Los Animales

Today I went to look at a possible new place to dwell. I'd spoken with the person who owned it for a long while and then drove myself to another part of the property to get a sense for it. As I walked down a not too often travelled gravel drive I noticed a buck grazing. He didn't seem to hear me until I was fairly close...maybe 20 feet or so. When he finally either heard or got wind of me he startled and bounced a couple bounces away and stopped. Of course, I had already stopped once I saw him startle. There we stood, looking at one another...while hundreds and hundreds of oak moths flitted around and between us in the late afternoon light. It felt other worldly.

and then

When I got home I noticed the great blue heron was in the pasture across from my house. That is my favorite bird and in all the years I've lived here I've never seen it as often as I have in the last couple months. Just the other day I watched it catch a gopher, pause, put its head down to the ground again as if to secure its grasp on the gopher and then tilt its head back and swallow. Quite a sight. But today it hadn't yet succeeded in catching anything and was cruising the pasture as it hunted. The next thing I saw was just too funny. I watched as one of the calves began trotting in the herons direction in what appeared a curious way and the heron flying away a few feet as it approached. It happened a second time and on the third attempt the heron flew quite a bit further away and the calf lost interest. All that action caught the attention of some of the other calves and they came trotting over to investigate but were just a little late to the party!!!