A Fall Bouquet for Bow

Fall comes every year. This year, the first day of fall is today, September 22. It's still pretty warm out, but somehow the animals and plants outside sense that it is time to get ready for winter.

In fact, they have been getting ready for the past week now.

The wasps on the goldenrods are stocking up for the winter. 

The honey bees on the white wildflowers are doing the same.

The pipevine swallowtail is in such a hurry to meet all its deadlines, that it flits right past me in the field.

It won't stay in one spot long, but it will pause long enough for a clear view.

An American Lady butterfly, a little worn in the wings, enjoys the goldenrod flowers.

Them a Common Buckeye and the American Lady Butterfly socialize together on the swaying goldenrods.

A fuzzy little caterpillar makes its way on the ground among the fallen leaves.

And then there is the dogwood all decked out with faux berries, an unmistakable sign of fall. 

The dogwood tries to dupe us into thinking its bright red drupes are luscious fruit, while the dogs frolic under its branches.

The tiniest butterflies, the eastern tailed-blue and the pearl crescents, hold social balls on the gravel road.

There are still so many flowers blooming out today, that I decided to gather a bouquet and present it to Bow in a vase. Bow was interested.

He began taking out the flowers.

I thought he was getting all excited about the flowers, but actually it was the vase that he wanted.

"Hey, what's in that vase?" Bow seemed to be wondering. "Nothing, after you took all the flowers out!" I wanted to say. "It's just an empty vase now." But we didn't actually say any of that. We just acted it out. 

Once he had made sure that the vase was really empty, Bow handed it back to me.

I think that's sort of how it is when we expect something special to happen on the first day of fall. It's just a date. It's a day of the year. It's an empty possibility, until you fill it with something. It's like any other empty vessel.

More Evidence for Coexistence and Friendship Between Species

Bow looking at the photo article about the bear and the wolf

My last post was about a dragonfly and a damselfly  coexisting side by side. This morning, in my Facebook feed, I saw an article from Israel about a Finnish bear and wolf who are friends and even share their kills.

An article by Roi Farbstein with photos by Lassi Rautiainen

The photographer is Lassi Rautiainen, and he is from Finland. The article's author is Roi Farbstein. You can read the article here:

http://www.pitria.com/bear-an-wolf

Rautiainen is a nature photographer, and the images in the article are what he saw in the wild. They are not staged. For ten nights in a row, the photographer followed the bear and the wolf as they shared food and spent time together between eight pm and four am.

Apparently the two feel safer and happier together than living apart. It can happen.

Bow and I found it fascinating!

Bird Update

I spoke too hastily about the bird. Bow can see things that I cannot see, so whereas I believed the bird had flown off, I think he knew all along that it had merely hidden. So when he went back outside later this morning, the bird was still there, and he knew exactly where it was, and caught it again, and was rough with it. He did release it to me once more when I asked him to, and I took it immediately into the house to save it from Bow. Because, let's face it, Bow is not kind to smaller animals.

In the house, the bird got to feeling more secure, so it got away from me before I could release it, but I could see that one wing was injured and it could not fly.

I eventually cornered it in the bathroom and released it in the front yard.

I know that its chances of surviving out there with an injured wing are not wonderful, but it has a  better chance out there than in the house. It does seem to be healthy otherwise, and the problem may mend itself, given a little time. There is plenty of food on the ground for a small bird to eat out there, so it is just a question of avoiding predators.

As for Bow, he is quite blasé about the whole thing. Napping again.