Glade Hope Blog

Birds are back -- again!

2012-02-09T06:59:00.000-05:00

My good avian friends, mostly raptors, are back in profusion in recent days. There's a new almost-balloon-shaped barred owl overseeing the garden. Barred owls are pretty much shaped like a rugby football ball, with a head attached and those two huge eyes. There's a new, small broadwing hawk watching over me and my truck from the telephone wires on Warwoman Road. A pileated woodpecker matched me tree-to-tree on a parallel path on Glade Road recently. And, not often seen this close to roads, a Ruffed Grouse flapped its way madly in front of the truck again -- where else -- but Warwoman. That is one cool road, full of good bird omens.

Broadwings are back!

2012-01-20T07:43:00.000-05:00

It's not every day that we spy our favorite hawk, the broadwing hawk. But two days ago, a pair of broadwings was perched on the telephone wires along, what else, Warwoman Road. I had a feeling maybe this pair never went south for their annual migration. There were very friendly and forgiving, unconcerned by the man in the white truck who stopped to say hello.

Of a bizarre barred owl, hot hawks & a baby black bear

2011-07-01T12:20:00.000-04:00

This recaps what I have seen in recent weeks in and around these parts:

-- A baby black cat (that looked more like a panther than pet).

-- Red foxes and grey foxes.

-- A barred owl sitting in the middle of the road in broad daylight, just plunked there on the pavement. It flew away with some difficulty when the truck approached and then perched on a nearby branch forever, it seemed like, until a barred owl buddy came to its "rescue," flying over my head, perching on a nearby branch forever, it seemed like, until both winged away into the deeper woods.

-- One hot hawk, our "Glade Road broadwing hawk," as we call it, soaring yesterday in broad circles high above our home, like a watchhawk. Then, its observations completed, it made a straight beeline due South. Other broadwings here and there are beating the bushes on the local rights of way.

-- Coming home this morning, a baby black bear is loping along the road just above the Law Ground Creek waterfall, not in any hurry. These beasts of the mountains, even as babies, own their territory. Then, it crossed the road and scrambled up a vertical rock wall to its own place in the deeper woods.

We are blessed to see such abundant wildlife in our midst, even the ones that seem a bit awry. Good omens, overall.

About that Glade Road broadwing

2011-06-08T05:20:00.000-04:00

Our big, beautiful (and incredibly fast) hawk decided to grace me with a head-on dive last night, just as night had fallen. Framed in the headlights, it bulleted toward the truck -- going so fast the only way I recognized it was by the white bands on its tail. I take this as a good omen of change.

Wild-time

2011-06-01T06:29:00.001-04:00

It is still wild enough in these parts to see wildlife here and there. Chipmunks, squirrels, all manner of migratory birds, crows galore (more so than usual, it seems), other raptors (turkey buzzards, broadwings, barred owls), oppossums, racoons, red and grey foxes, a huge gang of wild pigs (which kept on moving, hosannah!), box turtles, doe deer and fawns, and in past two weeks, two mama wild turkeys with their respective broods but a few yards from the roads. And today -- a baby black snake in the vegetable garden beds and a juvenile black bear loping slowly up the driveway. It sniffed at the mint patch behind the house and then moved on the back woods.

Not yet seen this season: The bobcats and the mountain lion.

The birds are baaaack ....

2011-04-02T06:59:00.000-04:00

Now that Spring is officially Sprung, two harbingers of the Season are making their way back into the byways of this mountain region -- the Pileated Woodpecker and the Broadwing Hawk -- both magnificent beasts of the airways. Looping, diving, soaring, usually right over the truck.

It is comforting to see nature naturally take its course here even as the rest of the world heads to meltdown.

White Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T05:07:00.001-05:00

A white Christmas, 2010.

Daybreak, 12.25.10

Mid-afternoon, 12.25.10

The next day, 12.26, with 5=plus inches on ground.

First snow of season ...

