Dead Things

Mama is an adventurous and excellent cook, 

and we have feasted not only on doves, turkeys, and quail, 

but robins, squirrels, and, only once, a possum. 

I draw the line at snakes. 

"But it was still wiggling when I got there," she argues. 

"Let's try it just this once. 

I have a white sauce with dill and mustard." 

"No snakes," I say.

~ From Dead on the Road, by Bailey White

Some days I feel a little ghoulish - like a character out of a Stephen King novel. No, we do not eat road kill, we do not recover road kill, but we do take photos and report road kill. There are projects as part of our citizen science volunteer work that want this information. We oblige.

Why in the world would anyone have a road kill project?*

A creature found dead is an indicator there is a population existing in that location. It is also a tool for those responsible for planning, building and maintaining roads.  I'm sure there are other reasons to monitor road kill, but we just report.

DH gives me a hard time and makes a lot of jokes - gallows humor. But that didn't stop him from coming home the other night, "You want a dove? There's one over by the gym parking lot." "Was it hit by a car? I quizzed. "I have no idea, but maybe - it's next to the parking lot," he replied.**

Some projects ask for details: type of road, speed limit, confidence in identification and other things. Others limit themselves to type of creature (dead birds, for example).  I think they should ask for weather conditions, but they don't.

We have rules too for observations. We don't stop unless it is completely safe to do so. We don't stop when there is no way for us to identify the deceased (although I have a couple I have only been able to identify as "mammal"). And if we have a long drive we will often limit our stops to a small section of the drive (say, from Mountain Home to Leakey).

Why am I writing about this today? Well, why not? I've been driving more lately doing a little favor in the next town. I travel along a busy rural road and the things I have seen! Since my time has been a little consumed with errands and such, we haven't been out and so observed what we could..

So far, including the "questionable" dove, we have observed raccoons, cats, snakes, opossums, owls, squirrels, coyotes, armadillos, foxes, vultures, and skunks. I may have left something out, but you get the drift.

Sometimes it breaks my heart.

I'll end with two of the tough ones (no blood). I observed this Eastern Screech Owl on our block. I love these owls. I love their work (ridding us of rodents) and their crazy call.*** Yeah, I probably cried over this guy. The other photo is of a Great Horned Owl I saw on the way to Victoria. Once I saw it I had to turn back to document.

I saw the  feathers move in the wind and knew immediately it was a GHO.

I've found feathers in my yard before so I was pretty sure this was a screech owl. "Regular birds" don't have this wingspan.

Drive safely, folks.

NOTES:

* Okay. There is also a little bit of competition here. On the database they log observation numbers. I'm not really competitive about it, except with myself. And except on the newest roadkill site. I was surprised to see I was "at the top(ish) of the leader board" one day. It seems I had the third highest number of total observations and fourth highest number of species observed. What? And a guy who lives nearby and is a legend (I follow him too) for taking beautiful photos and traveling to exotic climes was BEHIND me on the list of total species. [When in Ireland HIS were the photos of and first documented additions of numerous species. Really.] So when I was well above him on the lists, I thought I should keep it that way. Or at least I should take a photo of the leader board.

** Yes, we did go back to the gym and, flashlights in hand, photographed the dove. I'm still not sure it fits the "road kill" definition.

***https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_Screech-Owl/sounds

It's been a bad few days for raccoons. This is the sixth raccoon I've found in 2 days. Cars always win. This guy was on  the shoulder of I35, on the northbound lane between Walburg and Jarrell.