I’ve decided to spring for an Infra-Red Game Trail Camera to do some long term video recording of the bizarre nocturnal predatory activities that have been going on in my back yard for quite some time. What follows explains what has prompted me to purchase this device:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M4QUUH6/?tag=gmtnation-20
A few years ago… on a clear, Full Moon night that you could read by… I was dragging my trash bags to the street and was overshadowed by a swiftly moving, completely silent Giant Owl that swooped down in my front yard and snatched an opossum that I did not even know was there, carrying it off over the roof of my house to the upper section of a 20 story tall stand of Evergreen Trees on my neighbors Horse-Farm-cum-Retirement Center property behind my house. I could not believe how enormous its wingspan was and how quickly it could kill its prey and then fly off without making a sound. This magnificent bird was behaving as a true “Raptor”... in every Jurassic Park sense of the word.
After that happened… I made a cursory look in the back yard to see if if I could spot its nest; both in broad daylight and later after dark whenever it was deciding to “hoot” in an oddly deep basso-profundity voice that practically shook the bedroom windows night after night at 4 AM. What I found on the ground when I went back there was an astonishing combination of piles of animal fur (one pile in particular was made up of enough Calico colored hair to fill a seat cushion) and animal feces that was held together with hair remnants and bones to rival the best creative designs of Hans Rudi (HR) Giger. They were all over the place in and amongst the tall undergrowth that had long ago gotten beyond my ability to deal with and based upon their sheer numbers… the Killing and Eating activities in my back yard were happening with remarkable frequency.
Mostly over the last few years... my property has more or less suffered from my absence and the Florida Holly and Sago Palms, Rag and Tall Weeds and even a few sturdy Oak Trees had taken root in the most inconvenient proximity to the outside of the house. Finally, last week my wife complained to my son that he might have to help his Old Man out. But not being any more enamored of doing yard work than his father is… my son directed a close friend of his in the Landscaping Business to come by, assess the damage and make an offer.
His demeanor and reasonable assurances of success prompted me to hire him that day and he more than earned his money after cutting away the more dangerous overhanging limbs from the Giant Oak tree in my front yard. He reduced the tangled jungle mess in the back yard to a cleaned out and level area that almost looked like our house was not abandoned. He carried away piles of stuff that we all manage to accumulate by storing stuff we can neither keep in the garage nor throw away at any given moment.
But prior to sending The Yard Man and his Crew into that wilderness… I gave them fair warning to be observant for Ground Rattle Snakes, Coral Snakes and to avoid the “Pet Semetary” that has grown in population from an variety of animal pets my wife has had and insisted upon giving ‘a decent family burial...’ to along the the apex of the corner of the yard along our fence line. The men laughed of course...and me too..offering a shrug of my shoulders, a wan smile and the comment, “What the Hell can I say…?”
A few hours later as the work of clearing up the back yard moved apace, one of the workers, a lean and vascular young fellow named “Tito”(who looked like it would take a half dozen Cops to arrest him if he no intentions of going to Jail peacefully) knocked on my door and with a very solemn look on his face… said, “I just want you to know that we found what is left of “Patches”. I put her remains on the edge of the tarp back there if you want to re-bury her...” I told “Tito” that all of our animals that have Gone to Glory in God’s Animal Menagerie in The Sky were buried too deep to have ever been dug up… and not one of them as far as I could remember ever bore the name of “Patches”. He looked very puzzled at me and said, “Well come on in the back and I’ll show you to “Patches”.
Well… as soon as I observed the partially mummified remains of a small female cat; her interstitial tissues and tendons still holding her mid-thorax bones together, with a pink collar around her neck holding a small bell and some other trinkets of affection still attached. Most prominently was an Aluminum Name Tag with “Patches” on one side and a Cell Phone # on the other. I realized that “Patches” must have been caught by the Great Owl somewhere nearby and then brought back to be finished off on the ground; with her “Calico” patches of hair being pulled out by the bird and then the unfinished and inedible portions around the collar keeping what was left of her intact.
