Sunday, August 03, 2008

Wild Things

I'm not a bird watcher, and not really much of a wild life aficionado, though I do like to see wild things cavorting in the wild. When that happens, I can tell that all's right with the world.

We saw some cool critters on our trip, though, of course, they all hid when I had a camera in hand.

The deer up on the Blue Ridge are Whitetails, like we have here, but they are so much prettier. Ours are a sort of neutral dun colour, and, up there, they are a vibrant, glowing red.

We saw two bear cubs in Shenandoah National Park, and, no, it wasn't the same one twice--one was quite a bit bigger than the other. They just gambolled across the road, frolicking down the mountain, as bear cubs should.

We saw wild turkeys, looking very stately alongside the road, and a raven sitting on a wall.

I saw a very small and bright blue bird, about the size of a finch, that I'm convinced was a bluebird, and many red wing blackbirds. There was an oriole flying around in Philly.

I'm pretty sure it was a woodchuck I saw sitting up on its haunches alongside the highway. Hope it didn't try to cross.

I saw Canada geese, headed south, in Indiana. I wondered why so early. Does this indicate a bad winter coming?

Squirrels of every hue abound everywhere, and though I was not lucky enough to see the legendary white ones in Brevard, I bought a stuffed one there, for Ethan.

I will have to see if Brendan can remind me of more.

I remembered Addy telling me about feeding chipmunks in Shenandoah, though it is forbidden, so I kept an eye out but didn't see any.

I'm glad we were able to see so many of nature's creatures going about their business.

1 comment:

  1. The geese in Indiana were probably just out for some fun. They are here all winter long, they have plenty of food sources and the winters in the bottom half of Indiana are pretty mild.

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