2010-12-12T08:24:00.000-05:00

'Tis the first snowfall of the 2010-11 season, about 2 inches so far this morning. Pretty slushy, wet stuff. Folks who know more about this than me say that we are in for five or six "snow days" this winter (based on the number of foggy days we experienced in August!)

Myself, I like the "woolly worm" prognosis. When the front tip of the worm is black and the back tip is black, too, (with the middle remaining brown in color), we are in for a cold winter at both beginning and end.

Of course, the National Weather Service sees things differently. We shall see.

Just before sunrise ...

2010-12-10T07:44:00.000-05:00

For a very few brief seconds before sunrise at 7:32 a.m. this morning, the rising sun illuminated a startling cornrow of fluffy clouds visible outside our windows. Really a very pretty way to wake up.

Winter is coming ... to the mountains

2010-11-08T06:21:00.001-05:00

In case anyone had forgotten, this was the scene on January 30 this year, when ice covered the snow (and mountain folks around here were without power for about 52 hours). Predictions for this coming winter, based on woolly worm observations, old almanacs and the musings or old neighbors is that we're in for "seven snows" this winter. Of course, the National Weather Service notes that we're in for an upcoming prolonged drought, with very little precipitation in coming months. We shall see.

Footnotes: What's with the woolly worms? Here's how the predictions work. If the worm is black at both ends, and brown in the middle, as they have been in recent weeks, we are in for a severe winter both at the beginning and end. How does one know we're in for "seven snows?" Well, because there were seven foggy/misty days in August, of course!

Something seems awry ...

2010-10-28T06:05:00.000-04:00

... with the weather, or mother earth or something. We have noticed some strange and wonderful and not common doings in recent weeks, even as we move into fall, with leaves turning, colder nights and mild days. To wit: Some plants are flowering, even though this is supposed to be the dormant season:
-- One of our viburnums is putting out flowers.
-- Yellow day lilies are blooming in the highway medians leading into Asheville.
-- Nodding ladies tresses, never before seen in these parts, are flowering in large clumps on the side of the local road.
-- A friend in Lakemont reports 15 days ago that her azaleas are blooming, too.

Can someone tell us just what is going on?

My bird friend

2010-09-21T12:00:00.000-04:00

Got a nice sighting on the edge of the driveway very early this morning -- our friendly neighborhood broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus). He flew up to a nearby poplar tree branch and cleaned his beak on the branch. Then, we looked at each other for a while. He flew away when I got out of the truck to get closer. I take his presence as a good omen.

Photo courtesy of Cornell Lab or Ornithology

More big birds

2010-09-15T07:47:00.000-04:00

It was a stare-down contest Monday between me and the big barred owl (Strix varia) who lives somewhere near the country lane that serves as public road in these parts. It swooped over the truck to perch on an overhanging white oak branch, its head swiveling like a top. I cut the motor and stared. It stared back. I hooted my best version of the barred owl hoot. It stayed silent. There we sat for about 5 minutes, hooting, staring, head-swiveling, and then staring in silence.

When it flew off, it looked like a big fat football with wings. (Images courtesy of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.)

Later that day, I had the pleasure of crossing paths with a pair of wild turkey, the regal birds of the forests.

To find out more about birds, check: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/search

Big birds

2010-09-05T06:07:00.000-04:00

The broadwing on Warwoman swooped from telephone line to telephone line and then ever-so-rapidly into the forest last week. A very sweet sight! This week, a neighbor and I were graced with a rare sighting -- a big bird, we weren't sure if it was an osprey or an eagle -- diving into the West Fork of the Chattooga for a meal. A very powerful sight!

Broadwing on Prado

2010-05-13T06:15:00.001-04:00

Surprise! I was in Atlanta yesterday and one of my favorite birds, the broadwing hawk, is seen dancing over and ahead of my truck on The Prado in Ansley Park, in the middle of one of the most urbanized areas of Midtown.

The bird them followed me back toward the mountains, displaying himself again in a swooping dive over U.S. Route 441 on the way to Rabun. Or, was that one of his country cousins?

