I got up this morning and looked out the bedroom window to see Mama Moose and one calf working their way up the path to the back lot. Two weeks ago, she had two calves, so I have to wonder if something got one of them or if I just didn't see it. There has been a brown bear (grizzly) in the neighborhood so it could have been that, or traffic, or free-roaming dogs. So many people seem to never give a thought as to what their dogs are up to when they are away at work all day. I am hoping the second calf was just in the brush or off the path where I couldn't see it.
An eagle has been after a snipe nest at the airport for the past few days. Saturday, I saw the eagle flying off from that area with something in its beak....
People think that the winter is cruel but summer can be just as cruel. So many babies are born never to grow up. Nature is unsentimental. This is why animals are born in litters; just so one or two might survive. When a bird gets into one of the cat runs and doesn't get out in time, I have to tell myself that the species is better off without the contributions of an individual who would fly into a cage full of cats...but I'll save any bird the cats find if I can get to it in time.
On the plus side, we finally put up three more birds houses for the swallows this year. More and more seem to show up each spring and they were scoping out any available hole as a possible nest-site--including the exhaust pipes of some of our heavy equipment, the ceiling of the sauna, and other unsuitable places. I thought I was late in getting the birdhouses up but three couples were happy to move in. It's funny, but I could sense their excitement and happiness at finding good nesting places. When I combed the cats, I took the hair outside and tossed it in the air in little clumps and the swallows would swoop down and snatch it up to use in their nests. So I guess this year's babies were raised in fur-lined nests...lol. I think the young are starting to leave the nests--the sky is full of swallows the past few days. Soon they will vanish on their long flight south--they are usually gone by mid-July.
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I found out yesterday that I may have been the last person to see a Cessna that left our field on Friday. The airplane had been rented to some out-of-state tourists and yesterday the pilot's wife called the State Troopers to try and locate her husband. The plane was last seen at Homer on Friday. I recalled it because the pilot had been operating in a manner that got my attention. On Thursday, it had taxied down to the far end of the runway, which is invisible from the main ramp, and spent so long warming up down there that when a second plane taxied out to leave four or five minutes later, we thought the first plane had already left. The second plane had to abruptly leave the runway when the first announced that he was departing. So, on Friday afternoon, when it took to the runway again, I made it a point to watch and make sure it departed before someone else taxied out.
Well, the plane is missing now and because--for whatever reason--the pilot didn't file flight plans, get weather briefings, or talk to the FAA facilities, no one is really sure where he was going or where the last place he landed was. Search and rescue airplanes and the CAP are combing the area but I suspect they are two days too late. There is a lot of cold, dark water out there and I would bet that the plane is in Cook Inlet and may never be found. Some pilots seem to think that filing flight plans is for pussies but it is free life insurance in my book.
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