One of the coolest things about the natural world is that it's full of surprises.
Some are very positive.
Like when an opossum builds a nest in your bushes and you worry about your pets' safety. So you Google "opossums" and learn they eat all kinds of pests, are resistant to rabies and have a live-and-let-live agreement with cats. They are terrified of dogs and will avoid them at all costs. Who knew?
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| Opossum Unsplash |
Or when a chipmunk moves into an ornamental birdhouse on your deck railing and cleans up the mess under the birdfeeder for you.
Or when you gaze out your window on a rainy day and spot a beautiful rainbow.
Some are hilarious.
Like when your family is at a county park playing Frisbee golf and a wild turkey answers with a long gobble every time your thirteen-year-old son hollers. "Dad!"
Or when you and your husband are doing yard work with the garage door open, and you go into said garage to find your old, already-grass-stained sneakers. You spot them in the shadows by the wall just inside the door and reach for them. A slight movement inside one of them makes you hesitate. You peer into the shadow and spot a small reptilian head with two beady little eyes staring at you from inside the heel of your shoe! A baby garter snake no bigger than a pencil has taken shelter there. You call our husband over to see and you both have a good laugh. Then, still smiling, you release the little black reptile with yellow stripes down its sides into the woods at the edge of your yard.
Some are so dangerous they become family lore, cautionary tales told and retold to each new generation.
Like the time you and your brother, Jack, were California preteen city slickers spending the summer on your grandparents' Pennsylvania farm. One day the two of you walked down to the lake to look for frogs. Your grandpa's beagle, Buster, followed you.
When you discovered there were no frogs to be found in the heat of the day, the three of you headed back up the path through the reeds. Next thing you knew your brother stopped in front of you and whispered, "Snake. Big snake."
You peered around him at the biggest snake you'd ever seen. The long black creature was crossing the path a few feet in front of you. It looked like the snake that lived in Grandma's compost pile. Harmless.
Buster snarled behind you and barrelled through the reeds toward the snake. Buster hated snakes and would kill them given half a chance. You tried to protect the poor snake by calling him off, but Buster ignored you. He grabbed the snake in the middle, gave it a hard shake and then let go, dancing back out of reach. Jack managed to grab Buster's collar and hold him back when he tried to lunge again. The unfortunate snake coiled and raised its head. You could see some of its guts hanging out of the bite wound. When it opened it's mouth, you saw it's fangs fold down and heard it hiss.
The two of you managed to drag Buster back to Grandma's house, giving the wounded snake a wide birth. You both felt sorry for the poor thing. When you got home and told Grandma about what happened, you mentioned you'd never seen a snake's fangs unfold before.
Grandma frowned. "Are you sure that's what you saw?"
You both nodded. "It's mouth was white inside," Jack added. "Weird!"
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| Water Moccasin |
"You were very lucky Buster was with you," Grandma said. "That wasn't a milk snake. It was a cottonmouth, a water moccasin. Very mean and very poisonous. Buster saved your lives."
Like I said, the natural world is full of surprises: amazing, beautiful, funny, scary, weird and wonderful (and always interesting.)
What's the biggest surprise nature has sprung on you?
4 comments:
Good blog post.
I guess the oddest thing from nature was when I was sitting on the deck reading in Bend , OR. A hummingbird stopped between my book and my face and hovered there for a few seconds. That gave me a bird's eye view of the hummer. A memory I'll always cherish.
That was quite a surprise, Diana! I've never heard of that happening to anyone else. What a lovely memory.
Good to see you back posting, Sarah! I've had many. nature encounters while hiking throughout my life, but I think the most amazing one was at Yellowstone. A friend and I met there to write and catch up. It was a middle meeting point (and interesting) between her on the east coast and me on the west. We'd been hiking for miles the day before to see great canyons, and rivers and geysers. But the next day we decided to take it easy and walk from our cabin into town for breakfast. As we were walking a heard of bison decided to walk down the street toward us.
We'd been told if confronted to slowly back away, don't make any sudden or threatening moves. But there were lots of them, twenty maybe. They are huge animals. We stood together holding hands for support and slowly backed to the side of the road. Once we were about fifteen feet away the heard moved down the road. It was amazing, but something I would have rather witnessed from the safety of a car.
Good to be back, Maggie.
Being on foot near ONE bison is scary, let alone twenty! It's a good thing you two knew what to do to to de-escalate the situation. I'd file this one under Dangerous.
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