We have a lot going on in our yard, at any given time. It is about 100 acres big yard, so I guess that helps. There are happy little things… and then… on occasion…. there is the sad.
The other day, I watched a tiny chipmunk run his little heart out. He sprinted from the high brush cover of the meadow, over to the deer feeder. While there, he grabbed a big kernel of corn… and then sprinted back to the tall dead grass. Again and again. He looked so happy with that little Chipmunk grin on his face, and that corn in his cheek. It was some kind of new Chipmunk Eat-and-Run Workout Routine… soon to be on Oprah. (The Squirrels are jealous, no doubt.)
Anyway. These little glimpses of wildlife happen outside our windows every day. And oh how I love to watch.
Our bird feeders are typically a Standing Room Only crowd. The Finches pack so tightly in there, I think they are training to be sardines. Just yesterday, we saw a first glimpse of Spring. Albeit, the temperature outside was about 15 degrees. But there was a small Bluebird on one of the feeders. Probably a scout. We don’t see too many of those timid little birds. But they look happy too. The Little Bluebird of Happiness, I’ll tell you.
Yet. There are times when the activity simply goes away. All of a sudden. It is like Dawn of the Dead, or Night of the Comet, or something. No one in the entire world is around.
And THAT is when we look for it. Not Zombies. But Hawks.
Yesterday, a Cooper’s Hawk landed right on the Deer Feeder. He stayed there quite some time, before moving up to some large rocks… near the house. He looked left, and right, and back again. But the streets were abandoned. The Chipmunks burrowed, the Squirrels made scarce, and there were more birds in the bush than could ever be in the hand.
You know, it is lonely being a Chicken Hawk. Yep. The bird without a friend. I sort of felt bad for it. Then I remembered, it just really wanted to eat all the other birds, and not make friends.
Nonetheless, that Cooper Hawk left without any Carry-Out. And no new buddies either. That’s why Cooper’s Hawks aren’t on Bowling Teams, or Debate Squads. They eat everybody.
I’m glad not to be a Hunting Hawk. I don’t mind being alone, by choice. But I wouldn’t want to be lonely because everyone feared or hated me.
And that is the sad…. the big, big sad….. that goes with being that Chicken Hawk.
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“The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.”
― Horace Walpole
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“One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
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“The trouble is not that I am single and likely to stay single, but that I am lonely and likely to stay lonely.”
― Charlotte Brontë
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“If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
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