Wildlife still here, and welcome

I’ve seen bear, deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, chipmunks, a ground hog, rabbits and a variety of birds including cardinals, blue jays and Baltimore orioles on my four acres along Chunns Cove Road. I thought that I had just about seen everything, until my granddaughter Jeana coaxed me out of my comfortable easy chair to stroll along Ross Creek, which divides my property in half.

At 82 years of age, just about everything in my body protests movement—my arthritic knees and back and my weak legs. But who can resist the pleas of a lovely young woman? So I hobbled along the creek bank, doing my best not to stumble over numerous mole holes and fall on my butt.

Suddenly my thoughts of survival were interrupted by a shriek from Jeana as she pulled me almost into the creek, pointing to a small school of fish about three inches in length. And I had believed that the stream was dead. Polluted. But that wasn’t to be my first surprise of the day.

I had hardly recovered from my fish episode when Jeana grabbed me again and pointed to an overgrown bank on the other side of the creek, where I observed a mother duck and six small ducklings no larger than a child’s fist, all clustered together, feeding as they floated downstream. Our presence didn’t appear to disturb their family life.

Thanks to my granddaughter’s urging, I gained my daily exercise and discovered two more wildlife miracles that, fortunately, overzealous developers have not been able to kill off.

— Harry W. Jell
Asheville