For an accurate weather forecast, we need only to consult wildlife.
Scooter was busy yesterday collecting fresh bedding for her burrow.
No doubt she knew snow was coming.
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It started snowing after dark yesterday, pelting down impressively for a short while.
We turned on the outside light and watched it, listening to the howling wind. Viewed from indoors, it’s quite lovely though it is tough on wildlife.
However this was just a gentle storm.
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Very pretty without being a nuisance.
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And it brought such a dramatic sky.
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Which I had to keep watching.
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Of course!
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When we have fresh snow, I’m always reluctant to go out and mess up the overnight patterns.
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There were deer tracks and foxes for sure. We’ve not seen skunks lately and raccoons only occasionally, but it doesn’t mean there aren’t around.
Last week we saw two coyotes in the lower field.
Maybe my fondness for them comes from the many years I “followed” Charlie, the Daily Coyote.
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Charlie was orphaned as a cub and raised by writer Shreve Stockton in Wyoming.
Charlie’s life, so beautifully recounted, touched me more deeply than any animal story I’ve ever read.
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Charlie had a good and long life but I wept when he died and I had to stop reading animal stories.
How is it possible to be so affected by the lives and deaths of animals I have never met?
It’s just the way I have always been.
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An image of Charlie came up everyday in my email and I suppose he became a friend who was always there, no matter what.
He gave me something to smile about and I liked to think about him on his ranch in Wyoming.
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Anyway, that’s why I love coyotes in particular and I worry about their loss of habitat. Theirs and so many other species.
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Crows were calling and the sparrows were looking expectantly at the kitchen window, so eventually I climbed into my boots and took food out to my needy friends.
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As far as I could tell, Scooter had not ventured out of her burrow by the house, but I followed tracks that went up to another burrow behind the garage.
And I deposited some nuts for whoever had left those footprints.
In case they came back.
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Then I took a few more pictures.
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After which my fingers were perished.
And now I must attempt to launch this before it blows up in my face.
Getting this far has been a challenge.
Microsoft update hanging up.
…or something…
Beautiful.
Thank you, Carolyn, for today’s beautiful stories, especially about Charlie!
I love the images of the sky!
Joanna
You have so many beautiful skies. Thanks for sharing them!
Trouble with coyote is that they prey on cats. It was the sight of one slinking across my front yard that led me to research them. I never saw another one but every now and again we heard them howling at night.
I didn’t realise that coyotes were that far north-east, Carolyn. You are right about animals and weather, they definitely know what’s coming!
Best wishes, Pete.
Wow, the sky looks so dramatic – I, like you, won’t be able to turn away from these wonderful images. When I read your story about Charlie, I remembered how my mother later banned me from watching “Boomer” (a TV series in the 1980s about a stray dog that travelled around the country and helped those in trouble). I was very sad at the end of each episode because Boomer didn’t have a home to return to. I love your snowy landscape photos—especially the last photo.