Road Kill

On a trip south in the summer, I was appalled at the number of ground hogs that had been hit by cars. This trip, we saw a) a large dog b) a deer and c) a wolf-- all dead by the side of the road. I couldn't believe my eyes when I spotted the wolf. Came home and looked it up on the web and it was indeed a grey wolf, a magnificent creature. Sad.

On St. Simon's Island, at Fort Frederika, a national monument, we spotted a smallish black and white cat observing us from the trunk of a huge fallen live oak tree. The ranger said the cat had been caught the previous week and taken to be neutered and receive his shots. No wonder the cat regarded us with suspicious eyes. She said, "he's not very friendly." Well, would you be?

We put seed in the feeders around the house where we were staying. While we were doing this, I had the feeling of being watched. The birds were on the feeders about 40 seconds after we finished. Then the squirrels came to the bottom of the feeders. At one point, I counted 10 squirrels. There were blue jays, cardinals, blackbirds, sparrows, chickadees and titmice, and one flicker.

The chickadee and the titmouse are polite, usually just taking one seed at a time. The others? Oink.

Our birds are enjoying the suet in this cold spell. It packs a lot of calories. Sometimes fat grams are good for you, if you have feathers and it's cold outside. Not my milieu, alas.

Grapeshot