Wildlife Highlights 2000
This was our first full year of living here on the island and watching wildlife. And what an interesting year it's been! Half the time I expect either Marlon Perkins or the Crocodile Hunter guy to knock on the door. Here are some of the memorable wildlife highlights of 2000 -
Floyd the Chipmunk was pretty memorable. Floyd hangs out at the church where I work and used to be content to run around outside. But one day he got curious and somebody propped open the door during an event and in he went! I was the first to spot Floyd. I was talking on the phone with one of the members and looked out my office door to see a cute little chipmunk sunning himself on the window sill. "How cute!" I said to the woman on the phone and told her what I saw. She freaked. The next thing I knew, she was over with another member who had one of those humane traps. We cornered Floyd in the 3rd grade Sunday School classroom and tried to chase him into the cage. He was way too fast for us and got out of the room.
We tried to lure him outside with a trail of Ritz crackers and peanut butter. They were serious, but I was dying laughing as some members tried to chase him out the door shouting "go to the light Floyd, go to the light!" He seemed to like the 3rd grade room, so I always made sure there were a few crackers with peanut butter in there. Finally, Floyd made his move when some of the older ladies went outside to see how the spring bulbs were doing. I figured that was the last we'd see of him, but the next morning as I pulled into the parking lot, I saw a small chipmunk sitting on the outside steps to the basement. He looked at me for a minute as if to say "I got out, I'm ok" and left. We haven't seen him since. I kinda miss him.
Then there were the baby geese. I'd been feeding the geese every day since we moved out here and this past spring they had babies. Baby geese are the cutest little fluffballs! They were green at firstI'd never seen them before and I wanted to get close, but they always waddled off with mama geese in hot pursuit. Can't say as I blame them - if a flock got too close to my toddler, I'd be nervous too. One day I walked down to the shore as usual, lugging my white bucket of corn. The babies saw me and began running towards me, wings flapping, peeping their little heads off! Talk about a warm welcome! After that, they came running every time they saw me. Even when they were all grown up, they still came running when they saw me. By now they've flown south for the winter but I'm hoping some of them come back next spring so I can see more babies.
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