Disconnections in the outback

2010-05-11T05:49:00.000-04:00

So, what is it with the birds and the bats in recent weeks?

One the same day recently, my truck ran down a little blue-ish bird of some species or other, then promptly managed to "bounce" a big turkey buzzard off the windshield, which was slow in getting out of the way of the roadkill it was eating on Warwoman Road (where else?)

A couple of days later, one of those ever-so-fast bats glanced off Fran's car. Huh? I thought they had unerring radar!

Yesterday, I awoke to a pressing dream: A mountain lion swimming in the Chattooga River, with only it head and ears peeking out of the water.

What are these connections all about?

Happiness is ...

2010-04-26T19:06:00.000-04:00

... getting a glimpse of all these big birds that have been flying around in recent days.

Had four sightings of the big pileated woodpeckers in two days -- and also glad to report that the Glade Road broadwing hawk is back on station.

These woodpeckers are loud and insistent when they drum into trees -- so loud and insistent that some friends believe they are my "totem" -- hey, am I really that loud and insistent!

One of the woodpeckers was gliding at ground level over the little stream that courses around our pasture and garden. Most times, they are higher up, beating their wings hard to stay airborne.

The hawk is pure joy to watch in the air -- fast and direct and no nonsense.

It is very good to know these big birds are still my friends.

Bats are back, and more.

2010-04-04T06:06:00.000-04:00

In recent days, the temperatures around here have been getting warmer, into the high 70s and low 80s -- a blessed change of pace from what had been a fairly frigid winter. This has occasioned a veritable birthing of critters and peepers we had not seen (or heard) since last year:

-- The carpenter bees are buzzin' around the house.
-- The gnats number in the millions, and every one knows how to bite at my eyelids.
-- Saw two lemon-gold colored butterflies yesterday.
-- That same pair of birds, as every year, is building nests in the overhang of the porch.
-- The wasps are spitting out new homes, and attacking the window screens.
-- And the bats are back!

The other night, this nice friendly bat danced in our headlights the last 0.2 miles to the house. Now, that was a treat, and a true harbinger of a new season.

Pileated

2010-03-25T06:51:00.000-04:00

My first pileated woodpecker of the season flew away in front of me yesterday. The flight of this big, prehistoric-looking (but also magnificent) bird is ungainly. After each flap of wings, it seems pulled downward by its weight, but then rises again with another tremendous flap, its brilliant red crest shooting through the nearby forest like a signal of spring. (The daffodils bloomed yesterday, too.)

Birds are back

2010-03-11T08:03:00.000-05:00

We got a slight break from winter weather here in the past few days -- leading the birds to bloom into the landscape, searching out nesting sites, pecking at the seeds and generally being much more visible. A hoot owl's been hooting almost continuously since last night. And I saw Indigo
Bunting in the field two days ago -- about as bright and glowing a color as one can see in the mountains.

Baby bobcat

2009-12-29T05:36:00.000-05:00

Bobcats literally own their territory, unafraid and unfazed by man. This baby bobcat was loping across Route 28 at dusk yesterday evening, as one vehicle was heading south, another to the north. It gamboled across the road just in time to avoid a crunch -- and was gone up the hillside.

Evanescent purple

2009-12-16T08:22:00.000-05:00

The pre-dawn sky in the east was spectacular this morning -- large, wide bands of very dark purples and reds, covering the horizon from north to south. Lasted about 30 seconds and was gone. The memory lives on, though.

Magnificent

2009-12-02T17:14:00.001-05:00

We have lived in this wild place for almost 12 years, but until this morning, had never seen a buck. Plenty of does and fawns, but no bucks. Now, we have. He was magnificent, with a huge, velvety rack. Very skittish. Drawing away at the merest movement from the house. Much less "domesticated" than the does, that like to creep up toward our home and chew on greenery, especially hostas and day lilies. It makes my heart glad that I have been lucky enough to see such a creature close up.

