Bull Frog In Paradise
Friend Bull Frog has come to live with us in the basement.
This is the height of cricket season, and crickets live in
abundance here on Blue Heron Farm.
Bull Froggy loves crickets.
S/he lives under an under water rock.
When we plop the cricket into the water, Bull Froggy, with the
speed that the eye can see only briefly, zips and splashes and
the cricket is gone.
What a show!
The dogs are first to line up for this natural entertainment and wonder.
Froggy seems to in-joy being the center of such gleeful delight!
This reminds me of the Saw-Whet Owl we rescued after she crashed into our
windshield, crossing the Gettysburg Battle Field.
Tom's Aunt Hilda was dying and we were traveling to her to offer our
support.
We later found out that the Saw-Whet migratory pattern centers right there
and was in place long before the Battle itself.
We took her home and nursed her back to good health, and she lived in the barn
that entire winter.
A small owl of all types of woodlands, the Northern Saw-whet Owl can be
found roosting in winter in small, dense conifer trees, sometimes even in
parks and gardens. Its defense upon discovery is to sit still and not fly,
leading people to perceive them as "tame."
The main prey items of the Northern Saw-whet Owl are mice, and especially
deer mice of the genus Peromyscus. Adult mice usually are eaten in pieces
in two different meals. One owl was found dead after apparently trying to
swallow a large mouse whole.
The female Northern Saw-whet Owl does the incubation and brooding. The male
brings all her food while she is incubating. She leaves the eggs for only one
or two short trips each night, to defecate and cough up a pellet.
While the female Saw-Whet broods her nestlings, she keeps the nest cavity very
clean. But, when the young are about 18 days old, she starts spending the night
in another hole, and then the dirt starts to accumulate. When the young owls
leave the nest after another ten days to two weeks, the nest cavity has a thick
layer of feces, pellets, and rotting prey parts.
The food of our Saw-Whet consisted of a mouse or two each day. We'd carefully
place the rodent into a coat pocket before walking quietly into her territory.
She was waiting for us.
Like the speed of bewitching magic, she'd swoop and take that mouse
out of pocket and return to her perch on a high barn beam, bowing
each time with wide alert eyes.
A thank you.
A message of gratitude.
The day Tom's Aunt Hilda passed, our Saw-Whet buried herself alive
in the corner of the barn.
Saw-Whet was a messenger of the after-life worlds, calling to all of us
if we listen.
Bull Froggy reminds me of the owl, of the dogs, of the river where she will
ultimately make her way back, to the depths of worlds made more mysterious
by the unseen depths of moving water.
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Kate Loving Shenk is a writer, healer, musician and the creator
of the e-book called "Transform Your Nursing Career and Discover
Your Calling and Destiny." The book is designed to stimulate
nurses to love their work and to prevent on-the-job-burnout.
Click here to find out how to order the e-book:
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/blog
http://www.katelovingshenk.com/nursingcareertransformation
Check out Kate's Blog: http://nursehealers.typepad.com
And the Lens: http://www.squidoo.com/katelovingshenk
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http://doganddolphin.ning.com
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Beautiful! How often we are refreshed by the miracles of nature! Always leaves me awestruck!
Posted by: Joan Adams | August 25, 2008 at 07:22 PM
Yes, so true, Joan, so true!!
Posted by: kate loving shenk | August 26, 2008 at 08:15 PM
This is a great site, Kate - you really take on the personal/emotional side of nursing. As such, you and your readers may enjoy our new global nurse information and advocacy site: www.nursetogether.com . We're free and provide support via solid content to nurses in need.
Posted by: SteveC | September 23, 2008 at 02:50 PM