Four a.m. and Boza and I walked to check the wells. They are fine until tomorrow and then we will fill them. Then we walked another hour and went to the lake. On my walk I noticed something…
It was foggy, but just clear enough to see to the woods and at the edge of the woods was about six foxes. I see them a lot and they watched Boza and I. Boza smelled them and he let out a low growl, I shook my stick at them and they yelped and slunk back into the woods, deep into the fog. Friends in a sort of way! We keep them at a distance. Then…
Ralph the Raven was sitting on a telephone pole and watching us. He says nothing as we pass, that is how we know it is Ralph. Next we come upon the Coot pond. I call it the Coot pond, because they do not allow anyone else to stay there. They no longer run, or at least run when I ping at them. I call out, “Stupid Coots” and ping, ping and ping at them. They stop running and laugh at me. Ralph and the coots are friends and we meet everyday to say hi and how are you…
We got to the end of the dam and found George the Birdbrain. George, I suspected had found a girl and he left for better waters. He did, but he remembered us. He sat in a pine tree and stared. At first you could see the gears turning within his head, as to who are these guys. We saw him last night as we walked, so we checked on him this morning. George then came over to a tree near us and sang such beautiful songs to us, as we stood there. But alas, George is a daddy and sooner than later his wife came to get him back on track in life. Out of the pine trees came a pretty little girl George (lets call her Georgette) and scolded us and George. George looked at us and shrugged his shoulders, then off he went to gather worms and bugs to eat, for the babies, that I could hear screaming for food…
George is no longer a bachelor….But a friend still…
I then noticed two hawks, they sat quietly in the pines near us. We see these hawks all the time and they sat there just looking at us. If and that is always an if, I had my camera, I had a beautiful shot. They sat less than 20 meters away and did not move. New friends? They are!
Then Ralph the Raven, flew into the pines. He sat staring at the hawks and cawed loudly at them. Not at us, but at them. The hawks took offense to that and flew away. Ralph sat in their spot and gloated over what he had done. Ralph is jealous it seems and George came back quickly to see what happened. I laughed and laughed, it made my morning wonderful to see these birds interchanging…
The hawks went fishing and stayed on our side of the lake. Not because of us, but because Mamma Eagle was fishing on the far side of the lake and she was screeching up a killer storm, let me tell you. Mamma Eagle is not a friend… 🙁
Soon she left with a big fat fish in her talons and disappeared to her nest. Did not see Papa Eagle. She probably ate him for lunch or something? 😉
We then walked back home and saw the foxes again peeking out of the forest and Boza found his kitty friend in the field. The chase was on and as always, kitty wins the chase and watches Boza look for him from a roof or fence top. Boza is still in his mind the great hunter, so as long as Boza is happy, I am happy. Too Boza as long as the kitty is gone, he has successfully done his job…
The foxes watched Boza running and then slunk away again as I shook my stick at them. Once again, I keep they at arms length…
Then as the fog started to lift off the lake, I had been listening too them, but hardly could see them, swallows by the thousands. Swooping down and hitting the water surface. They did this time and time again and my first reaction was, they were eating something. Then as I watched them, I realized that they were bathing…
They hit the water surface and splash water on themselves and as they lift back up, they shake and the water showers off them. It was a perfectly timed event. Thousands of swallows intermingling and no one ran into the other. The swallows are our friends and I am thankful for them. For they are mosquito eating machines…
The humans in the village were still sleeping and we quietly walked back home. Boza ate his food, I drank a cup of coffee and I wrote this article…
That my friend, was our morning walk!
WtR