Back home

2009-10-29T18:08:00.000-04:00

The pace of life back home does not slow. I've been involved in several projects that inhale time. But there are reminders of the different pace that animates the wildlife around us. The latest such reminder came in the form of a pileated woodpecker, the giant pecker of the forestlands around us, swooping as they ususally do in front of the new clunker truck that is my transportation around here. Is there a more vivid red than the red of pileated woodpecker? Maybe the scarlet tanager's -- but few others. Also glimpsed a broadwing flying fast across the landscape, heading south for an annual migration.

Then, recently coming home one night on Warwoman Road, there was that big, old and slow black bear -- moving much more slowly than normal. This fat bear could barely scramble up the roadbank -- must have been weighted down by a recent meal. Guess even bears need to slow down sometimes, like people.

Of circadian rhythms

2009-09-27T05:03:00.004-04:00

Sunset over the Pacific @ Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, Republic of Mexico

Every once in a blue moon, it is good to get away from the everyday rush of America and kick back, which is what we did recently for an an entire two weeks!

No phones (cellfone coverage is spotty down south,) very little internet, no newspapers. The hurricane that came through a few weeks before had left no evident damage. Time to kick back and assume a simpler schedule. Hike the beach at dawn, followed by breakfast, nap, lunch, nap, watch the sun go down. I ended up reading every trashy pulp novel previous visitors had left for us to read. The night sky in Baja is stupendous, with so little light pollution that the Milky Way paints the firmament, something that is becoming increasingly rare at home. The Pacific is not very pacific, with wild rollers every day, while the Sea of Cortez is like a warm bath by comparison.

It was good to get away, just as now, it is good to be back.

Ode to the clunker

2009-08-16T10:10:00.003-04:00

That old Chevy truck that served so well in these mountains got "clunkered" this past Friday, heading to the scrap metal boneyards of U.S. consumerism. It had accumulated 230,765 miles of tortuous wear-and-tear on curvy mountain roads, a good bit of backcountry 4-wheeling where no truck should be taken, and a wonderful, well-Rabunized look and feel.

I will miss it. Welborn, the salesman who sold it to me in 1998, told me what I needed in the mountains was a short-bed truck with 4WD and the biggest motor I could afford. He was right. That was a 5.7 liter Vortec V-8 with lots of horses and a true thirst for regular unleaded gas (12 MPG in the city!) It was fast and pretty much indestructible, if unsustainable. I ripped the back bumper half-way off one day trying to vault a big stump; but it got dinged back in two days later when a yahoo from South Carolina -- in an even bigger, "dually" truck -- smashed into my backside on Route 28. The only major repair turned out to be need for a new clutch, which in 11 years, ain't bad.

It also hardly ever failed to attract the birds, like owls and hawks, that regularly make their appearance in these parts.

Now, I wonder if the "new clunker," a very down-sized, 4-cylinder truck with the shortest bed and the smallest motor I could find (but up to 27 MPG on the highways) is going to be up to the task. At first glance, I think it will do. Coming up the driveway in that new vehicle, we spied a furry image loping up the driveway. A truly fat and fast black bear cub! Then, Saturday, miraculus mirabili, my hawk swooped over the new truck to check us out. I take that as a good omen.

More hawk tawk & bobcat ramblin'

2009-07-27T08:12:00.003-04:00

Well, my hawk is still doing well, and I'm still trying to "speak" to it when it perches in front of the truck. But last Thursday, it seemed nervous and flighty as a bird. It swooped over me coming home and kept on going, then swooped over me again before the driveway, perching on a nearby tree branch. I stopped the truck and got out. But before I could "say" the first word, it was gone. Very nervous. My hair stood on end on the back of my neck. I took this as a warning to be aware.

The day before, a skinny bobcat loped diagonally across the Highlands-Walhalla Road in front of me. As usual, this predator owns the spaces it occupies, no matter how fast it moves.

Hawk Talk & Rattler Rattle

2009-07-22T06:40:00.005-04:00

I've started trying to "talk" to "my hawk," the broadwing that so often swoops around these parts. It curved gracefully up in front of me as I was going back up the hill to the house from the garden one morning (about 10-12 days ago) and perched on a tulip poplar branch.

