Because of this, I had to keep my eyes open, being careful not to step in the occasional cow pie along the way. Our neighbors that own the pecan orchard, now have cattle grazing in the pasture that joins the orchard. Perhaps they had their fill of pecans and were rooting around elsewhere along the river in search of other good eats. This indicated to me, the hogs had not been in this area for a while. Today, I saw the same feces, appearing dry and almost powdery. Apparently, they enjoy eating the golden-meated nuts, as evidenced by the large, tubular clumps of hog feces I encountered while picking pecans in the orchard a few weeks ago. Wild hogs have been feeding in the pecan orchard this year. I did not have to travel far before I noticed freshly rooted soil. This particular Saturday, I headed down a narrow, and well-traveled animal trail leading directly west along an old fence line. Evidently, the squirrels have some competition over pecan nuts! While picking pecans this year, I found lots of wild hog scat in the area. Trails and various animal prints were only the tip of the iceberg. This was a much bigger world than I could ever imagine. Over time, FD taught me to decipher tracks and signs of animal or bird presence. And sometimes, he found treasures of bones and skulls resting atop the ground or partially buried in the thickets or near a lay. He often located runs and hidey-holes that animals used, tucked away under the canopy of shrubs or scrubby trees of the woodlands. For FD, the type of gnawing or bite, and the height at which the vegetation was cut, indicated what species might have feasted there. He would notice browse that had been nibbled on earlier in the day… and, somehow, could tell if it had been bitten off a week ago. He seemed to be able to spot an area where a deer might have been bedding down just moments before. Sometimes it was apparent to him that a specific feces might have been left by the male or female of the species. FD was quite knowledgeable about identifying tracks and prints, and could easily identify scat (droppings, feces, dirt, excrement) of various animal species. Over the years of clearing paths in our own woodland area, I found it common to make discoveries about the animals that frequented our ten acres of land. Mostly, I wanted to walk a distance and sit quietly, hopefully getting a good photograph or two of area wildlife. Perhaps I would run across Daisy deer, or maybe, with the breeze out of the south, she would catch my scent and come to me. Taking my usual path through the neighboring pecan orchard, I stepped over the barbed-wire fence and onto the animal trail that headed west to the old river channel. I decided to head out with my camera and see what was going on in the woodlands. When the weekend arrived Saturday morning, I was glad to see the wind was not blowing as hard as it had been. One of many narrow and well-traveled animal paths in the woodlands. I found, however, that while I worked away in the kitchen, I would, invariably, catch myself gazing out the large picture window above the kitchen sink, longingly wishing I was “out there” instead of inside the house. It had been much too windy lately to work outdoors, so I spent my time keeping busy inside the house. This past week I found myself feeling restless.
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