Robins meet, owl adapts, Galaxy shares, fox learns . . .

American robin

After
rain?  Before spring?  Once grass starts greening?  What brought at least 100 of them here to the
park earlier this week?

Despite the
chilly, overcast day, they were out in droves, their colors giving them away: a
robin convention in the neighborhood!  

People
walking or bike-riding could move right through the robins, who fluttered off
to settle down again nearby.  If worms
were part of their reason for being there, recent rain may have brought them
out.  Or maybe simply the imminence of
spring once past January and February: could it be that?  

Is there an
avian specialist in the house?  

If so, these
two questions: First, when will hummingbirds come back?  Now may be the time to set up for those
beautiful and amazing hummers.  It was
only last year I first saw numbers of them aiming for the red flowers on the trumpet
vine. 

And second, does anyone know where to find the bird-silhouette stickers to put on the
outside of windows to prevent bird hits? 

A wise, resilient owl

Even if I
had a wingspan of nearly 6 feet and fearsome talons too, I wouldn’t want to be
an owl born in captivity and living in a safe place where I was cared for –
then suddenly set free to survive on my own in a huge city. . . .

But one real
owl, named Flaco, who was suddenly freed from New York City’s Central Park Zoo,
has proved his mettle, quickly moving from hopping to flying and from being fed
at the zoo to becoming an effective hunter for his meals.

As one of
the world’s largest owls, a Eurasian eagle-owl (name not explained in the NYTimes
story), Flaco reportedly gained confidence quickly once on the loose.  He may have looked stressed to begin with,
but now he’s described as an “athletic and handsome prince.”  

Flaco                             NYTimes pic

The animals who
harassed him at first must give him a wider berth now that Flaco has proven
himself in the big city.  https://tinyurl.com/2p8dmcb2

Universe
of cat info

I’ve
mentioned to others how much I like Jackson Galaxy, the self-described “Cat
Daddy” whose TV series “My Cat from Hell” was my intro to him and his cat-savvy
ways. 

So he looks outré – who doesn’t,
in these days of practically anything goes, anywhere? – and he’s confident
about what he knows and how he can help all of us who mean well, but need work.

Galaxy can
seem to be all over with his products, his Cat Camp sessions around the country
and his YouTube station with videos on countless aspects of Catdom: all easy to
watch and hard to argue.

For those wanting
to know about Galaxy, here’s the route: first, a series of short videos about him
and second, a series of his “cat lessons.”

https://www.youtube.com/JacksonGalaxy/intro

https://www.youtube.com/JacksonGalaxy/videos

 

The
White Paws

                                                                     by Dara Yen Elerath

The
fox with broken legs has a gift others do not. 
He removes his paws and they go walking through the woods at night
alone.  The paws stop to touch pondwater,
to brush a blade of saltgrass.  They tap
the backs of passing beetles in the dark. 
At dawn, they return to the fox, whispering of rabbits curled in damp
caverns, of green oak leaves and sand. 
The fox listens carefully; he gleans secrets of the world this way.  He learns of the earth without lifting his
nose from his long, broken limbs. 
Always, when the paws return they say we missed you, always he
listens.  How young, how simple they seem
besides his face which is mottled and pocked. 
He gentles the paws like children. 
He hopes when he dies they live on without him.  When his bones rattle and shake in wind, he
hopes the paws walk through autumn leaves, pad softly through newfallen
snow.  He dreams they will drift across a
black lake dappled with rain; that, above it, they’ll rise; they’ll glow like
four pale moons.

              (c. 2022 by Dara Yen Elerath. Originally published on 11-16-22 by the Academy of American Poets.)