First, I tried a human version of the high-pitched screech that is this bird's signal. Click on the following to listen:

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/view_default.asp?sortBy=has+audio&viewType=list&curFamilyID=218

Then, I tried just old-fashioned English, and told it that our friend Honor had recently rescued one of its brethren, when it surfaced dazed and confused on the side of Warwoman Road. Click on the July 10 entry at the following site for rescue details:

http://silvermoonfrog.blogspot.com/

Well, I'm not sure if my hawk heard this talk, but at least it did not fly away right away. I feel that it heard something. Now, I am trying to hear what it has to say to me. This is an interesting exercise for one usually so "linear."

More recently, we find that a good-sized timber rattlesnake has taken up domain under one of our wooden decks, as a worker found out last week. Its high-pitched rattle is distinctive and pressing and puts you on definite alert when you hear it. This rattler is about as thick as a man's forearm. Big. Territorial. Likes to let you know that it is there and not to be too disturbed.

Wonder if he's the same one that, as a juvenile, used to hang out on our pile of two-by-sixes (see post for March 19, 2009.)

That is all for today.

Wondrous Sightings No. 8 -- Broadwing of the Badlands

2009-07-09T16:00:00.003-04:00

It swooped so fast in such a graceful curve today that I barely had time to stop the truck before it kissed a nearby white pine branch and then quickly dipped farther into deeper forests. Gone in about two seconds. The curve of its flight, like the sine-cosine dips of a radio wave, is beyond beautiful -- an omen of good.

Wondrous Sightings No. 7

2009-07-01T09:48:00.002-04:00

Dear Blog People: I continue to be blessed with sightings of birds of prey, most recently by the baby Broadwing Hawk that plummeted to the side of the road, right in front of the truck, to claw out a little vole, mole or chipmunk. Something small anyway. Where else -- but Warwoman Road. By the time it appeared, this hawk was upright with talons down. Pretty fierce, even for a baby.

Several weeks ago, up in Montana, a bald eagle rose up from the Flathead River and led us along a forest byway for several miles. That is one big, powerful bird!

My mate tells me there is likely to be message in all this -- like what am I going to pounce on next?

Righteous mountains

2009-06-21T13:05:00.003-04:00

Fran and I were fortunate to recently get away for a week, to the highlands of Glacier National Park in far-off Montana. This was eye-opening country, vast, open, and very, very big. The top picture is looking north along Lake McDonald toward the "Garden Wall" glacier formation, as is the bottom photo. The picture in the middle is of the wild backcountry, also looking north, past Bowman Lake. This is humbling territory. Go see it before it all melts. National Park Service officials report there are only about 20 glaciers left in this park, compared to the 110-plus identified at the turn of the last century.

Carpet of white

2009-05-08T05:44:00.005-04:00

For a brief few days last week, the woods seemed awash with a carpet of white -- a spectacular flowering of dogwoods in bloom.

It is hard to tell without scientific, year-to-year measurement, but the dogwoods appeared more numerous, more vibrant, more colorful and definitely more alive than in recent years. Since the mid 1970s, wild dogwood trees all across the mountains of Southern Appalachia have been dying from a fungal disease called Dogwood Anthracnose (discula destructiva).

But they seem to resist the blight somewhat if they get a lot of sunlight, and there was more sunlight than normally on the hillside below our house this year -- many of the scrub pine trees had fallen to another infestation, the Southern Pine Beetle. The dogwoods took advantage of this cycle of death and rebirth to make for a show of white blooms.

Then, we had five days in a row of heavy rain, the hardwood trees (mostly tulip poplar, oaks, sourwoods, persimmons and red maple) all leafed out at the same time, bringing shade back to our land.

But for a brief few days last week, the woods seemed awash with a carpet of white. It was beautiful.

Not so wondrous

2009-04-26T09:30:00.003-04:00

From time to time, I see stuff out in the woods that jars, that does seem quite right.

