( photo credit Donald Teel, Unsplash)
( My husband David wrote this about an experience he had last week while mowing a field on our land. ~ Lea)
The Bread The Gopher and The Raven
I stopped the Kubota when the descending Raven caught my eye. Thirty feet from where I was mowing the west field, this king of the canopy was in a controlled swoop.
In that brief moment he appeared to be dividing his priorities between the slice of bread in its beak, something in the fresh cut hay and me in the big noisy tractor. Fifteen feet above ground, he took his eyes off me, dropped the bread and bore down on his target.
He landed, hopped once to his left and drove his beak into the hay. In one powerful stroke he left the ground with huge wings displacing the air. The gopher was kicking its feet, the only effort it could muster in its own defense. Most likely it had never been in the vise grip of a powerful beak before. And surely never airborne.
I let out the clutch and moved the tractor in the direction of the Big Leaf Maple where the Raven set down on a big limb. On the land we share with so many creatures, the Raven is heard more than seen. They are known for intelligence, cunning and wide ranging, impressive vocal talents that often mimic the sounds of other creatures.
I watched as the Gopher became the Raven.
After circling the tractor around, heading back toward where the Raven traded bread for Gopher, I was planning to stop, get off the tractor and examine the slice of bread. White or wheat? Was it buttered? Where might it have come from?
The bread was gone.
At the other end of the field, I stopped the tractor under the Big Leaf Maple. There was the Raven staring down at me with the bread in its beak.
~ David Paul Bayles www.DavidPaulBayles
