A cold and various errands kept me out of the forest this past week. I decided to get back out today. I brought a small offering as well as some food scraps. Some may balk at bringing “garbage” to the woods, but I don’t have an operational compost heap or worm bin at the moment. I refuse to contribute any more than I must to the garbage dump. There are creatures out there who would love cranberries that are too squishy for my taste. I also brought some hair out. In the spring, some bird will happily use it in a nest.
I spent a few minutes with the birch tree I’ve been working with. I also followed some tracks for awhile. Lot of deer tracks. I’ve noticed they like to rest in areas with a lot of pine. I like being in those areas, too. For me, there’s something comforting about the green even when it’s so dreadfully cold and dead seeming. I wonder if the deer feel that way? Of course, their chief concern is shelter and food. It seems that they eat some of the pine. I noticed small, felled branches which seem to have been nibbled. I read somewhere that deer mostly survive on fat in the winter and don’t eat all that much. They are so interesting…
I also found some smaller tracks which I followed to what seemed to be an animal’s den. They were hard to identify but were spaced differently than a rabbit’s and too large for a squirrel. I wonder what it was? I wish I had a camera to leave out there…
I scared some pheasants out of hiding. I didn’t get the best look at the first one so I don’t know if it was male or female. The other two were definitely female. They didn’t stick around and I feel bad for frightening them. Also saw plenty of chickadees. They aren’t as easy to scare. Some come really close to stare at me with tiny, curious eyes. I laughed at one who was particularly daring. “You’re not afraid of me! You know I’m big and clumsy.” Surely I must make so much noise trudging through the woods. At some point during my childhood, I listened to a Mohawk storyteller. He explained how his people walked quietly in the woods to hunt and I sometimes try to do that. I should more often. I will probably learn and see more if I slow down.
It’s magical out there…and allusive