I have the greatest thoughts when I’m out walking the pups, and I always seem to forget them once I get home. Like splat, they’re gone! With not even a hint to remind me of what I was thinking.
So I’m walking along the shore with the pups today – just the shore of the loch – I thought it would be nice to take them down there so that we could see what interesting things there were at the edge of the loch. So far there’s a lot of mud, a few stones (nothing pretty just boulders marking the edge of the loch), and er… more mud, with weeds. Lots of weeds. The pups think that’s interesting enough, though so it’s all good!
The pups are having a great time; they’re chasing birds all over the place. I went after them, walked through a big cloud of flying things which, you know, when you’re in it you can see it, but when you’re not in it you don’t know it’s coming up on you because you can’t see them! Yeah. And, the puppies are going wild right now, so they’re having a blast.
They keep looking across at this sound though. There’s like this hoot hoot sound. I’m going to go ahead and say I’m fairly certain (read I have a feeling) that that’s a duck! I don’t see any ducks, I don’t see any wildlife – except the flying, creepy-crawly things, but I know it’s out there because yesterday I went walking, just like today, and didn’t see anything. And BOOM the pups found a hare. In the middle of nowhere. And that was the first time I’d ever seen a hare. I’d seen enough pictures and movies to know that that wasn’t a rabbit, it was a hare!
Interesting fact: did you know that hares only get really fast when they’re on a slope? The pups were nearly on it when it was on the flat, it had to head for the nearest hill to escape. And man, once it hit the slope of the hill it became the Flash. That thing just bolted. There was absolutely no way the pups could keep up.
The poor things, they probably just wanted to give it a kiss.
But anyway. That reminds me of another wildlife story I should tell you.
A couple years back, a nice villager (elderly gentleman) asked me if I’d noticed any seagulls. They’re quite big birds and he was really interested in them and was hoping to spot one that season.
I was really confused, and of course I didn’t want to let on that his comment had confused me. So I made polite conversation (which wasn’t hard to do as he’s a very interesting gentleman) while continuing to wonder how he’s managed to avoid seeing the seagulls that are quite common in this neck of the woods.
My brain kept going over this for the next couple of days. Then it dawned on me. He wasn’t asking about Seagulls. He was asking about Sea Eagles! (say both words quite quickly… you’ll see what I mean).
Sigh. Very, very different birds. One okay enough unless you’re carrying chips (so a chip predator!), the other a big predator in the sky (also known as the White Tailed Eagle I’m informed)!
And I thought about that recently, because I go on walks these days (with my new wellies of course) and I keep an eye out for the big Sea Eagles in the sky because my hubby has explained to me that they can easily swoop down and grab one of the pups without a problem – even with a human right there next to them. They’re big, powerful predators.
I love these pups. I will battle any Sea Eagle to save them!
I asked him how I could identify them, because when you look up into the sky you just see silhouettes against the sun. Or at least, I do. I was told that there would be nothing else in the sky when those predators are on the move. Everything will suddenly change its flight path to avoid these large birds. Okay, I get that. But there’s never usually much in the sky in the first place. But okay… big and menacing and the only thing in the sky. Check!
Well. So far this season, I have been screaming and shouting at these big things in the sky. None of them have come near the pups which is really good. But man! I automatically look up now, and there’s generally nothing in the sky, but sometimes there are these big swooping shapes up there. And the screaming and shouting commences.
After some more in depth conversation with the husband it’s occurred to me that the geese flying above must really be wondering what kind of a crazy woman I am to keep shouting at them.
Yeah. The face sums it right up.
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