The Xmas rush is upon us and Tara has started getting orders coming out of her ears. I myself have become like Santa's little helper, an Elf who sits in the corner busily sowing wallets, not so much of a shaman , more of a faithful servant. We still have our wildlife encounters but there are more of a blur as we pass by in the car. I guess with orders, the store and Scanfest in Portland it will be the Holidays before we can actually just be still again.
Talking about whizzing by in the car, I have already talked about Tara's fear of deer on the road, night before last, whilst struggling with the gauntlet of patchy fog, we came across a whole herd of elk just meandering across highway 101. Tara was totally freaked out but I loved it, never being that close up before.
We turn off the highway to our track and continue the journey home at about twenty mile an hour. Just over the crooked wooden bridge as you enter the forest section , the haunting figure of an owl drives down from a tree and directs his flight in the same direction as us along the path. His feathers glow in a glorious array of woodland colors as the beam of our headlights bounce off his plumage.
He swoops down low to the ground then sharply arcs up landing on the low branch of a birch tree that hung over the track. We stop the car, dip the lights and roll down the windows, Nothing needs to be said be both just gaze in wonder as the majestic creature gazes back at us. In the dark, in the night he is king of the forest.