Bard Owl & Black Mink

         Sunday morning, 28*, a foot and a half of snow yesterday that has melted, frozen, and left a crust: no good for man or beast.  Crotched Mountain has its top playing hide and seek with the bands of white fog.

            I'm sitting on the sofa at 8am, trying to get wet logs in the stove to burn off the chill in the house.  I'm looking across the road to the mail-boxes and the rising field beyond with its sides of dense young trees.  I'm thinking about the unfairness of life, I'm flying with weak wings… Then I see the streak of black on white snow.  A Black Mink.  Its body flows over the snow and like another body behind – that tail!  Tail as big as the body.  Not in hurry, but moving fast and gone into the trees.  Two beats and I see the Owl swoop in low where the Black Mink vanished, then bank away to the south presenting under wings, belly and tail before shooting back over the tops of the trees.  Two more beats and I see our black & white year old cat Beo trotting back down the road with snow banks on either side and a car coming down: he hops over the bank and lands in the snow looking up.  He'd watched the whole thing.  He may be friends with the Black Mink, he may be friends with the Bard Owl.

            It could have been a Red Tailed Hawk, A Great Gray (yes, we have one about, Nanette and I have both seen it) or Who Cooks for You…  but I know it was Bard: I have two buried on the property and know them well.

                                            

            This blog will describe sightings of wild animals and the deep coincidence of those sightings.  The Romans and Greeks saw meaning in the sighting of wild animals: the Eagle with the snake writhing in its claws.  So what do Black Mink, Bard Owl and Beo mean?  Perhaps nothing, just a sighting… three at play; but context gives that sudden surprise of the wild, deep meaning.

            As I am compiling these sightings I am also consulting the Iching.  These sightings offer reflections on adversity.  Here is the first Hexagram I threw for this blog: #36.

                                                I Ching : 6. Sung / Conflict

            That gives #36, Darkening of the light.  To see all the 64 go to:

                                                I Ching Online - the Online Book of Changes

Here are some great wildlife photographers:

Wildlife Photography Blog - Craig Jones Wildlife Photographer

Sam Barker Photo

What wild life sightings have you had?  Send them in - pics welcome.