What is it with me and birds?*
July 28, 2008 | Stuff
I have lived in Tampa for seven years (almost to the day). For the first time ever, I heard a rooster crow yesterday morning. What’s the deal? Is this some sort of weird sign? Meh. Sometimes, I suppose, a rooster is just a rooster. But I still can’t help but wonder what in the world was a rooster doing in my neighborhood. We’ve got all kinds of strange critters around here, but … a rooster?
*There are the Sandhill cranes. They are almost as tall as I am, and they have lethal-weapon-looking beaks — you know, the kind that could peck your eyeballs right out. They aren’t afraid of people and will walk right up to you. Freaks me out. At least in Nebraska (where the cranes hang out every year), you have to drive to the Platte River and watch them from a distance. I never knew I’d have them in my back yard (and on the sidewalks and walking down the middle of the street) one day.
*Then there were the vultures that gathered on my neighbor’s roof for a few days. Then the mourning dove soon after. I couldn’t help thinking, cripes, who died? Only to discover them later feasting on a dead turtle in my neighbor’s yard.
*And more vultures circling over our house one weekend recently, tempted no doubt by the dead armadillo in our street.
July 30th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Those cranes want IN to my garage. Shooing does not work. Yelling does not work. But the garage door opener does. Here’s to the wonderful Florida wildlife we both share!