****A Delightful Interlude Involving Animals

June 13, 2022

The first of my animal encounters began very early in the morning, well before the events described in the last post. I was awakened by a bird yelling out "cheep cheep cheerio cheep. Cheep cheep cheerio cheep cheerio."

I was pretty sure it wasn't an Englishman, so I searched the trees to find what was making that call. I couldn't see much in the semi-darkness, so I recorded the following video only for the sound of that bird. (You might have to crank up the volume on your computer to appreciate it.)

After leaving my campsite, I saw a couple of wild turkeys and a deer while hiking at Frontenac State Park. They crossed the trail too quickly to get pictures of them. While on the fast downhill out of the park I saw a couple more deer. Again, no pictures, so you'll have to trust me on that.

The wildlife photography situation improved once I got on the Cannon Valley trail. Check it out:

Within this picture is a bird with blue coloring. Unless somebody can convince me otherwise, I'm going to call it a bluebird.

On the last half of the Cannon Valley Trail, I saw at least 20 deer. I even managed to capture pictures of some of them. Poor deer, they don't even know I can see them and I can read their minds.

At one point I saw a couple of deer at the side of the trail. When they saw me approaching, one of them crossed the trail and ran downhill and the other one turned around and ran uphill. First, I focused on the deer on the uphill slope.

From there, the deer ran further up the hill and tried to hide. My keen eye followed him all the way.

I had to laugh at the idea of the deer thinking it was hiding behind that tree.

We stared each other down for several minutes. I think she thought she was invisible.

On the other side of the trail, I saw the other deer scratching its ear.

All she really wanted was to be reunited with the deer hiding behind the tree on the other side of the trail. I pedaled on so that could happen.

In what I believe is Cannon Falls' only grocery store, I wandered the chips and cookies aisles for some campsite snacks. Let's just say, I scored BIGTIME. Not only was my purchase tasty and delightful, but it's also a good source of calcium. And the biggest bonus is that it fits nicely into this animal-themed post.

The original Nabisco brand--not one of those cheap animal cracker imitators.

My history with the Nabisco brand goes back almost six decades. I have fond memories of when I got to go grocery shopping with my grandpa because he'd always buy me one of those little boxes of animal crackers with the string-like handle. That was really cool.

At the campsite, I not only ate those delicious animals, I played with them as well. I identified the different species and lined them up on my picnic table.

Row One: Hippopotamus, tiger, rhinoceros, gorilla, lion. Row Two: Elephant, bison, bear, sheep, camel. Row Three: Zebra, giraffe, seal, chimpanzee, koala bear.

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Kathleen JonesThat cheerful bird, according to the bird app Merlin, is the American robin. Not bad to wake up to. It’s pretty good at finding the best acoustics, no?
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1 year ago

Gregory GarceauTo Kathleen JonesThanks Kathleen. I would never have thought it was such a common bird. I see those things in my front yard almost every day and never heard them sing like that. I guess I notice things more when in a camping environment.
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1 year ago