There’s one thing about this area we live in that I’ve always loved and that’s the wildlife. I’ve come to find that I don’t have to necessarily go to the woods to get a good look at some of Mother Nature’s creations.
Recently I arrived home and had just closed the door to my garage when from my right I could hear something (or someone) running towards me. With the noise I was hearing I could tell there were more than two feet. I seriously thought that someone was running from the police after a burglary or other crime. They hit the 6 foot hedge and burst through, saw me, and took a sharp left, all four hooves darted into the neighbor’s yard. Something had spooked up a deer, a small doe, and it was running through my neighborhood looking for a way back to the woods. Did I get scared? Well sure, a little! How many times does something like that happen? It was pretty good water cooler talk for the next day though!
And then there are the wild turkeys. They are more common in the neighborhood and I’ve heard from a couple of old timers that turkeys aren’t real smart and they’ll go wandering anywhere they can find something to eat. But my most interesting encounters with a turkey were in downtown Moorhead where the poor guy got hung up in the middle of Main Avenue right in from of Kentucky Fried Chicken. There’s a joke there somewhere.
In another incident, one got inside the soccer field at MSUM and couldn’t get out. The field is completely enclosed by a chain linked fence, all the gates were locked and it was stuck in there. I drove by watching this poor creature trotting up and down the field looking for an escape and having no luck. So, I grabbed the cell phone and dialed up the campus operator and asked her if she knew who had the key to the gate to let the turkey out. I was asked, “Is this for real?” I assured her it was and she said she would get a hold of the grounds crew foreman who had a key to the gate and he would head on over and take a look. By the way there’s a video of this one on my Facebook page, just in case you think I’m pulling your (turkey) leg on this one.
One other note about wildlife in the neighborhood. I was leaving for work one morning when I spotted something at the end of the driveway and thought it might be a neighbor’s cat. As I got closer, it was easy to spot the “masked” eyes of a raccoon sitting near a pool of water. It looked like he was trying to wash its paws. Now this was at 10:30 in the morning and my first thought was could this guy have rabies? I mean, who sees a raccoon at 10:30 in the morning in a residential neighborhood? I circled the block came back around and took a couple of pictures. As I snapped the 3rd picture he decided he had enough of the paparazzi encounter and took off.
I’ve heard from an aunt she once had a black bear up on her deck going though some garbage. Then there’s the moose that trampled through a buddies garden.
We’ve got an abundance of wildlife in our region, but now I wonder just what might be out my back door when I leave the house.