Tuesday, February 5, 2019

It's Like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom Around Here!

Critters all around us!

I live in a small, rural New England town, and love that I randomly encounter what I would call woodland wildlife.  Over the years, I have seen everything from Fisher Cats to Coyotes, flocks of wild turkeys to clusters of deer casually grazing my bushes, hawks, doves and owls, and even a Bald Eagle.  Well, the other day I saw a fox, Super Bowl Sunday, actually.  I was sipping my morning coffee, contemplating a Patriots Victory and watched as a small red fox trotted on by in the thicketed, brushy area that runs along my back yard.  This little fella was just ambling through with no particular place to go, fox business I presume.  And then it was gone, around the hill and on its way.  This brought a smile to my face, because it reminded me of the story of the fox and heron.

Once upon a time, on the same warm day in early spring,  I was sitting by the front of the house in an Adirondack Chair I built myself (swelling with pride, as I type).  I was reading a book (yes an actual book), and caught a fleeting glimpse of movement  down the driveway, towards the road.  As I glanced up, way down by the end of the driveway, and it's a long way for these tired eyes - even after LASIK!, as I glanced up, I saw two fox pups playing and cavorting on the blacktop.  They would take turns jumping on each other, falling over, laying there resting, then doing it all again.  I mean this went on for a while, longer than you would think, and I had a front row seat (or more accurately, a nose-bleed row seat) to nature's little moment of joy.  There they were, not a care in the world.  At some point they moved on and departed the driveway and were off back into the woods.

Fast forward to later that day, the weather changed as clouds moved in to overcast.  The light was weird, you know that glowing, yellow type of light just before the thunder storm rolls in.  I was standing at the door, looking at the clouds and a Great Blue Heron lands right in the front yard a few dozen yards from the house.  It was focused on something.  As it happened, I have a tree in my yard, and it was between me and heron, so I slowly walked out of the house and towards this very large bird.  As I stop behind the tree, the heron flashes its head down toward the ground, like one of the coming lightening bolts and grabs a chipmunk faster than one can blink.  Quick as that, it tosses its prize ever so slightly and swallows it whole - all right before my unbelieving eyes!  This majestic bird then walks, not flies, to the side of my yard and from a standing start, and with seemingly no effort at all, jumps to the top of a an 8 foot fence, then takes off and is gone!  True story.

Believe it or not, I have other animal stories, but maybe I'll save those for a rainy day.

PS: For all those youngsters who may not know the reference in the Title, here you go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Kingdom

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