-- On New Year's Day, Fran and I decided to take a walk down to the river (the Wild and Scenic Chattooga River.) At the Forest Service gate to this location, we found a large, fresh-killed black bear. Several of its claws had been clipped off. This carcass definitely seemed out of place. But the story did not end there: Some days later, someone severed its head off. Then, several days after that, someone burned the entire site. All that was left was part of the bear's rib cage, sticking up out of the charred earth.

-- In early spring, there were reports of avian flu affecting birds in this county. I'm not sure if it was the flu or not, but it was strange to run across a big turkey buzzard hobbling along a country road. It could not fly or get out of the way of the truck.

-- Then, just a few weeks ago, we came across the body of a dead broadwing hawk in an area of national forestland that had recently been crisped under what the agency terms a "prescribed burn." Someone had cut off this hawk's tail feathers, apparently as a souvenir trophy for the broad black-and-white bands that decorate this hawk's tail.

Of timber rattlers & snakes

2009-03-19T05:26:00.000-04:00

For several years in a row, it was our good fortune to witness a daily display of snake power. A timber rattler was living in one of the piles of lumber next to the driveway. Every morning, he would slither up from the pile and sun himself on the metal roofing covering the wood. When it got too hot, he'd slide back into the shade of the 2 X 6 lumber. And when it rained, he'd uncoil and lift his head to the water, as if taking a satisfying shower. Then, one day, he did not reappear.

Up until the summer of 2008, snakes could be seen in some abundance in these parts: Rattlers, black snakes, copperheads and very occasionally, king snakes. Sometimes, they'd be too close to the house and we moved them into the woods. More recently, for reasons unknown, there seem to be fewer snakes to be found in the wilds.

Could it be that the Broadwing of the Badlands has eaten them all?

Wondrous Sightings No. 6 -- Broadwing of the Badlands

2009-03-15T04:44:00.000-04:00

For several years now, it has been my pure luck to develop something of a relationship with a beautifully fierce broadwing hawk who, for reasons not yet known to me, chooses to display itself in this part of the mountains. The first time, it danced out of a tree along the graveled road we live on, gracefully dipping ahead of the truck for several hundred feet before lighting on another tree. This has since happened so many times that I usually stop the truck, roll down the window and observe this handsome bird for as long as it will let me.

Sometimes, it appears to dive bomb at the truck head-on, its talons dangling beneath its stocky rib cage. Other times, it makes a perfect sine wave, swooping ahead and away, displaying the characteristic black-and-white bands on its tail feathers. The Broadwing of the Badlands, named after this tortuous part of the north Georgia mountains, is a perfect predator, as I also learned one afternoon. For several years, we had a family of wild rabbits that comfortably chowed down on the native plants and hostas around the house. The paterfamilias of this rabbit gang acted like he owned the place, barely raising his head from a tasty meal when we singled him out in headlights at night. The rabbits did what rabbits do -- make more rabbits. That is, until the broadwing discovered what a tasty morsel junior rabbits could make. It dove straight down from heaven that afternoon, turned at the last moment to grab a baby rabbit and carry it off in front of me. I was witness to real power that day. We don't see as many rabbits anymore.

In more recent years, it has set up an observation post in the tall pines and oak trees that surround the vegetable garden, signaling its presence with a loud screech/whistle that is very hard to duplicate. So far, I am having a hard time mimicking broadwing talk, but it pleases me enormously that this impressive bird finds it to its liking to guard the garlic and beans and cukes and tomatoes from the rabbits, polecats, deer and wild hogs who also like to visit this open field. Birding literature describes these hawks as no more than the size of pigeons, surviving mainly on snakes, insects, rodents and frogs, but I can tell you that this hawk is much bigger -- a true guard bird.

How do I know this is the same hawk that returns here every year, one might ask. These hawks migrate thousands of miles southward every winter. Believe me, I know. This feel like a bird who knows his home. I welcome him to the neighborhood.

