After being in town and running around in the milieu of busy people and noisy vehicles….
I arrive on the beach on the island where I live and my two raven friends come and meet and greet me. Sometimes they fly over the boat and flip upside down as we approach, a sign of welcome or joy. I often have some piece of bread or scraps my daughter Quoashinis (which means “Raven” in the local Native dialect) saves for me to give them. They love her and although some people think that food is the connection between animals, birds and people, I think otherwise…they never forget and know instinctively who are their “friends”. I see this in town, the crows following behind a bicycle rider who stops to feed them sometimes or they will come and greet me in the mornings when I wake up there, even after being away for months.
(Ravens wake the world up in the morning, flying over checking everything out for the new day.)
I make my way home on the trail with my wheelbarrow or 4 wheeler packing my boxes of food, generator gas, clean laundry, etc. and hear my eagle friends calling. One of them, “Chocolate” is her name, was rescued by a dear friend on a neighbouring island when she had something wrong with her throat. She survived after some veterinarian help and was brought back and freed to join the other eagles in the area. She sits up in the big tree overlooking my house and the cove below where I sometimes throw chunks of fat or old chicken, etc., for her. .Often her partner joins her, she is patiently teaching him but she runs the show in a peaceful, patient way. I always know when to wait as she will start to fly if it is the right time, otherwise I wait. Maybe the deer or raccoons are down below or the tide is too high, whatever, she is teaching us both.
Mother deer and her young one are feeding on kelp in the cove. The island deer eat a lot of kelp. They watch me questioningly but know that I am not a threat. They seem like they are wondering just what us humans are all about and why. They ate a bunch of Amanita Muscaria mushrooms that were growing under the sailboat (which is under construction) and maybe got pretty high from them if they are affected at all.
The raccoons are waiting nearby the house knowing right away when I return and the bird feeder is empty so I put out seed for the songbirds which I love. Their singing fills my heart. Mostly song sparrows stay around but towhees, juncos and others show up.
I give the raccoons a few scraps of bread or sunflower seeds but they are soon gone, other things like mating, finding other food, making a home and their own society keeps them occupied. They know that sometimes I will have some scraps for them but not always. They won’t eat certain cheese buns and no matter how hungry they are, they will leave them to dissolve in the rain, I avoid them as well….Brands that never go mouldy, etc. I don’t know what’s in that stuff but they won’t touch it. Meat scraps go to the ravens, bread and fruit scraps go to the raccoons and birds. They all have their families, their relationships, their territories and times which overlap. I am always learning.
I have a seagull friend who sits or rests on the porch railing. She is the great, great granddaughter of one we rescued as a baby down in the cove over 35 years ago. They bring their mates and then their young around but only one will stay here …. she is the matriarch and although the ravens and raccoons give her grief occasionally, she is patient and lovely. She will sit beside me as I do my exercises on the deck in the morning and come and go freely, it is wonderful to have wings and fly.
I put out some sugar water for the hummingbirds still around, it is winter and cold for them. I make it with organic raw sugar, something to help get them through. I don’t put it out regularly, only when I see one around and them needing it. I don’t condition them, I just help when it seems they need it.
I question humans concept of “habituated” as I think humans, dogs, cats and domesticated animals (like cows, etc.) are habituated but not wild animals and birds. If they have other food available, they prefer that and may supplement it with anything we waste but it isn’t their preference. As soon as the berries are ripe on the bushes or the wild salmon come in the rivers, it is unlikely you will find a wild animal at the dump or at your home. When they talk about “the wolf at the door”…it literally means hunger for they and other animals will come to you if they are desperate but not out of conditioning, out of knowing you might not be a threat, hoping that you are a friend and might help them out. This has happened to us with the raccoons, deer and with the whales, stories for another time.
We have raised baby deer that were brought to us as there are no dogs or cats here on the island. The deer were orphaned at birth or very young and despite us being their sole provider with bottles of goat milk for their upbringing, when the time comes, they are off to join the other deer. Often the males we raised would come by and drop their horns near our back door almost as a gift to say thank you.
Nothing is regular, I don’t give these friends anything consistently and I am often gone for weeks or months and they are all fine….still wild and free and I don’t have to care for them, they care for themselves…so I can be wild and free too.
Energy is a fascinating force and they are tuned into it and to us and their instinct directs them as it does for us if we listen.
The more I tune into them, the more they tune into me and it amazes me, like a giant door opening to new consciousness.
I don’t depend on them,
they don’t depend on me
It’s a good relationship
let it be….
Wild and free.