{"id":38695,"date":"2022-07-11T20:40:20","date_gmt":"2022-07-12T04:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=38695"},"modified":"2022-07-11T23:05:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-12T07:05:07","slug":"wildlife-around-my-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=38695","title":{"rendered":"Animals provide solace in a chaotic world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caveat lectorem: When readers submit comments, they are asked if they want to receive an email alert with a link to new postings on this blog. A number of people have said they do. Thank you. The link is created the moment a posting goes online. Readers who find their way here through that link can see an updated version by simply clicking on the headline above the posting.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Headline in July 1 San Francisco Chronicle.\u00a0<\/em>I’ve been wondering in recent years whatever happened to Life<\/em> magazine. Is this a clue?<\/p>\n

\"\"Outside our kitchen, an appropriately named “wake” of eight buzzards (aka vultures) takes a rest while on a search for corpses.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a 35-year newsman,<\/strong> I’ve covered a lot of grim news, such as the trailside killer in Marin County and combat in El Salvador. Nonetheless, I’ve been unsettled by the current combination of news from around the world: the Covid pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, mass shootings (which have killed more than 300 Americans already this year), the US Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade abortion rights, the court’s also revealing plans to throw out a number of environmental protections.<\/p>\n

For my own peace of mind, I’m turning my attention to goings on in the animal world around Mitchell cabin. Here’s a bit of what I’ve been seeing.<\/p>\n

\"\"Two quail watching over nine of their chicks. (Photo by Lynn Axelrod Mitchell)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A raccoon appearing to be in prayer. She’s probably praying that the chaos in the human world doesn’t also devastate the animal world.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A great blue heron hunts in our field for gophers. (Photo by Lynn Axelrod Mitchell)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mother raccoons have taught their kits to show up on our deck each evening in hopes of receiving handfuls of kibble. The kits are shy but curious and sometimes show <\/em>up<\/em>\u00a0by themselves (as these four did on Sunday afternoon) hoping for food even though mom wasn’t there yet.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A raccoon mother climbs down out of a pine tree beside Mitchell cabin while her kit prepares to follow her.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s this sort of domesticity in nature that gives me relief from our human world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caveat lectorem: When readers submit comments, they are asked if they want to receive an email alert with a link to new postings on this blog. A number of people have said they do. Thank you. The link is created the moment a posting goes online. Readers who find their way here through that link […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,10,11],"tags":[337,449,287,29],"class_list":["post-38695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-west-marin-nature","category-wildlife","tag-buzzards","tag-great-blue-heron","tag-quail","tag-raccoons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38695"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38756,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38695\/revisions\/38756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}