“What to do? What to do? Which ones should we go after, Dad?”
“That’s a tough one, Son. So many dinners. So little time….
I guess we watch for a cripple, or a loner, like always.”
Category Archives: Animals
Shovelers
Folks!
May I
Introduce
The shovelers.
Their bills are special.
Wide with comb-like strainers
They sweep the water’s surface
Back and forth, swishing and slurping,
Straining out plankton and crustaceans,
Cleaning the water as they eat their lunch.
“Whadda ya say, Missus? Wanna go for a swim?”
“Naaaaah. I’m good. Just catchin’ a few rays.”
**Photo by friend, Sonia.
Look but Don’t Touch
A young puppy knows nothing about porcupines and the pain they can inflict just by being there.
Emma bounced around this one in a field, probably wondering why it didn’t either fly away or come out to play.
Ouch!
Needles.
Avoid them.
Time to back off.
Explore somewhere else.
Leave Mr. Porcupine
Or become a pin cushion.
Naivety comes with a price,
But, for once, listen to your elders.
Best not to indulge curiosity.
The Roundup
Apologies for the fuzzy photos, taken several years ago by this mediocre photographer with a mediocre camera.
You want me to what?
To get up and move?
To get off my butt
And to get in the groove?
A cow hand today
Has no need of a horse,
His ride needs no hay,
It’s a quad ride, of course.
Just fill it with gas
And go roaring around,
No cattle will sass,
And to follow, they’re bound.
There’s always a stray cow
That has to be got,
But magically, ends somehow
In the cow lot.
Birdfeeders
Hawk!
Warnings
are shouted.
Bird seeds are served,
but not for me; still,
hunger motivates me.
Unsuspecting songbirds feed,
inadvertently becoming
my prey, providing me with fresh meat.
Yes! Bird feeders — the balance of nature.
*****
Thanks to Linda for her help with etherees, a poetry form I had not yet tried. Any future tips appreciated. Check it out here:
Lyrebird
This bird is named for its amazing tailfeathers which resemble a lyre, a U-shaped, harp-like instrument. Unfortunately, the video only shows glimpses of the tailfeathers – but the main feature of the clip is to show the mimicry the lyrebird is capable of. They have been heard mimicking other birds, as well as copying sounds like sirens, dogs barking, and even cameras clicking. What a variety!
The video was taken by my friends who visited Australia recently. Lyrebirds are rather shy so this was a lucky capture.
Please turn up the volume for the best results.
Free Lunch
Hungry?
Table is set
Who says there’s no free lunch?
Suet for me and seeds for you
Just right.
P.S. I just figured out why poets are encouraged to write cinquains. It’s to make sure they don’t ramble on too much.
Five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables respectively.
Bath Time
The Missus says for my New Year’s resolution, I should have a bath.
All right! I’ll show her I’m a tough guy. Just because it’s freezing…. I’ll take it like a man.
Krrrrrrikey! What was I thinking?!
That’s enough of that. If she doesn’t like it, she can just smell me later.
Crispin’s Dining Room
While pruning one of our yew trees, I reached in towards the center, groping for the branch to cut, and felt a bird’s nest, obviously left there late last spring. Hesitantly, I checked for leftover unhatched eggs or dead chicks before I would throw the nest away.
The “eggs” I found in the nest were all cracked open, but they sure looked like hazelnut shells to me.
“Aha! Crispin the Squirrel has been here. I hope he only found the nest after the baby birds had flown.” I reasoned that the hazelnuts would not have been ripe until late fall, and the baby birds would have flown in the spring, so I didn’t think too badly of Crispin for making himself at home in this new dining room of his.
“Uh-ohhh … she found my stash.”
Another cinquain – five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables in each line respectively.
Crispin
Pampered squirrel
Who enjoys my woodshed
Where I bring him cracked hazelnuts
To eat.
Famished Flicker
Flicker is bigger than the little juncos and towhees. He takes advantage of his size to get his fill of suet.
It’s cold and rainy in the video clip. The towhee and junco try in vain to get a bite.
But all are vulnerable when the hawk moves in.
I’m trying my hand at writing cinquains (sin kanes). They have five lines with 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 syllables in each line respectively.
Be patient please. This is my first one ever.
Flicker
Hogging suet
Hungry but not sharing
Forgets about pecking order
And hawks.
wordsfromanneli 