random thoughts – Day 2,313 (Wednesday) – wildlife

Mama and fluff balls.

This week the wildlife has been promenading in the ‘hood. On Monday, I saw a mother turkey and counted seven tiny little fluff balls scattered around her. They were traveling at a brisk pace through my front yard and on to the next yard, the fluffy little ones doing a great job keeping up. A half-hour later, while on a walk, there were four toms congregated in a yard one street over from mine. 

Throughout the week, several times I’ve seen a lone bunny grazing in various yards. Most times the bunny would freeze, but once it ran away.

Bunny in a yard.

Twice now, I've spotted the neighborhood cat with the white legs and belly and two-tone black back and tail after months of absence. This was the cat that lounged with several turkeys under a bush in my back yard last fall. The black cat has been racing through yards, but there are a couple of other cats not seen since last fall.

Each day in the late afternoon, several crows gather in my yard and on roof of my house and carport. Between three and seven engage of them in takeoff and landing, squawking, and walking around. Two of them get right up close and squawk in each others faces and remind me of a bickering human couple.

Today’s evening walk also featured the red sun in the hazy sky. Weather services say it is due to smoke blowing in from wildfires in Canada and Minnesota. There have been some spectacular photos of the oddly colored light and sky, just none done by me. My usually reliable camera kept autocorrecting the color of the sun from reddish-orange to white hot, and I couldn’t capture in pixels what I saw with my own eyes. It was most frustrating.