I was able to call the number speaking with a man confirming that “Patches” had disappeared several years prior. He said his Mother would walk down and retrieve what was left of their family pet. As a retired homicide detective… I’ve never gotten over how difficult it is each and every time you have to make a Personal Death Notification; even if the decedent once had four legs. And so I want to make a long-term investigation of everything I’ve been missing that has been the life and death survival drama taking place in my own back yard.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M4QUUH6/?tag=gmtnation-20
A few years ago… on a clear, Full Moon night that you could read by… I was dragging my trash bags to the street and was overshadowed by a swiftly moving, completely silent Giant Owl that swooped down in my front yard and snatched an opossum that I did not even know was there, carrying it off over the roof of my house to the upper section of a 20 story tall stand of Evergreen Trees on my neighbors Horse-Farm-cum-Retirement Center property behind my house. I could not believe how enormous its wingspan was and how quickly it could kill its prey and then fly off without making a sound. This magnificent bird was behaving as a true “Raptor”... in every Jurassic Park sense of the word.
After that happened… I made a cursory look in the back yard to see if if I could spot its nest; both in broad daylight and later after dark whenever it was deciding to “hoot” in an oddly deep basso-profundity voice that practically shook the bedroom windows night after night at 4 AM. What I found on the ground when I went back there was an astonishing combination of piles of animal fur (one pile in particular was made up of enough Calico colored hair to fill a seat cushion) and animal feces that was held together with hair remnants and bones to rival the best creative designs of Hans Rudi (HR) Giger. They were all over the place in and amongst the tall undergrowth that had long ago gotten beyond my ability to deal with and based upon their sheer numbers… the Killing and Eating activities in my back yard were happening with remarkable frequency.
Mostly over the last few years... my property has more or less suffered from my absence and the Florida Holly and Sago Palms, Rag and Tall Weeds and even a few sturdy Oak Trees had taken root in the most inconvenient proximity to the outside of the house. Finally, last week my wife complained to my son that he might have to help his Old Man out. But not being any more enamored of doing yard work than his father is… my son directed a close friend of his in the Landscaping Business to come by, assess the damage and make an offer.
His demeanor and reasonable assurances of success prompted me to hire him that day and he more than earned his money after cutting away the more dangerous overhanging limbs from the Giant Oak tree in my front yard. He reduced the tangled jungle mess in the back yard to a cleaned out and level area that almost looked like our house was not abandoned. He carried away piles of stuff that we all manage to accumulate by storing stuff we can neither keep in the garage nor throw away at any given moment.
But prior to sending The Yard Man and his Crew into that wilderness… I gave them fair warning to be observant for Ground Rattle Snakes, Coral Snakes and to avoid the “Pet Semetary” that has grown in population from an variety of animal pets my wife has had and insisted upon giving ‘a decent family burial...’ to along the the apex of the corner of the yard along our fence line. The men laughed of course...and me too..offering a shrug of my shoulders, a wan smile and the comment, “What the Hell can I say…?”
A few hours later as the work of clearing up the back yard moved apace, one of the workers, a lean and vascular young fellow named “Tito”(who looked like it would take a half dozen Cops to arrest him if he no intentions of going to Jail peacefully) knocked on my door and with a very solemn look on his face… said, “I just want you to know that we found what is left of “Patches”. I put her remains on the edge of the tarp back there if you want to re-bury her...” I told “Tito” that all of our animals that have Gone to Glory in God’s Animal Menagerie in The Sky were buried too deep to have ever been dug up… and not one of them as far as I could remember ever bore the name of “Patches”. He looked very puzzled at me and said, “Well come on in the back and I’ll show you to “Patches”.
Well… as soon as I observed the partially mummified remains of a small female cat; her interstitial tissues and tendons still holding her mid-thorax bones together, with a pink collar around her neck holding a small bell and some other trinkets of affection still attached. Most prominently was an Aluminum Name Tag with “Patches” on one side and a Cell Phone # on the other. I realized that “Patches” must have been caught by the Great Owl somewhere nearby and then brought back to be finished off on the ground; with her “Calico” patches of hair being pulled out by the bird and then the unfinished and inedible portions around the collar keeping what was left of her intact.
I was able to call the number speaking with a man confirming that “Patches” had disappeared several years prior. He said his Mother would walk down and retrieve what was left of their family pet. As a retired homicide detective… I’ve never gotten over how difficult it is each and every time you have to make a Personal Death Notification; even if the decedent once had four legs. And so I want to make a long-term investigation of everything I’ve been missing that has been the life and death survival drama taking place in my own back yard.
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