A roundup of miscellaneous observations

Published 9:46 pm Tuesday, June 12, 2018

As nature writers, we see (and think) about a lot of odd stuff. Herewith, some items not worthy of complete columns, but interesting nonetheless:

  • Crazy Larry: We have a resident mockingbird (we assume it’s always the same one) outside our beach house at Hatteras. Every morning, he perches atop a power pole and sings his own songs and those of others. And sings. And sings. And sings. Crazy Larry is our friend at morning coffee and tea time.
  • Suet Cakes: During the winter, birds need fat and protein to survive. We give it to them. But it’s now summer, and we’re still feeding them — birds, squirrels, raccoons, flying squirrels. We still do $2 a day on suet cakes. Time to cut back.
  • Window feeders: As many feeders as we have, our new faves are the small round covered feeders that hang just 12 inches from our kitchen windows, with round seed cakes and added suet cakes. The birds flock to them, and they’re only 12 inches away. Talk about close-ups!!
  • Himicanes: I grew up in the Bahamas, with about five hurricanes year. We had a permanent dry erase hurricane map on the wall. Every storm was plotted by latitude and longitude. All the storms were female — sometimes benign, sometimes vicious, always capricious. Him-i-canes named after males … it’s just not right.
  • Mortality: Yesterday we went to two funerals, both of loving, caring ladies. Young folks, get busy doing good works to match these two. Enjoy life, but help others enjoy theirs as well.
  • Goose Baby: Last week, we wrote of a goose baby who had two treble hooks removed — lovingly — by Tommy White, a local bird rescue expert. Thanks to him, all in the family are now doing well.
  • Nuts: It’s June 10, and we’re already getting nuts falling on the deck. Small hickories. Sheesh!!
  • Bunny Chase: The one truly unusual sight this week — we saw a young squirrel chase a much larger bunny away from “her” dock, across “her” yard, up the neighbor’s hill, and into the brush. Four different charges or chases. We have a hundred squirrels in our yard. Why did this one decide that bunnies were not invited? Who knows? But she wanted that bunny out of her yard…NOW! This was as amusing as watching the mockingbird beat up the 5-foot black snake. Who knew?

So it goes…

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