And yes, for the third day in a row it is raining.
I have fertilized the lemon tree and the languishing desert willow, allowing Mother Nature to insure that the nutrients are watered in thoroughly. Other than that, I haven't been outside all day. I was going to remedy that situation in this brief interlude between raindrops, but looking out the window changed my mind.
What was moving out there?
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| photographed through my front window without a chance to fix the lights behind me. |
Knowing LiLou, I wasn't surprised that this visitor was rooting in the drainage trench running beneath the driveway.
I closed the computer, slipped on my Kiziks, and glanced outside before I went for the mail... which turned out to be a good thing because there was the pack, cutting across my front yard on their way from somewhere to somewhere else.
Guarded by a massive and immobile beast, little ones scampered and medium ones watched them and then the first guard followed them across the street.
The first guard? Yes. I know this because I was taking a video of the procession and I stopped when the big guy moved on. How was I to know that there was another squad following a respectable distance behind?
The second guard was grizzled and white and huge. He sat totally still until the last of his group passed. Across the other side of the yard came a younger, fitter, less white and grizzled beast. The old one moved on, the usurper checked the surroundings, and followed the others into the underbrush.
TBG agrees that the mail can wait until tomorrow. These animals are hierarchical. I'm not interested in discussing which of us is the top pig.
There are two videos. If I can figure out how to upload them to YouTube I'll let you know.
Oh my! Packs of those things?! Not something I would want to encounter.
ReplyDeleteMe, either!
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From our experience up here in Prescott, I don't think they're very interested in humans - although it's still very wise to not be near enough to challenge them. They seem to be only focused on getting food and are hard to scare away. My husband will (from a safe distance!) throw rocks at them and sometimes they move on, sometimes they don't. Maybe they realize that they're on the other side of the fence from our large dog, since her nonstop barking and growling also doesn't faze them. The babies ARE cute, but generally seeing a squadron (thanks to Google for that info) of pigs is an ugly thing!
ReplyDeleteA squadron! Thanks for that bit of trivia :-)
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Our old winter house in The Foothills backed up to a wash that was a javelina highway, we often saw squadrons going through the wash and across the road into Tucson Mountain Park, adults, juveniles, and babies. Little ones are cute, as most little critters are, but we were always wary of all of them, especially when there were babies present.
ReplyDeleteAnd the fact that they overturned the garbage cans and spread the contents far and wide just adds to their wonderfulness!
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Yup, folks in the neighborhood learned (some the hard way) not to put garbage out the night before.
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