Bow the Conservationist

The logging continues, but Bow and I are finding ways to ignore it and get on with our lives.

Bow leafs through an issue of the Missouri Consevationist

Yesterday, for instance, Bow watched the loggers for a while without getting too upset. and then he led me in an exercise session indoors.

The loggers are here in the morning, but they leave long before noon. So when I go for my afternoon walk, all is calm, and I can enjoy the wildlife. 

Yesterday, I got to watch a leaf fall from the sky, a common buckeye butterfly resting on my path, and two different groups of deer.

Some deer bound away at the first sight of me, and others stare at me long and hard.

This morning, Bow was so accustomed to having the loggers around that he let me go to the post office to mail off some bills and to buy new stamps. I chose the stamps featuring Monarch butterflies.

When I got home, Bow had been good. No accidents, no mess. So I showed him the stamps I had bought. Later he asked me to go out, saying he'd heard the loggers had food. (שמעתי שיש להם אוכל). I went out expecting to see the loggers eating sandwiches. But instead I spotted the twin fawns, nearly grown, taking shelter near the house. 

My Partially Empty Nest

In the past couple of weeks, my daughter moved out and into her college dorm, Bow and I witnessed a partial solar eclipse, and many, many wild animals presented themselves to me, as if to make up for the lost companionship. And, of course, Bow is still here.

The eclipse, such as it was, was just a momentary darkness in the pens and an odd kind of light out of doors. You can see what we saw in the video embedded below.

My daughter also witnessed the eclipse in Springfield, two hours away from here. I have visited her there once since she moved into the dorm, but it's a long drive, and I can only go in the evening, because I have to stay with Bow from sunup to nearly sundown. Lawrence has remarried and moved away, so we are currently one chimp sitter short.

So how does it feel to have a partially empty nest? I see a lot of young animals  everywhere I look on my property. This turtle has such big eyes, because it is a juvenile three-toed box turtle, only three or four years old.

This brown thrasher allowed me to get close enough to it to take a picture, because it is a juvenile who has not yet learned to fly properly. I saw it after the mowers had left, and as brown thrashers are ground nesting birds, it seems likely the nest was disturbed.

And, of course, there are always the deer. The twin fawns are the easiest of all the deer to get close to.

It's as if all of nature is trying to make up for my fledgling who has flown away. Of course, I still have one in the nest. Bow looks so peaceful when he's asleep!