The AWOL Stories – Part 2: Oh Deer, The Geese Fart!

Remember the other day when I talked about grabbing the good days (weather-wise) when they came because they’re really fickle around these parts?  Well, since my balmy Monday morning it’s been a lot of blustery, cold, windswept days with the prevailing wind generally coming from the North or East.  Since I’m in NW Scotland, you can be pretty sure that those are supremely cold winds.

I have been doing my best to remain upbeat about spring finally being here though!  I even went running in the early morning a few times.  On one of those occasions I saw two deer.  They were really close to the path I was running along and skipped off happily enough, as I thudded my way through my workout. 

I’m used to being accompanied on my runs by various animals.  Down south in England it was usually a fox that would peer out at me, run with me for a few steps and then dash off.  I suppose there must be foxes in Scotland but I’ve never seen one up here, maybe I’m too far north.  But now I can say I’ve run with foxes and deer!

I was really pleased and excited about my deer-run experience, and that nice feeling stayed with me for a couple of days.  Two days later, I walked the pups to one of the lochs behind the house.  There was a lot of squawking and honking in the air and I looked up to see the geese circling and finally settling for a paddle on the water nearby.  The pups looked on curiously and clambered over to have a look, ostensibly to make friends I suppose.  I was glad to see the geese active and returning – maybe this truly meant that the warmer seasons were finally here!

Geese circle a lot before landing in the water.  Did you know that?  I didn’t, but it makes sense I suppose.  A circle is a natural way to gently descend, while maintaining a smaller area of coverage.  Our pilots do it when they land an airplane, and much inspiration comes from nature so it was not a major eureka realization.  But, I enjoyed the thoughts as the realization hit me, as I craned my neck to observe these geese descending from the air above me. Of course, a chance comment from the hubs later on (after one of his walks) totally shattered my oh-so-proud-to-be-a-detective thought.  He calmly commented on the squawking and circling geese and simply said ‘oh they must have a nest nearby’.  Yep – I’m clearly not as well transplanted as I’d thought, eh!  Anyway! Let’s move along and get back to the things that happened on MY walk! Ahem!

It was when I was looking up at the geese circling that I heard it – a long, splaaaaaaaty squelch.  A goose fart.

Thank heavens they were a bit above me and not too close.  I was highly amused.  Of course, why wouldn’t a goose fart?  Birds don’t make farting noises to poop – we know that after all the specifically directed bird poop that lands on every recently cleaned car without any warning!  I told one of my scientist friends about this and she started laughing her head off.  She was so tickled by my experience, and the fact that she had had numerous conversations with other smart scientific people on this topic, that she sent me a link to a book about animals that fart, and the ones that don’t.  Now, I haven’t read the book, but I read the blurb she sent me.  It’s hilarious and fascinating at the same time.  Who knew farty animals would be a topic that I’d want to delve into at my age?  Well, come to think of it, my 5-year old self probably would have told me that this was a totally interesting topic.

Here’s the link if you’re interested in fun trivia!  https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/4/3/17188186/does-it-fart-book-animal-farts-dinosaur-farts

The animal antics of the day didn’t stop with the farting birds though.  Oh no.  Some hours later I got a phone call from the Hubs; a delivery was being made to the workshop in his absence and the driver had called him to tell him there were deer in our back yard.

Deer NEVER come here to the village.  Sure I’m only a transplant here, but the Hubs has lived his whole life here.  Of course there are deer out on the moor beyond the village, but they never veer close to the human zone.

They were here, not just on our croft but actually over the wire fence into the garden we use for our veggie plot, fruit, clothesline, fuel storage and sitting area.  Quite near to our back door actually.  I took pics and attempted a video.  The video is a bit shaky, and I apologize for that, but the Hubs was messaging me non-stop while I was trying to film as unobtrusively as possible, on one leg, while blocking the pups from running out by blocking the gap in the doorway with my other leg.  Slick, right?!

Hehe, more antic-reporting in the next post!