Of Red Tails and Ringed Necks and Coyotes

Driving out of the forest preserve, a blur of brown caught my eye, so I backed up and grabbed these shots out the sun roof. 

This Red Tailed Hawk had just made a catch.

A few days later I saw five Hawks flying together, something I've never seen. Pairs, yes, but five, I believe is almost an aerie of Hawks. 

And next, out on the ever-browning Prairie:

  

Tucker and I stopped to snap a landscape picture and scared up a Ringed Neck Pheasant, who flew just overhead and settled into the tall rust colored grasses on the right. I was dumbstruck, and unable to snap a photo in time.

I've never seen a pheasant in the wild, only from the car window, one alive pecking along the roadside, and one roadkill, so this was really exciting for me.

These are the photos I took, just imagine a large frightened bird swooping overhead.

I startled a charm of finches too, and this is the best photo I could get of that action. I had to look up what you call a flock of finches, and it's a charm.
I like that one.

We stopped to take in the Views. They were awesome.

It was cold, blustery and spitting rain. We had the whole place to ourselves. Tucker ran ahead, gleefully off leash, peeing to his heart's content.

I got a little distracted by my i-phone camera, because if I pointed it more up the sky was whitewashed and more down, the sky very brooding. Nothing even resembling just right.  I noticed Tuck with his nose deep into something, and since he loves to roll in poop, I ran to see what caught his fancy. 

It was evidence of the food chain. I'm not sure who got it or how, but this red tailed hawk's luck ran out.

I thought about how stripped bare fall makes me feel, and how, despite the chill and damp of both the weather and reality, I still felt better for taking this walk. I reminded myself that I never used to let a little crummy weather stop me, and if I remembered to dress right, and could manage not to have to pee mid hike, that this was the best idea I could have on any given day. I'm positive Tuck agrees. 

Walking gets some endorphins in my brain going, and the scenery is a perk.

This photo, I don't know what happened. Wind, cold shaky hands, fog or lint on the lens, who knows, but I like it. It's my Monet shot, pretty much what the world looks like to me without my glasses.

And last night, as the wind howled and the temperatures dropped, Tucker whined and growled a bit at the door before I convinced him to come take up more than his share of the bed. My phone buzzed - my neighbor telling me coyotes just killed one of her Jack Russell terriers and to be careful with Tucker.  Several hours later, maybe three am, Tucker went nuts again as the coyotes howled and screamed and fought over whatever they had caught. I didn't want to know, but texted my neighbor this morning to make sure Russell did not meet Jack's fate, and was relieved to hear he is fine. I doubt a single coyote would take on a hundred pound ball of fur and anxiety, but who knows what a pack might try, especially a hungry pack in lean times.

Tuck and I found a deer bone in the woods behind the house a few weeks ago, and he brought it home as a trophy, or a reminder of his ancestry. We surprised a coyote slinking along the wood's edge, and he watched us warily until Tucker caught his scent and took off after him like a madman. I was a little proud and scared at the same time, but not interested in a fight, so I was relieved he let me call him off. My dog has had quite a year, chasing a bear and a coyote. Now he's having to settle for squirrels and chipmunks he'll never catch, and his carnivore dreams of another incarnation.

Nature is so beautiful and yet so hard, and cruel, but who am I to question her ways. I'm just here to observe, to bear witness, and snap digital pictures to help me remember.

I do meddle when it suits me though. That little salamander in the garden? He has a new home and a new name, Jamarcus, thanks to the begging and pleading of my daughter. And now I worry about temperature and humidity and worm supply because, even though I was sure we'd just enjoy him a few days and then let him loose to hibernate, the weather changed so quickly and became so cold, I'm afraid now I'm stuck. Salamander mom. Crazy lady in pj's and a jacket, scooping up worms for breakfast. Sheese. I'm already stressing about his habitat and his diet as if I didn't have enough to worry about.

But, I have to admit, for a salamander, he's pretty cute. Or she. Who knows.

I'll keep you posted.....