Chased

How lush the world looks at the moment.

Corn is already tall enough to begin impeding views, but the fields themselves are a nice sight, covering acres in all directions.

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The field we traverse on the way out to the state route is grass which gets turned into silage. We had been enjoying watching it wave in the wind and spotting wildlife passing through. Alas, yesterday a huge machine was there cutting it down.

How many Monarch caterpillars may have been destroyed? Such a sad thought, though of course cattle and sheep need their feed.

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Our own field is a little more varied, with grasses and golden rod, milkweed and much else. It is too warm and buggy to investigate at the moment and my legs are lacking in the energy required to get back up the hill. It may not look steep, but I feel my age climbing it.

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Grant has binoculars and I employ the zoom lens to view activity down below. We sneak silently out to the porch as deer have very sensitive hearing. As quiet as we are, they sense when they are being watched. Even when they are in the cornfield beyond our own and I am in the kitchen, I see them turn their heads and stare back.

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Can they read our thoughts? Not in a human sense, of course. Maybe they sense intent. At any rate, I always hope they feel the warmth and goodwill I try to send out.

Sometimes we are a little conflicted, though. A couple of days ago as I stood at the kitchen window cutting carrots, I glanced up…

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To discover that the bear was back and this time it had pulled the bird feeder off its hook and broken into it. (Damaged beyond repair)

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The bear soon found the peanuts I’d thrown out a few minutes earlier.

My instinct was to open a cupboard and put together a substantial meal for our visitor.

At the very least, offer a whole bag of nuts to go.

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Just as well Grant is here and has better sense. Once again, he called out to scare the poor creature off. If you could see the look that bear cast toward us, as if to say:

“Really? You can’t offer a hungry bear even these humble scraps?

But, as Grant says, a fed bear is a dead bear. We simply can’t encourage it to come back. The sad thing is that wild creatures like this have less and less habitat all the time.

This is one of few drawbacks, living in the country, witnessing such losses while powerless to help. It does sometimes make me quite despondent.

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But there is also humour.

2 very short clips from the trail-cam show a raccoon – skunk encounter:

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