It`s been too long since I blogged but a lot has been going on here - planting, roadtrips, squirrel hunting....and it appears that the notorious serial bird killer has moved to Stratford. We were kinda hoping that the bad karma that has followed us for years would remain in the North but alas.....
Wondering what I`m talking about? A little history. My poor husband has been the recipient of far too many birds committing suicide on the front of his vehicles. I, seriously, have never in my life seen as much poultry (is that the correct term?) carnage as I have since hooking up with him. Example One: While driving to visit my parents, this bird darted out in front of his truck and bang! Of course he quickly attempted to tell me that the bird flew away. Half an hour or so later, we arrive at my parents, exchange hugs and kisses and bring in our bags. The hubby goes out to "get some fresh air" and opens up the hood of his truck. Lo and behold there is a woodpecker lodged, in an unnatural position, beside his headlight....dead. At least he thought so, because as he finishes dislodging the thing, it suddenly opens its eyes and flies away!
Example Two: We are driving over the mountain pass from Grand Forks, BC into Kelowna, BC. There has been fresh snowfall and the roads are icy and rather precarious driving conditions. It's also a beautiful glorious sunny day so the glare off the icy roads is making it somewhat difficult to see. E is driving up a slippery hill and as he reaches the peak, at a blind spot, there on the road right before us is an innocent family of chickadees eating the salt off of the highway. Needless to say, it was too dangerous for E to avoid hitting them and it was far too late for them to get out of the way.
Example Three: We are driving home through the Joshua Tree National Forest with my parents. We had spent a couple of hours taking photographs and waited long enough to capture the sunset before heading home. Sure enough, BAMB! We hit a bird. When we stop to gas up, we can see the other people at the station looking at the front of the car so my Dad gets out and picks out the remains of an adorable miniature owl. Okay, so, it wasn't E doing the driving that time but he was in the car.
Example Four: While in San Diego last winter we went to Sea World. (This story might not be suitable given the recent passing of a killer whale trainer). After watching the scheduled show, we are standing on the top level of an observation area that views the behind the scenes tanks and see two killer whales - a young one and an older who appears to be playing with a dead fish. The elder continually picks the fish up in its mouth, promptly spits it out a couple of feet ahead of itself and dives under the water to pick it back up, then continues the process. After a few rounds, the elder allows the youngster to have a go and then takes over again, this time, it launches the fish out a foot or so farther than before while the young whale swims alongside.
In addition to the the human audience, there is also a flock of seagulls precariously perched along the sides of the tank. The "free meal" is causing quite a frenzy amongst the gulls sitting on the sidelines. They are becoming increasingly more vocal and are visibly aroused, vying for position...dare I say...battling out for an appropriate pecking order.
As we continue to observe, a father is standing beside us with his young daughter and they are ranting and raving about the show we just watched. She informs him she wants to be a whale trainer when she gets older. Then they start having a discussion about what the whales are doing with the fish. And wouldn't you know it. Before I can turn to share my thoughts with them that we are bearing witness to the wise old whale teaching the youngster how to hunt, the whale spits the fish out, a seagull goes for it and dive bombs the dead fish and the whale dives down on top of the gull, pulling it deep under water. Shock immediately hits the group of people gathered there as we attempt to absorb what we just bore witness to and I'm sure we all were secretly hoping the bird would fly out of the depths of the pool, alas.....
Apparently, the early bird doesn't get the worm in this case!
The two of them made a bit of a game out of the carcass. They'd pull it down under water and then let it float up to the surface where it bobbed around for all to see and eventually they grew bored, lesson over, they went their separate ways, abandoning the dead gull. Some last supper, eh? As the recent event has reminded us, so did this event, you can take an animal out of the wild but you sure can't take the wild out of the animal.
Oh, and the little girl, visibly shaken by the events, quickly recanted her new careet choice.
Okay, so that example doesn't entail driving but Ev was still present.
This brings us to yesterday. We had plans to go to the country yesterday to pick up some bales of straw for our garden but the kind gentlemen at the farm said we couldn't come out until 3pm. So, we decided to go for a drive because it was an amazingly beautiful day. We packed Ernie into the truck and with lofty plans, we both packed our camera gear. Ernie entertained us for the first couple of hours, running back and forth between windows, barking at cows, barking at people walking their dogs. As we continued driving, we realized we had been a bit too ambitious because we ended up too far away with too little time to take photos and get to the farm to meet Fred, the farmer so we cut our trip short. We had a quick but memorable visit with Fred and his very old dog, Penny. Fred, who has to be in his 70s, crawled up into the loft of the barn and threw the bales down to Ev, who passed them to me in the back of the truck where I strategically stacked them. When Fred met Ernie, it was love at first sight. He was so taken with him that he ran....yes, ran, to his son's house, which is on the same farm, to rile up his daughter-in-law to come out and meet Ernie because he knew she would fall in love with him, and of course, she did. While E & Fred carried on their conversation, she told me that she had actually been asleep when Fred came a-knockin'. Poor girl. That was my cue to start heading home.
As we waned our way home down the rough country roads, out of nowhere, a bird flies out in front of Ev's truck and BANG! Oh No! Not again. I felt instantly sick. My emotions flipped uncontrollably between trying not to cry and not to laugh. Poor E! As we came into more traffic, we could see that people were looking at the front of Ev's truck as they approached us. That can't be a good sign, right?
When we got home, E parked on the side of the road and as I started to walk toward the front of the truck, their was a man walking his dog approaching. As I turned the corner, there it was, awkwardly protruding from the front grill of Ev's truck. A macabre sight. The man and I both spoke at the same time. His comment. Oh-oh! Mine... Oh-no!
Dang! I had to get away from that as soon as possible and when E eventually came into the house, we determined E's karma is not the best. We figure that when he dies and goes to heaven, there will be a flock of birds waiting for him so they can peck him. Like he isn't hen-pecked enough by me.
Hopefully I haven't offended you too much. Come back tomorrow...subject....the squirrel hunter.
i might have had tea come out my nose when I realized that the bird was COMPLETELY lodged in the front grill of the truck... I hope it didn't cause too much damage in the end!
ReplyDelete(lol... that made my day! sorry Ev)