Wondrous Sightings No. 5 -- Mr. Bobcat & Ms. Doe

2009-03-07T05:11:00.000-05:00

The sounds emanating from the backyard that spring-into-summer afternoon were so pitiful and haunting as to raise headstones in the many local cemeteries that dot the nearby mountains. They sure got my attention. It was a wailing ululation, full of hurt and very loud. What they heck? From the deck, I saw a doe deer, kneeling and keening as if its heart was being ripped out. It took me a couple of seconds to see the second actor in this play, a bobcat ready to pounce not six feet away from the deer, trembling in anticipation. The bobcat was in full attack mode. But the play had an unanticipated ending. The doe rose slowly, turned and then hobbled down the hill into the woods, the bobcat following. The deer stopped crying. It took a couple of days of consultation with local neighbors expert in the ways of backwoodsy lore to figure this out: The doe likely had been protecting a fawn, feigning to sacrifice herself so the offspring could survive, they said. Indeed, a couple of days later, the same doe was back in the backyard, with her fawn, a beautiful little Bambi. I feel lucky to have witnessed this.

Wondrous Sightings No. 4 -- The Bear

2009-03-06T12:51:00.000-05:00

The first time we saw the bear was but several months after we moved into a new home in a remote, backcountry section of the north Georgia mountains. I was dozing on a couch and heard footsteps on the porch. Funny, I thought, I had not heard a vehicle approach. It was the bear, as surprised to see me as I was, and quick to decamp up the hill behind the house when he heard me yelling about his apparition. Bears, I think, are among the fastest big animals I've ever seen. The second time, several years later, the bear was more at home somehow. I spied him in the mirror while I was shaving one morning. He was pawing through some empty flower pots. I tried to shoo him away with loud calls, but he was in no hurry. He went up the hill to the shed and sniffed around the lawn mower. Then, he rose up, put his front legs on the hood of the truck and looked at himself in the windshield. Then, only then, did he amble ever-so-slowly down the hill and away. That last bear owned our home place for a few minutes. They are very powerful animals, I believe, and possessed of immense spirit.

Wondrous sightings No. 3 -- Bat dance

2009-03-03T05:40:00.000-05:00

It is not uncommon at dusk to see solitary bats dancing in front of the truck on the way home, particularly when the pavement runs out and the road turns into a graveled lane cutting through dense forest. They have an unerring radar that helps them avoid crashing into the windshield before they quickly dip away from the lane and return to the woods. But the sighting one night was more special -- a bat duo dancing in front of the truck, maneuvering -- more like an intricate ballet -- in total unison. Up, down, zigging, zagging, charging sideways and doing loop-the-loops. Like warplanes in formation. Like man and woman dancing to the same tune. This vision did not last much longer than about five seconds. But it lives permanently in my memory.

Wondrous Sightings No. 2 --Holy moly. Holy heron!

2009-02-27T07:01:00.000-05:00

Driving home at dusk yesterday, I come across a big blue/grey heron sunning/preening himself/herself in the middle of Warwoman Road, just past Goldmine Road. I slow down, thinking I am going to pass it on the right. Then, he/she jumps square into my headlights. I brake hard. The truck kisses the bird, which promptly rises like a Phoenix and leads up to the pond further up Warwoman. It was a sight! I am taking this both as a blessing and a warning. Appreciate the birds. Slow down.

Wondrous Sightings No. 1 -- Broadwing & Bonus Bird

2008-12-03T13:32:00.000-05:00

December 3, 2008

Every once in a while, fun things occur serendipity-like, without much warning. I was driving down Warwoman Road yesterday -- saw a broadwing hawk chowing down on some roadkill. Then, coming back up Warwoman later, a red-shouldered hawk cruised the truck. Then, a bonus bird, flying high above the pasture next to the house: A pileated woodpecker, big, pre-historic-looking, with that loud drumming sound that enlivens the deep woods in this backcountry. Fun things in and out of the forests.

Under construction

2008-04-25T06:29:00.000-04:00

This blog is under construction.