Animal Encounters

Wherever I am, I always watch for animals. You just never know when you are going to encounter one; I may see something unusual or maybe just a beautiful spider's web with beads of dew that look like pearls.

After I told my sister about the animal encounters on my recent trip to see my Mother in Florida, she said that she has noticed that I have “a thing with animals.” They “do stuff” when I am around and I "always" seem to be in the right place at the right time to see them. I suspect this has more to do with me being alert to their activities, and always looking out for something interesting. Or maybe I am just lucky.

I take exception to “always.” When we vacationed in the Pacific Northwest, I watched for whales. And watched. And watched from the places where “everyone” saw them. Nary a whale and it was whale season.

When I was four or five, I tried to catch a live squirrel by putting my stuffed squirrel in the yard near a box with a stick propping it up. I waited for hours, convinced that a real squirrel would be fooled by my stuffed one, trip the stick and be captured under the box. I never even saw a real squirrel that day.

But then there are the critters that find their way to me.

I have seen a pair of foxes playing and yipping as they frolicked at dusk in the park in my neighborhood. I live inside the Washington Beltway, not in the country.

Coyotes visit my neighborhood sometimes. I have encountered them four different times, very close to me, on early morning walks. They always saw me and stopped and stared. I avoided getting close, but wasn't afraid.

Several times I have seen the hawk that lives in our neighborhood catching and eating squirrels. Once he sat on the rails of the deck, just outside the window. I think he was feeding off the chipmunks that ate the seed that the birds dropped from the feeder.

Our family has a cottage on a lake in Kentucky. In the lake this spring, I saw schools of hundreds of newly hatched, nearly transparent striped bass. I also saw mother bluegills guarding their eggs in their underwater nests. I followed loud, hollow hammering sounds in the woods there and seen an enormous pileated woodpecker.

Also at the cottage, there was a huge black snake resting in the eves above the dinner table on the porch where we were eating. I am not fond of snakes so I hope that its positioning was merely a coincidence and that it will not visit again.

Once my brother and I saw an owl as we were leaving the cottage. It was daytime, when you don’t usually see owls, and we thought it must represent our Dad, recently departed and the former owner of the cottage. Who whoo knows?

I decided to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count this year and in the 10 minutes I was counting, a flock of Bohemian Waxwings (I counted 9) visited the pond in my yard. I had never seen a Bohemian Waxwing before and I assumed it was my reward for participating in the count. It was thrilling to watch them strip the berries from the bush adjacent to the pond and bathe in the waterfall. The next count is in February, 2010. Consider participating and maybe bohemian waxwings or something equally exciting will reward you too (http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/).

I raise bullfrogs in my garden pond. Each year I get a few tadpoles and delight in watching them turn to frogs. Last year, several were finally mature enough that they began to sing. They should have kept quiet because then the owl that lives in the neighborhood began to visit every night, making hooting noises as he hunted in the garden. The frogs disappeared and a few weeks later the owl stopped coming around. I miss the frogs' singing. But new frogs have matured and soon they will sing. I am hopeful that the owl will not return.

A catbird recently followed the dog and me on our morning walk, going from tree to tree for several blocks, watching us and occasionally flying in front of us. That bird often greets me in the driveway and observes us when we are out in the garden.

A mother wren brought her baby up to my deck when I was out reading the paper one morning. I hung the house that she made her nest in. I think the deck visit was my thank you present.

This week in Florida, I saw two dolphins in a river corralling mullet for their dinner. They had come up from the Gulf of Mexico. We timed our visit perfectly and it was a huge surprise.

Also on this week's trip, when I was walking a Rails to Trails path, I saw a young armadillo rooting out its breakfast in the grass right next to me. It hopped straight up when startled and took off, making good time on its stubby little legs.

Once when we were swimming in a spring-fed freshwater stream in Florida I saw a ray on the sandy bottom. He swam downstream with my son. It was so dramatic to watch them swimming together in the strong current. Maybe he was glad to have found friends so far from his ocean habitat.

When I visited my friend in California a pair of roadrunners made morning visits to her yard. They were very curious and made no effort to run away when I went out and took photographs of them.

This is a partial list. I don’t think I am “always” in the right place at the right time, but I do think I am observant and very fortunate and maybe I have a special relationship with some of the critters out there. Or maybe they just know that I am only an observer and that they are safe with me.