Spiders, red wolves, and bears… Oh My!

Yes, some days I feel like I am living in the land of Oz.  If you take the time to look, there really is so much to see every day.

Some people don’t like snakes, and some people don’t like mice.  I don’t really care for spiders, but they are such interesting creatures.  I found this large common garden spider wrapping up his dinner the other day.  I’m not sure, but that might have been a dragonfly that got caught in the spider’s web.

Then on the way home from working the Gateway VC this evening, I glanced to the left down one of the refuge farm roads and saw my first ever red wolf in the wild.  Yahoo!  It immediately took off running, and I stomped on the brakes, turned, and tried to follow it.  Believe it or not, it is that little dot on the edge of the right hand tire track down near the tree line.

I tried to crop another pic way down to get a closer view, but Picasa kept it small.  Don’t know why that happened.  I did get two wonderful views of the wolf as I was driving, but I haven’t mastered driving and taking pictures at the same time like some folks have.    The most amazing thing to me was the speed that this wolf attained.  It ran the entire length of the field in mere seconds!  Seeing that wolf sure made my day!

Last Monday evening as I was driving to meet my friends Carl and Ellen for dinner, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye.  There was a male black bear peeking through the woods.  I stopped the car to wait and see what he would do next.  I think he wanted to cross the road.

He turned around and went back into the woods.  I decided to wait a bit to see if he would reappear.  Sure enough, a couple of minutes later he stepped out onto a fallen log that jutted out into the water ditch.

He reminded me of the poor bears you see in a circus balancing on a ball.  It was so much better to see how they can balance that big bulky body naturally.  After staring me down for a few minutes, he again chose to go back into the woods.  As I sat waiting, I glanced at my rear view mirror and saw him scampering across the road about 50 yards behind me.  He got where he wanted to go, and I enjoyed the brief encounter.  So, I clicked my heels together and said, “There’s no place like home.”  Of course I wasn’t magically transported anywhere because, after all, I am home. 

                                                                               THE END!!

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy