New Thing #349: Some Unexpected Sights

A couple of unusual things happened this weekend, both within 24 hours. One wasn't completely unexpected.

On Thursday a neighbor had written on Facebook about a flock of turkeys that was hanging out in her yard.

My wife and she exchanged comments and she said the turkeys were heading towards our yard.

It wasn't until Saturday afternoon that we saw them.

I know I've written before about turkeys, so I won't go into this sighting too much.

But there were a bunch - our neighbor reported seeing 24 the other day, and I'd guess there were about 20 crossing the street coming at our front lawn Saturday.

They came before the snow started falling Saturday afternoon, bringing to mind that question I always wonder when it snows: Do animals just hang out in the snow? Where do these turkeys go.

I hope the answer is not, "They roost in the shed in my backyard."

The other sight is much more of a New Thing.

I've seen shooting stars before in my lifetime.

But it has to be twenty years or so since I have.

Friday night, though, as my wife and I were driving to her company party at about 5:20pm, we both spotted a shooting star.

It's quite a sight. (Unfortunately, I was driving and it was all too quick for me to get out my phone and take a picture or video.)

My wife happened to be on Twitter on her phone and saw people tweeting about it - someone mentioned it was lucky.

A shooting star on a Friday the 13th.

That's a New Thing for sure.

New Thing #285: Up Close And Personal With A Turkey

Here's another New Thing from the wildlife department. Leaving school on Friday my daughters and I ran into a flock of turkeys. (Flock? Pod? School? Murder?)

They were all over the front of the school - an unusual sight at the end of the school day.

And instead of turning around and walking out a different door of the school - we barreled through the flock.

I'm pretty sure, if you remember my terrible attempt at a first Vine, that this is the same group (pride? herd? litter?) of turkeys that I took video of in the back of the school, outside my classroom.

I've seen the turkeys on the road approaching school too - I've even watched them fly up and over a fence - but I've never walked right past them.

I'm usually either in my car or keeping my distance.

I think I've heard that turkeys can be mean. (But maybe that's just bluejays.) So it was with extreme caution that I walked with my daughters to our car. My oldest brazenly walked the sidewalk past where one of the turkeys was hanging out in the bushes. My 5-year-old is proving to be quite daddy's little girl - she walked the circuitous route around the turkey perimeter with me, holding my hand and alert to the possibility of a turkey attack. Turns out, I think these turkeys were used to being around people.

As you can probably tell by the fact that I'm writing this...we made it.

And I was as close to a turkey as I've ever been before.

New Thing #260: An (Accidental) Night Time Walk

All right. I'll admit it.

I'm a big 'fraidy cat.

Or, more accurately, I'm very afraid of cats.

One time, when I was around 10 years old (maybe a touch younger, maybe a touch older), we took my dog for a walk after dark. It was my dad, my brother, my sister, and I. We turned a corner and there was this cat - it arched its back and hissed at us. I didn't like cats before that happened...that made me downright afraid of them.

And I avoided any possibility of that happening again.

If the sun wasn't out - I wasn't going out...for the most part.

Now, there are caveats - it's different walking around a big city (or little cities like Boston) - I'll do that at night. I know I might see a rat (or many rats *shiver*), but in cities there are more people out at night and the probability of seeing a wild animal is not as high. (Even my old neighborhood in Queens is populated enough that I've done a walk home from the subway after dark with no problem many, many times.)

I won't bore you by re-telling you stories of seeing raccoons and possums, but that's why I won't go out after dark in the suburbs - which happen to be where I currently live.

I am not afraid of muggings. I am not afraid of cars not seeing me. I am afraid of what animals I'll run into in the dark.

It's the only thing stopping me from doing early-morning runs - I want to do the exercise, but I'm afraid I'll run into tired raccoons on their way home from a long night of scavenging and intimidating people like me.

And it's exercise that brings me to write about this accidental late night walk I took this weekend.

It's also an opportunity to catch you up on some New Things from earlier in the year. I no longer keep track of my calories with the Lose It! app. But that experience has made me more aware of the balance between my calorie intake and my exercise. And I'm ultra-aware of it because I still weigh myself every morning - and I've done a good job of hovering around the same number all year. What I haven't told you about is how well I've been running over the summer - I really increased my endurance, which I'm proud of - but if I haven't had the time to run, sometimes I'd go for a brisk walk, like I did in the wintertime.

This is what I did on Saturday - after dinner, I left the house at 6:30pm and decided to try my 3-mile route. It took about an hour - I was back in the house at 7:30pm. But whereas a couple of weeks ago coming back around 8pm meant I was just getting home before darkness hit...I didn't realize how dark it was getting at 7:30 these days.

It wasn't too bad. The worst animal experience I had was on one street a young couple was walking their dog - it must have been a Great Dane, and I admit to a little trepidation. That dog was huge. I spent the few minutes after I walked past them thinking about how many ways that dog could have killed me if it was not leashed.

Other than that, though, I didn't feel the least bit threatened walking by moonlight rather than sunlight.

I don't know if I'll make a habit out of it, but I could see myself doing it again - maybe even getting out before the sun is totally up and going for a run. I like the idea of starting outdoor exercise in the dark and finishing up when it's light.

Just not on garbage day.

That's when the raccoons are out.

New Thing #222: Not Being Scared Of A Baby Bunny

Listen. I'm a city boy. I'm not used to animals running around in the human world.

Growing up, we had a dog, so I'm fairly fine around dogs (though my default setting is I don't trust them around kids), but I don't like cats.

I think this is in no small part due to the fact that there were a lot of random roaming cats in my neighborhood when I was a kid. (OK, maybe there were like 2.)

They'd frighten me when I'd see them.

But I was lucky to not have to deal with mice or deer or raccoons.

Until I was an adult.

But this week, I manned up around that cute little baby bunny you see there.

All right. As has been my writing style recently, before we move forward we must move back.

1999, Boston University on-campus apartment, Beacon Street, Boston, Massachusetts. I'm sitting around on a Saturday morning and I see something move among the mass of wires behind the television. I was home alone and I darted out of that apartment so fast I didn't even finish putting my sneakers on until I was on the sidewalk. I went to some friends' dorm, spent most of the day out. That night we watched Saturday Night Live and I swear I saw a mouse dart into the bedroom. My roommate wasn't so sure. He decided it would be a good idea to lay out a Pringle in the kitchen, just on the floor, to prove whether or not we had a rodent. (I hate that word.) Woke up, the Pringle was gone. Worst sleep I've ever had, those couple of nights. We trapped it by Monday or Tuesday.

When I lived in Watertown, probably in 2003 when I was working overnights, I was leaving for work at around midnight and saw a raccoon the size of a dog dart across the street. Working overnights was pretty terrible. Never more terrible than the next few nights when I had to go from my apartment to my car.

Every night before I go to bed I say a little thank you prayer that I have not had a rodent problem where I have lived since college. (But I don't pray to Saint Francis of Assissi. That dude just wouldn't understand.)

Every so often something gets close to the house - once a possum walked across the porch. You'll remember there was this back in June. And, quite often, there are bunnies.

I've been spending a lot of time cleaning up the backyard this summer, trying to make up for a couple of summers of too much neglect. This week when I was back there, for the first time this summer really, I saw a couple of critters. First was a chipmunk. This'll happen every now and then, but it ran away from the house, so we were cool.

Then I saw something dart across the yard and hide beneath some brush. I didn't really recognize it but I thought it was a bunny. It just didn't seem that big. I heard it rustling and rustling. It was close. But I didn't run away. So I know that was good progress for me.

Then, I saw it kind of hanging out on a brick ledge. Not only was it a bunny - it was a baby bunny!

I went up close and snapped a picture. Then it scratched its ear with its little hind leg (which, even on a baby rabbit is quite big) and I thought I should take a video. I thought then it would make the perfect Vine! (I'm waiting for the right moment for my first Vine New Thing. I thought this was it.) I recorded it pretty much doing nothing for the 6 seconds.

Somehow I deleted that video. Very frustrating. But let's focus on the positive - I was real up close to something that wasn't a person or a dog for, essentially, the first time in my life. It was kind of thrilling. I almost wanted to touch the baby bunny. But I didn't. I'm not a crazy man over here.

So, turns out, I like baby bunnies.

Or, at least, I don't hate them.

Or, better yet if we're being honest with ourselves, I'm not scared of them.

OK. I'm less scared of them than other things.

And I'm already recognizing the big problem. If I have a baby bunny in my backyard...well, chances are it's not the only one.

You know what they say about bunnies and proliferation.

If I come across a bunch of baby bunnies at once...well, that might be a whole other ballgame.

Hope no one takes a Vine of me if that happens.

New Thing #165: What Is In My Backyard?

There I stood at my kitchen window Tuesday morning, preparing some food for my daughter, when I spotted something moving outside my window. I saw some brown, figured it was a cat, but something about the way it moved made me look twice.

It wasn't a cat.

But what was it?

I'm still not sure.

I'm going with groundhog. But I'm not 100% sure.

This is like nothing I've ever experienced. I've had an opossum walk across that porch - that was a one-time deal. Never saw a possum again in that area. As I've mentioned, there are cats. Sometimes a neighborhood dog gets back there. And things like rabbits and squirrels - once even a red squirrel. They're quick darters. Chipmunks. And I'm sure there have been raccoons back there, but I like to pretend not. I've only ever seen a raccoon out my front door and window...and I hope it stays that way.

This animal, though? It didn't quite freak me out as much as it would usually. Especially considering it was broad daylight.

I had the presence of mind to snap the pictures you see above and at right. I observed it for a few minutes. It did the standing up thing you see it doing here and kind of sniffed the air. I was struck by what good posture it had.

The worst thing that happened was, since I was preparing food for my daughter, I went to give her the food. When I came back to the window, the animal was gone.

That's when I got scared.

It could be anywhere.

Then we left town for a few days. Who knows what the backyard will look like when we come back.

Maybe he'll move in with his entire family.

That's the real shame of it here. This is the time of year I like to spend time relaxing in the backyard. I'll read the paper or just sit out on the porch sipping a drink waiting while I barbecue. Now I don't know if I can do that with my mind at ease.

Or at all. I might never go back there again.

I can only think of one reasonable solution.

It may be time for us to move.

New Thing #151: Conjoined Lightning Bugs

Maybe this is something you see everyday. I sure don't.

It's bug season.

The ants are out and around the house.

I can't walk two feet without going through a spider web.

And the other evening, I saw some lightning bugs crawling around the outside of the house.

But I never saw a lightning bug like this one.

These ones?

Look - it's a conjoined lightning bug.

I saw it on my door when I came home from work. (Sorry for the blurriness in the picture - the camera kept focusing on the wall you see through the glass beyond the bug[s]. As though the wall is worth focusing on more than a freak bug!)

Later in the night, and the next night (yes, I looked for it), the bug(s?) was (were?) gone.

Which I'm a little disappointed by, because as you can see, those lightning bugs are conjoined at the lightning end. And I can't really think of a better science experience than taking a look at these bad boys at night. Do they both light up and form some kind of super lightning bug? Does the conjoinedness make it so that neither has their nether lightning-regions?

The world may never know.

At least I got a picture.