Tag: The Wild

Hecate’s Kits

Hyacinth brought her previous year’s kits out in March (we posted in July). Hecate brought out this year’s kits in July (yes, we’re posting it in December. They don’t seem to mind).

The timing of births is a concern. Usually our raccoons child earlier. This year everything is delayed a bit. Some things – migrations, buddings, leafings, awakenings – are off two weeks, others more. All are weather related.

Or more correctly, weather-change related.

Global warming, you know.

Whatever you make think of the Republicans, they are masters of phrasing. Global Warming became Global Climate Change during Bush II’s administration because Global warming was a recognizable threat and required action.

But Global Climate Change? Heck, the weather’s always changing! No need to worry, no need to act.

Of course, now the warming/climate change has become severe enough it’s causing economic impact; insurance companies have to pay more and more claims due to weather related issues.

And they’re not the only ones.

Pretty soon us common folk will feel it in our own pockets on a monthly, weekly, and eventually daily basis. You thought not being able to get bottled water during Covid was a proble? Just wait.

The Wild is already feeling the weather’s change.

And preparing.

Wish Two-Leggers were as smart.

 

A Summer Turkey

It is one day past the american Thanksgiving as I post this.

This video, however, is from mid May of this year. A few days past, really.

We are visited by Turkeys often.

It is a source of joy for us.

This year we saw juveniles, both Tom and Hen, and mature birds, but no Turklets.

This is a concern.

The loss of habitat I keep mentioning. We wonder if the predators got to the eggs. We won’t really know until next year.

And by then it’ll be too late.

It is a hard thing, to accept The Wild as it is. The Wild serves its own, knows its own ways, suffers us but only for a little while (in the scheme of Nature’s time).

People tend to forget we’ve only been on the planet a (very) little wild. Our kind – homo sapiens – has been on the planet about a quarter as long as Neanderthals walked about.

Some say they’re gone, extinct.

I honestly don’t know. They had bigger brains than us and were better adapted to northern climates than we are or have been. That much smarter, maybe they simply hid.

Do you know you wouldn’t recognize a Neanderthal if you saw one walking down the street or in the grocery or in the mall if they wore modern clothing? Forget what you were told about how they looked, they looked much like us, only more solid, more muscular, more body hair.

Did I ever tell you I’m on record as having benched 350# ten for ten?

Or that I like the cold?

Or that Susan (wife/partner/Princess) won’t braided my back when I was asleep?

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

 

A Healthy Young Buck Flicks His Tail

There is something wonderful about nature.

Especially when paired with some of the best jazz recordings ever.

1959.

The year that changed Jazz forever.

Giants walked in those days.

And a deer walks in our yard.

As I often state, we are blessed.

 

Peter the Pileated Woodpecker Loves Stevie Wonder

I’ve written about Heathcliff, the Pileated Woodpecker and how no one else heard him but me for quite a long time.

(one gets use to that in my line of work; hearing, and seeing, and feeling, and smelling, and tasting, and sensing what others are oblivious to. I take it as a gift. Helps me learn patience)

I didn’t know Heathcliff had a buddy.

Who favors Stevie Wonder.

Not that I blame him.

I favor Stevie Wonder, too.

My favoring started early and received a major boost my first time through college. A friend got Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life and Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (both and others which I immortalize in a work-in-progress, The Shaman (it’s okay, i asked them if i could (do remember, i’m a fiction author))) and I was hooked.

All were impressive, but Wonder…

Not just the variety on the double-album (this was back in ’76. Nineteen-76) but the joy in his voice. If not joy, the pathos, the emotion, the soul, the energy.

No wonder Peter the Pileated Woodpecker loves him.

 

Shy Jackson

I’ve mentioned before that coyote are cautious creatures.

Case in point, Shy Jackson, a male juvenile out and about for a midday stroll.

Since videoing this, we’ve confirmed loss of habitat on the other side of the woods from us.

This saddens us.

Both our town and the town we abut increase their services and infrastructure in order to lure people forward. This increase in services drives up taxes and the price of homes. The increased tax rate and home price keeps people away from our town and the town we abut.

And also drives current inhabitants to less expensive towns and such.

Which means there’s a housing glut, which drives prices down but forces tax rates up because now police must patrol more vacant properties for migrants, indigents, squatters, and such.

The increase of migrants, indigents, squatters, and such drives insurance rates up.

Which causes construction to decrease. Often at some point during completion. Leaving massive house skeletons on empty, untended lots.

And we still have Old Ones coming into our yard.

We are glad.