

Now, this obviously isn’t the most popular moth in the world because I was barely able to uncover any information about them but I did discover that they are fairly numerous throughout the summer months and active by both day and night. The literature even points out that they are often spotted on the walls of buildings in the exact same manner we encountered ours. They are a vivid yellow with brown speckles and blotches, as you see in the above photograph. The males have more of these spots than females. Their wingspan measures 3–4 cm the females being larger than the males. In the Northeast they are active from April to November. I don’t know if that means socially active or politically active or both! I mean a moth would have to be involved with the right and the left wing wouldn't it? 

Alrighty, let's just flit along...

Area where we found the moth

This moth is not to be confused with the Crocus Geometer which is larger, pale yellow, and has little or no brown spotting.

Shouldn't that be the “True” Crocus Geometer or even the “Honest” Geometer if the one we’re discussing here is the “False” Geometer?  Personally I’d prefer “Phony" Geometer.

But enough of my taxonomical tomfoolery!

So to get a little technical for a minute (for real) this moth’s binomial name, as mentioned before, is Xanthotype urticaria, “Xanthotype” being the genus and “urticaria” being the species. Its family is Geometridae! Confused yet? (well I sure am) The only reason I’m bringing up all this entomological gobbledygook is because how this insect got its name is sort of interesting.

The juvenile form of this moth is our familiar "inchworm" from where it derives its name. The Greek root word“geometer” means “earth-measurer.” Inchworms having appendages at both ends of their body but none in between clasp onto surfaces with their front legs and then draw up their back endsforming a loop as they move ahead giving the impression that they are measuring as they go. Hey, for all we know they are making some sort of calculations. I have asked in the past but have never had one actually stop and give me an answer so it’s anyone’s guess!

The False Crocus Geometer typically inhabits weedy fields and open forests especially near the plants it feeds on during its larval stage like, Dog Wood, Ground-ivy, Rhododendrons, Goldenrods and Catnip--CATNIP!? I thought that was just some type of kitty marihuana developed by the pet industry! But apparently it grows wild! Who'da thunk it?

Well, it wasn’t the best blog in the world but what is!? I wish I could tell you some more about this critter but that’s all I know, was able to find or thought was interesting enough to pass along! 

As always, thank you very much for your continued interest and support. And make no mistake about it; people are visiting this blog! I get far more readers than I do commenters. It would be nice if that changed, I enjoy a healthy exchange of ideas and opinions but it’s A-OK if folks prefer to remain secretive! Of course, all questions or comments are welcome and any complaints should be addressed to the moth! That’s right, if you don’t like something it’s the bug's fault!

 Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again!