Hello to everyone on this sunny, warm spring day!  Yes, I know.  For some of you it’s fall, not spring.  It is just so amazing that there are people from all over the world that are now part of Steve’s Country, and I thank you all for being here again today.  Today is a holiday in most of this country, called Victoria Day, in honor of Queen Victoria of Britain. But generally today it just means this weekend is the official start of the summer season.  Also the official start of the fishing season, and the official start of the tourist season.

But that’s not really what I want to talk about anyway.  Today we will continue with one of my many adventures that I have enjoyed (or not).  Ever gone for a walk/hike at night through the forest?  It can actually be quite enjoyable.  I used to participate in various bird studies and one such study included checking on the owl population.  Now, owls are generally out during the day, although they can at times.  This is breeding season and owls are most active at night then.  So I got in my car and drove to a nice quiet country location.  There was nothing around out there.  It wasn’t even much of a road.  I had never been to this spot before and thought it looked like a good place to find owls.

I discovered the easiest way to check on owls is to learn their calls.  It didn’t take long and I managed to learn the calls of all our owls and I could then call them in nice and close.  So, I left my car and off I went into the trees.  The moon was shining, but it wasn’t a full moon.  But I did have my flashlight too if needed.  After about an hour I was successful in finding Barred owls, a great grey owl and a screech owl.  Not bad.  Then the batteries in my flashlight quit on me.  Great.  Way off who knows where and I can barely see.

Now I have learned that many animals, beside owls, like to be out at night.  Such as skunks.  Which I really didn’t want to surprise in the darkness.  That can get messy.  Also bears tend to wander around at night.  Those are the two main ones to worry about I told myself.  Other animals would be foxes, coyotes and wolves.  But how often do you see one of those around here.  Well, around where I was at the time.  I wish I had paid more attention to the moon’s position as I came walking in, that would have helped going back to the car.  At it was, everything started looking the same, a little moonlight and lots of shadows.  Hmm, I headed in the direction I thought was correct.  But I didn’t exactly walk in a straight line either.  I was meandering all over the place.

That’s when I started getting that feeling again.  Like I’m being watched.  I stopped.  Not a sound.  I looked all over but could see nothing.  Off I went again.  But that feeling stayed with me.  Then it sounded like a crunch that wasn’t me.  I stopped.  Nothing.  I couldn’t see anything unusual.  I hoped I was going in the right direction.  Hey, looks like the road up ahead.  But I couldn’t see my car.  I stopped and looked around.  This time I saw something move.  Hard to tell the distance, but maybe 50 feet away.  Couldn’t tell what it was.  But the fact it kept stopping when I did made me a bit nervous.

Finally out on the road.  My car was about 500 feet away, not bad really.  I started walking toward the car.  I stopped.  Turned around.  There was 2 wolves.  One was sitting, the other standing.  Okay.  I started walking normally to my car.  They followed. I stopped, so did they.  One was maybe 30 feet away now.  I kept going.  The larger of the 2 was always standing.  But finally back to the car.  I got in as quickly as possible.

When I started the car, the wolves took off running.  I didn’t figure they would hurt me, probably just curious.  But you never know.  Always best to be careful.  Well, that’s all for now, thank you for joining me, I hope your day is great and God bless.

Steve and Muffin.

© 2019 Steve McLeod.