Birds
When we first lived here in our house, about thirty years ago, there were a lot of robins. Every day bought joy at seeing the flocks of robins in the front yard. We also had cedar waxwings and grosbeaks. The ring necked doves we were seeing for a few seasons have gone. Haven’t noticed them for a couple of years. Where did these birds go?
Other parts of town, and certainly outside of town, I still see robins. Haven’t seen grosbeaks or waxwings however.
Cedar Waxwing
Now, no robins, no waxwings, no grosbeaks. Lots of -- tons of -- crows. A family of jays have been living in our apple tree for many years. Some starlings, thankfully, not too bad. Hummingbirds; they visit our feeders on the front porch.
The bird landscape has changed.
The Other Day in the Neighborhood ...
Driving back from the store, a few blocks from our house and I see three wild turkeys hanging out on a front lawn. Lots of turkeys up in the hills but I’ve only seen turkeys down here in the “flats” one time before, years ago. There were two or three turkeys sitting on top of our neighbors roof. A bit eerie, being watched by silent turkeys from the second floor.
Python
And a block or two down from the turkey sighting, I saw a woman standing on the sidewalk with a huge boa constrictor (or python? I don’t know, a big thick giant snake!) wrapped around her neck. Just standing there, still, with a very large snake hanging from her neck. (I Googled the image above; this is what the pattern on the woman's snake looked like, so I assume it was a python.)
An odd day.
UPDATE: In today's paper in the pet adoption section: a python named Heneritta needs a home.
