Life and Death in the Winter Woods
I work in the woods a lot, and today was a beautiful day: cool (low 20's), light flurries on-and-off, sunshine poking through the clouds a bit, and a cool breeze out of the North.
I was standing in a fairly open part of the woods, not moving because I was checking my data recorder for the trees I had to measure next. Out of nowhere came a small brown (grey? It was moving!) bird, dodging like crazy with a hawk on its tail (no pun intended). Somewhat lagging behind the small freaked-out bird and the determined hawk in chase was another hawk, a bit higher up - it seemed to be enjoying the chase from a good vantage point. It was keeping up, but wasn't actively pursuing the smaller bird.
Well, about the place where I had been working 20 minutes earlier, I heard the birds crash into some light brush, and then couldn't see them. I wondered what the outcome of the chase had been - did the little guy get away, or is it lunch time for the hawk?
Then I saw a few feathers blowing across the snow in the area where the birds zoomed by me. Close call I thought; they almost got him right here before I saw them coming. It didn't look good, or sound good though, over there.
When I returned to the area where I heard them crash into the brush, my suspicion was confirmed: feathers everywhere. That little guy was quick, but not quick enough for a determined hawk.
Life in the wild: hard, vicious and winner-takes-all.
The moral of the story? We're animals, but we live in a different world than these birds do. Take care of them, take care of where they live, but don't get carried away and elevate them to the human level. People are animals, but animals are definitely not people.
The other moral? Hang out in the woods: the best office you can find!
I was standing in a fairly open part of the woods, not moving because I was checking my data recorder for the trees I had to measure next. Out of nowhere came a small brown (grey? It was moving!) bird, dodging like crazy with a hawk on its tail (no pun intended). Somewhat lagging behind the small freaked-out bird and the determined hawk in chase was another hawk, a bit higher up - it seemed to be enjoying the chase from a good vantage point. It was keeping up, but wasn't actively pursuing the smaller bird.
Well, about the place where I had been working 20 minutes earlier, I heard the birds crash into some light brush, and then couldn't see them. I wondered what the outcome of the chase had been - did the little guy get away, or is it lunch time for the hawk?
Then I saw a few feathers blowing across the snow in the area where the birds zoomed by me. Close call I thought; they almost got him right here before I saw them coming. It didn't look good, or sound good though, over there.
When I returned to the area where I heard them crash into the brush, my suspicion was confirmed: feathers everywhere. That little guy was quick, but not quick enough for a determined hawk.
Life in the wild: hard, vicious and winner-takes-all.
The moral of the story? We're animals, but we live in a different world than these birds do. Take care of them, take care of where they live, but don't get carried away and elevate them to the human level. People are animals, but animals are definitely not people.
The other moral? Hang out in the woods: the best office you can find!
posted by Paul | 7:00 PM
3 Comments:
Lucky for you it wasn't a bear chasing, well chasing whatever it is bears chase when they decide they don't want to be herbivores. Wait, isn't that usually when they start chasing a human?? Exactly, lucky for you.
Those birds must be pretty smart to be able to fly through trees and around bushes etc to chase and catch another bird doing the same through the trees trying to get away. So much for the old, "what a bird brain."
JAM
Speacking of being chased by bears, remember this: If you and another fellow are being chased by a bear you don't have to outrun the bear... you just need to outrun the other fellow...
TJS
"Speacking" might be the German version of "Speaking".
TJS
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