I haven't accomplished anything tangible for a while (although I am planning to any day now), but I do spend a lot of time watching stuff. The red winged blackbirds just started the season of bringing their young into my yard to teach them bird skills such as hopping around, short bursts of flight, playing in the sprinkler, and eating, and there was a huge crowd in my yard this afternoon. I spent several hours watching them do amazing things. Along with being the more beautiful bird, the males are also the caregivers and trainers. After he leads the chicks(?) into the yard, the male actually shows them how to find things on the ground, and I can't tell if that would be insects or seeds, maybe both, but after they have started feeding on their own he moves to a security vantage point. For as long as the kids are there, he fights with and chases away any other birds that try to enter the area, and the way he uses the markings on his wings while doing this is sometimes positively eerie. Then at some point he rounds them up and they go back to the pond reeds where they have a red-winged blackbird apartment complex (actually two. East side and West side and the males fight each other all the time.)
Maybe that turtle is a menace. So far I haven't found a single "the turtle in my pond is not a problem at all", story, but have found plenty of "it butchered all the fish for no apparent reason", stories.