The Free Radical

There’s an awful lot shakin’ down out there these days. Some of it’s pretty subtle, and some of it’s not.

Sometimes the grasshoppers look like something right out of our prehistoric past… armoured and camouflaged.

I named these more militant-looking grasshoppers ‘proto-hoppers’ a few years ago… because they look like some should-be-extinct ancestor version. They’re usually a steel or slate grey colour; this is the first I’ve seen such bright green.

Our attention as of late has definitely been drawn mainly to the ground; an Earth-level transformation seems to be underway.

Just for a moment I thought we were in Egypt, watching the determined antics of a proper Dung Beetle. This guy was doing a pretty good job of maneuvering his prize when we arrived.

Then he seemed to have a WTF moment as he asked himself what he was trying to accomplish.

Eventually he decided to wash his hands of the whole thing… so to speak.

Then down at the river, where the path crosses a hillside of piled river stones, there was laid right in the middle of the trail a cluster of 5 plump, ripe, perfect Saskatoon Berries. There were no Saskatoon bushes nearby. It very much seemed to be an offering, reminding me of the Anastasia books, where she would receive daily gifts from her Forest companions. I don’t know who left them there for us (the dogs like berries too), but they were perfectly delicious!

The next day, we came across this guy:

There didn’t seem to be any outward signs of trauma. No, it appeared as though this Columbia Ground Squirrel had simply eaten himself to death… on what, I haven’t a clue.

That was right on the road that goes by the part of the swamp where we usually depart the path so the dogs can get watered and cool off in the bog. We were perhaps forty meters from the road when suddenly we heard a scream; it definitely wasn’t a human scream. It was coming from about 300 meters north of us, and at first I didn’t have a clue what kind of creature it was.

The dogs looked up to me in askance, but all I could offer for reassurance was the fact that I wasn’t scared, just very curious. They all stuck close as we stood in the swamp while the strange vocalizations were taken up by several more individuals. There appeared to be four or five participants north of us, suddenly making a hell of a racket. Very quickly they were answered by a lone individual who sounded like he was standing exactly where we’d left the bloated ground squirrel on the road.

To the north and the east we were surrounded! It was either wolves or coyotes. The closest one by the road was reporting our position to the others. I’ve witnessed this very thing before with a wolf pack that has always occupied this area. They keep close tabs on the movements of others in their territory.

This time, however, I’m convinced that it wasn’t wolves. Instead it was a group (family?) of coyotes. I’ve seen groupings of up to five of them before… working together. Over the past months I’ve reported numerous times about the many many piles of coyote poop on our path. This time we nearly collided.

Once the vocalizations died away, after about a full minute, we resumed our journey eastward and then northward, right where the sounds had been coming from. I half expected to come across the site of a fresh kill at any moment… but no such luck.

We proceeded to the Mesa and found what was almost certainly a bear sign.

I’ve walked by this stump hundreds of times, but today it had been pushed over. Then, as I took a seat on the Mesa to apply magnesium to my old ankle injury, Sitka suddenly began barking at something just beyond the ridge of the Mesa… and then she gave chase. Sitka has only ever barked at bears before, nothing else. She came back promptly when it was time to leave (good dog), but then her and Toby took up the chase once again. This time I could hear Toby barking in the distance. That can only be a bear!

The next day we were overflown by a lone Turkey Vulture which seemed to be a testament to all of the activity in our common area…

Death by greed and gluttony, coupled with the high energy vocalizations of the Forest’s troupe of tricksters, an appearance by the forest sovereign Black Bear– all this hints strongly at some real shake-ups and changes occurring now in the Earth realm.

I wonder what today will bring?