Just Noodling

On some days, the topic for an entry just leaps out and grabs me.  On others, like yesterday, when nothing much has happened, I just noodle around.  That's a term now used for a way of going after catfish with hands only, but I think of noodling in the way Hoagy Carmichael did; just fooling around with ideas (in his case, piano keys).

For the last couple of afternoons, a vulture has been circling low in the back yard.  I mean low, swooping at the level of the deck rail and so close it seemed his wing would brush it.  It's a bit like seeing a 747 coming past and it's enough to have me going out to possibly see the reason, which I've not been able to find.  It's just the one bird with this aberrant behavior and it's nowhere near time for the annual migration.

A sparrow also caught my attention the other day with behavior I've never seen before.  Instead of hopping around as they do, it landed on the deck and squatted, then, for lack of a better term, crawled around.  Every so once in awhile, it would spread its wings and quiver.  I thought perhaps it was injured or had heat stroke and was worried that the cats would find it, and so kept watching, even as I moved from room to room.  One of life's little mysteries, I'll never know the reason because Sparrow flew off after this strange ritual dance.

Too hot to work up enthusiasm for much of anything else (and because there's an A/C in the bedroom), I was checking email on the computer before putting the goats to bed and suddenly saw two bucks running the fence line, turning the corner to dash down the driveway to the road.  These boys were big, with beautifully spread, two-point antlers (might have been more points; they were moving fast).  Deer season will open in a few months.  I hope these guys have enough sense to seek sanctuary in my woods because they are fair game for hunters.

Plans changed and Dave and Jason and Clay will all be coming up today.  I've learned to be flexible and philosophical about such things.  In other words, I don't dust until I see the whites of their eyes.