Coop's Corner: Wild Life

Monday, December 31, 2012

Wild Life

While it is New Year's Eve, that's not the kind of exaggerated fun I'm referring to but rather our (over?) abundance of wild creatures in the neighborhood. Our deer are in such good condition, looking so fuzzy and round that they almost look like stuffed toys. It was all Peg could do to not walk outside and give their black noses a squeeze today. I'm beginning to believe that they'd stand still for her too. The deer often bed down at night in our yard and need to be shooshed out of our way in the morning when we leave for work.

Looking out the windows of the house, no matter the direction, it's impossible to see an area of snow covered field or pasture that hasn't been penetrated with deer and/or turkey tracks; virgin snow doesn't last long around here!

This afternoon the turkeys rediscovered our apple trees, it seems they found the crabapples the most enticing. They went after them with vigor and then one of the birds hopped up into the adjacent apple tree and started shaking the big ones down that hadn't yet fallen.

At least the turkeys don't seem to be as hard on our apple trees as the raccoons are on our cherry trees. I'll have to get more serious this year about creating some sort of better barrier. An electric fence worked one year but it was a lot of work. With two wires 6" and 8" off the ground, we managed to harvest that season's cherries. Last summer, about a day before we were ready to pick, I walked out of the house and saw an entire family of bandits in the tree. By morning, the only thing left was the mess they left behind, a few broken branches with not one single sign of a red cherry left in the tree. It's too bad they can't be trained.

13 comments:

UnknownDecember 31, 2012 at 10:30 PM
Coop:

Mmmmm, are those "butterball" turkeys ?

we have racoons here in the City and they can be dangerous. they live in the park around the corner. They used to always tip our garbage cans over looking for food

bob
Riding the Wet Coast
My Flickr // My YouTube

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RichardMDecember 31, 2012 at 11:58 PM
Wild turkeys in the trees, I didn't know they could fly that well..

Happy New Year!
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SonjaMJanuary 1, 2013 at 4:54 AM
Happy New Year! You obviously spotted very dangerous looking wildlife ;-)
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayJanuary 1, 2013 at 7:32 AM
Sonja, these are very scary birds....I didn't include the photos of that nearest bird staring back at me behind the window glass :)

I do know that they've become quite aggressive in some urban areas though we've not seen it here.

Happy New Year to you!
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Martha January 1, 2013 at 8:10 AM
A heart-stopping event is having a wild turkey fly over your car hood or in front of your scooter/cycle. Like a B-52. Just don't mess with turkeys on land or air!

I'd say those turkeys now taste like the entire Thanksgiving meal! Right down to the apple pie!

Best wishes for this New Year.
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayJanuary 1, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Nice call Martha, it didn't even dawn on me that a complete meal was staring back at me!

You are right, they've flown far too close to me while riding the back roads. We even surprised an eagle one day back in a deep valley; I was sure it and Dave's helmet would make contact. The poor bird had to circle back for what had been in its talons.
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Erik RJanuary 1, 2013 at 11:12 AM
Those are some big Turkeys. I knew they'd roost in trees, but that one looks a little big for the tree. We have quite a few around here too. It's not uncommon to see them walking along side the roads. Mom, Dad, and close to a dozen offspring.
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TrobairitzJanuary 1, 2013 at 2:33 PM
Cool pictures of the turkeys. I always enjoy seeing wildlife and nature pictures.

We don't see many turkeys around our house but we have a family of raccoons living in the giant sequoia in our back yard. They sure leave a mess at the base of the tree and we can always tell when they've been into someone's cherry tree. We have a tree farm behind us but for some reason they prefer our tree.
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Coop a.k.a. CoopdwayJanuary 1, 2013 at 3:59 PM
Brandy, I just got in, was outside feeding the birds and the cats (almost sounds wrong?). The finches, chickadees, junkos, cardinals all use proper birdfeeder etiquette; the turkeys fly up, give it a good whack, then enjoy what they've managed to shake loose, lazily eating on the ground.

It's snowing so lightly that the minuscule flakes almost seem confused whether or not they should go back up or settle to the ground. I'm sure that some of them are fighting authority.
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Martha January 2, 2013 at 9:14 AM
An eagle! Yeow!
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"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

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"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

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