Photo Of The Week by Larry Hurley Big Bird (s) In The Garden
When we lived in Maryland, I had a pond in the backyard, with goldfish. In the early spring before the trees leafed out, we would get an occasional visit from a great blue heron that probably saw the sun glinting off of our little pond. The heron would happily eat our fish and then fly off to hang out on the neighbor’s roof. This annoyed us, and was solved by putting bird netting over the pond for a few weeks.
Here in Wisconsin, our home is a couple of blocks from a lakeshore park, and there is a pair of sandhill cranes that have the park as their home base, but stroll through the neighborhood. On many days they spend a couple of hours in our yard, sleeping under our spruce tree, or pecking around looking for worms, etc. Like free lawn aerators! They don’t bother the garden, and don’t pay a lot of attention to me.
Several times I’ve been focused on weeding, turned around and there they were about ten feet behind me, not even startled as I let out a little man-scream. Once in awhile they will stand in one spot and call for ten minutes. This is a loud call that can be heard for quite a distance; it would make a good car alarm.
There are folks in the state that are trying to get a hunting season on sandhill cranes because flocks of them feed in the farm fields during spring migration and eat seed corn and corn seedlings. I hope that doesn’t become law, as these are beautiful birds.by Larry Hurley
I have heard that “man scream” of yours Larry. Reminded me of the time at the nursery when we got cornered by a critter and you and another employee screamed and ran and left me to my own defenses! Those were the days! Hahaha
Becky T
LOL I can totally picture them running away and leaving you there!! I will let Larry know you remembered his ‘Man Scream’
I must say that I don’t recall that, but on the other hand, it sounds like me. I believe delegation of responsibilities builds character, especially if there are rats involved.
And that I’m not on the receiving end of the delegation.
In my most memorable rat encounter, I was helping out at a home in the south, cleaning out a covered outdoor storage area. There was a set of golf clubs. I was checking to see if anyone had accidentally left a big wad of money in the golf bag, and a rat jumped out. I grabbed a nine iron, and took a mighty swing at the rat, who let out a little rat scream and ran over my foot and out to safety. I may have let out a simultaneous little man scream that time, too. Unfortunately, my mighty swing crushed a PVC pipe that connected to a swimming pool and I drained a couple of feet of water out of the pool before I figured out what to do.