Yesterday I was chillin’ in the recliner, looking out of my window at the pretty day. I noticed a few lizards off and on (anoles I think they’re called - the ones that are chameleons?) Anyway, I’m watching these two in particular. One big male, and one smaller female, on two legs of my bbq pit. I assumed the one was male because he started doing that “struttin’ my stuff” throat thing they do? Swell it up and show the red part? The female was watching. He did this several times, and I figured they were about to have hot lizard lovin’!
All of a sudden, a big bird swooped down and snatched the male lizard and fluttered a bit, then flew off! Surprised the hell out of me, and I’m sure it startled the poor little guy, too, right before he got eaten.
Later, the female came out of hiding, lookin’ a bit lost. Poor thing, she didn’t get any either.
I saw nature’s blooper reel once. I was sitting in my car eating my lunch in my job’s parking lot one day. I was facing a wooded lot and saw three squirrels running along the tree branches jumping from tree to tree. They came to a section where they had to jump from one branch to another one about a foot away. The first and second ones made it without a problem but the third one wasn’t so lucky. He jumped from his branch the branch and sailed magnificently through the air. He looked like a furry little bird sailing gracefully on invisible air currents. Unfortunately either the air currents gave out or he misjudged the distance because he was about two inches too short from the branch. Poor little guy plummeted about eight feet to the ground. Never did find out what happened to him because he landed in some tall grass. I figure the grass broke his fall and he scampered away. The other two just kept going. They were oblivious to their buddy’s plight.
One of the top wildlife viewing experiences of my life: seeing a pepsis wasp dragging a stunned tarantula towards it’s egg burrow.
I knew of the wasp’s habits from seeing the Disney film * “The Living Desert”* decades ago in elementary school. It’s hard to describe the sense of awe I felt seeing it happening right in front of my eyes.
