Pay attention because there is always something to see
I was looking out the kitchen window one day and saw a strange sight. In another environment, it wouldn’t be unusual to see a large snapping turtle walking across the yard, but Christy Road has little water. Yes, it was a large snapper moving in the heat of noon in June across the baking hot lawn. No wonder the dog was raising such a fuss.
Later in life, as I grew a tad older and quite a bit wiser, I learned it is during the summer snappers leave the safety of the water to lay eggs in a drier place and cover them with soil. Snapping turtles are heavy and this one was probably in the 40- to 50-pound category.
I was thinking about that summer scene and thought this was a bit unusual, but how many unusual sightings do we miss just because we aren’t paying attention to what is occurring around us?
We were shooting at a local sportsmen club when I saw something unusual. No, not that deer that keeps insisting on endangering its life by feeding behind the backstop that holds our targets. Instead, it was a medium-sized white bird that kept feeding in front of me. Now there are few local birds that are white, so its presence kept attracting my attention. Finally, I could no longer stand it and quit the rifle shooting and walked up to the central location where it had been feeding. It would move back and forth from the bushes along the end of the rifle range and in the grass in front of the shooters.
I patiently waited and watched, hoping a member wanting to shoot would not show up. Finally, the white bird flew from the bushes and landed about 20 yards in front of me. It hopped about, tilting its head and listening for sounds from the ground. Its head darted down, and out it pulled a worm. Darned if it wasn’t a common robin but its feathers were white. Actually, white is a bit of an exaggeration for in fact it was a pie-bald with a bit of tan on the wings. This brought back memories of a gentleman who lived over by the Washington Crown Center mall who had a mounted all-white crow.
I guess it is safe to say wild animals, like people, don’t really get along all that well. Usually in the wild kingdom, there is competition for food.
I heard of a strange sighting from a friend, Tom, in West Virginia. Tom was walking around his farm in Tyler County when something caught his eye. He walked over to investigate. What he saw would make anybody a bit queasy, for on the ground in front of him was a Red Tail Hawk and wrapped around it was a large black snake. Both were seriously injured, for the hawk had an apparent broken wing and was bleeding out of the mouth. The snake had such a tight hold on the hawk the snake’s body was imbedded in the bird. Probably, the hawk had spotted the snake from the air and when it swooped down and sunk it’s talons into the snake, it bit off more than it could chew, or should I say swallow?
At first, Tom thought the snake was dead and reached down to unwrap the coils that were squeezing the life out of the large bird. Luckily, he could get his hand back out of the way before the snake could bite him. Tom was a country boy his entire life, but this was a new sight for him. He ended up settling the matter of both snake and bird and moved on.
On a nicer vein, I sat in my truck and watched three Orioles fight while a female watched from a nearby limb. Sit quietly and pay attention – there is always something going on.
Don’t forget, there is a gun show at Arden Fairgrounds June 23 and 24. Hope to see you there.