Spring News

Spring is arriving, one small change at a time. Last night, as I walked the dogs for the last time, I heard the sound of hundreds of Canada geese, flying somewhere in or above the cloud cover, and heading north. “Geese!” I said to Dog who looked around (but not up) excitedly, no doubt thinking the birds were on the pond.

Once, when Dog and I were walking around the pond, a small flock of geese landed on it. Dog, in his excitement, broke away from me and jumped into the pond, swimming towards them. The geese swam to the other end of the pond, chased by a swimming dog, who stayed with them until he tired. Fortunately, he was able to make the shoreline before he gave out completely. But the word “geese” still gets his attention.

This morning I saw a single wild turkey in the overflow parking field at Roundtop. It was a large male, though alone and without a harem. It’s the first I’ve seen at Roundtop in 2006. At my parents’ farm, however, this has been a banner winter for turkey. They have about 30 that parade back and/or forth across the road almost daily. That group has one large tom and several younger toms with it. This past weekend the big tom was strutting his stuff, fanning his tail and exceedingly proud of his very large harem. When the birds are in their upper yard, they just about cover it. My parents often comment that many people drive by without even noticing that 30 turkeys are in the yard just a few feet from the road. They’re so busy talking on their cell phones or looking down the road that they don’t notice anything else.

Tonight, Baby Dog finally gets her stitches out! I think she’s forgotten (or pretends she has forgotten) just about everything she was taught before the cone went on two weeks ago. I think tomorrow we will have a play day to try and rid her of some of her excess energy. Then on Saturday, the lessons in civilizing behavior will begin again.