hello:

my 'close encounters' story involves a hanging elk carcass and a mountain
chickadee. sometime last century i went to colorado to hunt elk with a law
school chum (yes, virginia, there are tree-hugging gun nuts). one of the
guys had filled his tag and the elk was hanging behind the cabin. several
of us were gabbing by the elk when a flock of mountain chickadees flew in
and started working the area. one of them landed on the elk and started
working around a leg tendon. i was already leaning on the carcass, so i
inched my hand up toward the chickadee who was really into his work.
eventually my finger was under his wing, and i could feel the heat coming
off his body and the softness of the feathers. finally, the bird let out a
shriek and jumped back about six inches, glared at me and flew away. i've
often thought he must have seen one of the other birds taking note of things
and figured he'd better act surprised or risk some serious social
consequence.

i didn't fill my tag that year, but i figured a bunch of guys had shot an
elk but i was probably the only person in colorado who'd petted a wild
chickadee.

come to think of it, that was my last elk hunt -- hadn't thought that had
anything to do with the chickadee, but who knows . . . ?

regards,

t

--
dave templeton
fall city, wa

crazydave65atgmaildaughtcom

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today; it's already tomorrow
in Australia." Charles Schultz
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