Quiet is how the mountain is today. The air is still, and few birds are moving or even out looking for food. Nights are busier here this week. The routine of Baby Dog howling in outrage when a local raccoon raids the bird feeder at 2 or 3 or 4 a.m. is predictable. I get up, flip on a light, watch the raccoon scurry away and go back to sleep. If I don’t get up, Baby Dog continues to howl and listening to her is worse than getting up. In the morning I barely remember it.
Deer are moving every night, and I’m finding them in places where I don’t usually see them. They are in the lane, galloping uphill along the dirt road like horses, or next to the chicken pen or beside the cabin within arm’s reach. That drives the dogs nuts, too.
To replace the long-departed summer pewees, the great horned and screech owls are nightly callers. The Canada geese are always up to trouble, too. They are always fussing about something, even in the middle of the night.
Sometimes I wish I could sleep during the quiet day and spend more time outside at night, seeing what else goes on. Maybe one day but not this one.
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6 comments:
i haven't seen my horned owl at the cabin yet, this fall, but I know he'll be here soon!
Prowling raccoons, cats, squawking GB herons, sneaky skunks, owls, sometimes a fox or coyote, and God know what that occasionally clamors over the rooftop…not quiet here at night, either. Moon the dog can scare the daylights out of you (and does, regularly) when she suddenly cuts loose barking, in her surprisingly deep voice, at 3 a.m. I don't get up. I know her barks, and unless it is something unusual, I just try and suffer it out.
I'm amazed! Your raccoon scurries away just because you flip on the light? We used to have raccoons come to our kitchen window while we were eating supper and bang on the glass.
Lovely photo of all those fallen leaves. I spy a tulip tree leaf among all the red and white oak leaves.
Dana and Daisy: Well, I rarely see the owls, either. I just hear them.
Carolyn H.
Griz: I wish Baby Dog was just bark once and let it go when the raccoon appears, but she doesn't. She's a wimp but when she's barking she has this huge, deep-throated roar of outrage that makes her sound vicious.
Carolyn h.
Woodswalker: No, flipping on the light no longer chases away the raccoon. Now, I also have to knock on the glass patio door to get it to move. I suspect that it won't take long before that doesn't work either.
Carolyn H.
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