The Funeral

Soft brown eyes stare

as one by one,

they arrive,

their enormous wings folding quietly.

Silence

surrounds the crisp morning air.

The tall grass a circle,

wildflowers wilting in sorrow.

The cortege has arrived.

Heads bowed, as if in mourning,

They feast.




42 words following this prompt:  Why do birds suddenly appear?  It just so happens that I passed an unfortunate deer this morning, and she was surrounded by turkey buzzards.  I was struck by the respectful pose of the birds, as if they were mourners at a funeral. 

Random

Am I the only person who speaks to random wildlife?  I opened the door last night to call for Zena, spotted a raccoon in the bird seed, and all I said was "Hello, Mr. Racoon! How are you on this fine evening?"  I also routinely speak to squirrels, cats, possum, and a random skunk or two, even if it is just to say 'Hi!"  My neighbors must think that I am completely nuts.  That may not be a completely horrible thing.  If your neighbors think you are insane, they will be less likely to borrow your lawn mower and not return it. 

My husband's new school is wayyyyyy out in the boonies. As in, cow pastures as far as the eye can see.  Driving out there, down a two-lane road, Larry and I see lots of things that we never see in the city.  Like this bird, the Kara Kara:

Source: flickr.com via Tina on Pinterest

 I didn't even know these birds existed, but I saw one two days in a row on that country road, and I consider that pretty awesome. I've also seen hawks, turtles, cows, horses, donkeys, goats, and turkey buzzards.  It's a regular menagerie out there in the country. Except deer.  I have yet to see any deer out there, because they all seem to live in the city.  There are probably more deer within the city limits of New Braunfels than actual people.  Maybe they like the polka music they play at the Wurstfest. 

My son wants a dog for his birthday this Friday.  He wants a black dog.  Who is big.  Who is small.  Who is a puppy.  But who gets big.  We've talked about getting a dog, but not the particulars. There's quite a bit up for negotiations. A dog is a lot of responsibility for a boy, even if he will be five soon.  I don't know if he is ready for that responsibility.  After all, he doesn't even wipe his own rear end by himself yet. 

The Walking Dead just started it's third season, with a bang, I might add.  Of course, there's some huge questions as to the zombie apocalypse(all those corpses and nary a feasting bug?), but since the main point of the show is not that there are zombies, I'm cool.  I still wonder how we would handle an 'end of the world' scenario.  We would be fine for a week or so, then we would run out of toilet paper, and it would be catastrophe time.
 

Source: s3.amazonaws.com via Tina on Pinterest

I am over visiting the excellent Stacy at Stacy's Uncorked, checking out her wine list. Go visit!

Birds are Amazing Creatures

Mothers everywhere understand that any car that contains a child will, over the course of time, accumulate a sediment of cookie crumbs, cracker crumbs and the "what the heck is that?" item on the floor.  Often, as I am putting my son in his car seat, I will try to grab as much of this sediment as I can scoop up and throw it outside the car.  I am not littering.  Rather than throw away those crumbles of food, I am feeding birds with them.  After I get in my car and am putting on my seatbelt, I'll usually see one or two grackles who have spotted the morsels and have come to eat them.  The other day I threw out a couple of large cookie parts, and I figured that a bird would take a while to eat those.  What I didn't expect was to see a grackle pick up the piece and take it to a spot where another car had left a puddle of water from their a/c unit.  As I watched, the bird dipped the cookie part into the shallow puddle to soften it!  It made me chuckle, because I don't think I know five people who would be smart enough to think to use that puddle in that way, let alone any other members of the animal kingdom. 

I like to watch birds. They are pretty successful survivors.  I have a bird feeder set up in the back yard and I can see it from the window in the kitchen.  I get the occasional grackle, but mainly doves, finches, etc.  I have passed many a pleasant Saturday morning watching birds, and the squirrels, as they stop by for a snack.  Occasionally a hawk will stop by, since I have a number of white-winged doves who have become nice and plump hanging out at my place, but that's the Circle.  My cats will sometimes try to catch the birds, but the one time Tiger actually was able to get a bird, he was so shocked that he immediately dropped it. 

One morning when I was at Walgreens checking out a grackle hit the window pretty hard.  I came out of the store and it was laying on the sidewalk.  I figured it was dead.  I got in my car and as I was getting ready to leave, a group of grackles gathered around the body.  I made the assumption that the other birds had gathered to eat their dead comrade--food is food, and everybody's got to eat.  I was wrong.  As I watched, a big black grackle approached and grabbed one of the legs of the fallen bird.  He pulled at it pretty hard.  Then he did it again.  Just as I thought, "What the heck?" the bird I thought was dead sat up(as much as a bird can sit up, but you get the idea).  The other birds seemed to gather around their fellow, and it almost seemed like they were trying to help him wake up.  After another minute or two, the bird that I thought was dead flew off, and his flock took flight with him.  Watching that little miracle made my day.