Opportunistic

Despite the challenges of seasonal allergies, I masked up yesterday and mowed the front lawn/meadow.  I hate wearing a mask.  It was one of my greatest pet peeves during COVID and remains so today.  Even today, six years after the so-called pandemic we continue to see masks -- often for no reason but to hide one's face.

Masks can make it difficult for me to breathe.  In the case of mowing, however, breathing through a mask is better than dealing with lungs full of dirt and congestion as a result of foregoing one.

I struggle with calling the area in front of our house a lawn.  To me it is more of a small meadow with its mix of native species such as vetch and clovers, and the occasional single pea interspersed throughout the common Bermuda.  There are early buttercups and fledgling weeds of many species such as the giant ragweed.

Near the gnarled roots protruding above the ground near the large Sweetgum trees, there are vines and seedling trees sprouting through the soil in their quest to gain a toehold on life.  Most are gone now, mowed to a nub of their former selves where many will succumb for lack of light and room as they are crowded out by species that thrive from the artificial grazing to which they have now been subjected.

As I mowed, I noticed a pair of Crows land near me.  Crows tend to be very standoffish and untrusting of humanity, but in this instance, they saw me for what I represented in the moment -- opportunity.

Being one of the more intelligent species of winged creature, these Crows saw that my mowing stirred up potential morsels of nourishment for their varied palettes. Crows, like humans, are omnivores and eat a wide variety of things such as seeds and nuts, insects, carrion and sometimes even small animals such as frogs or rodents.  My activity sent many small insects into motion in their effort to escape the whirling blades of my monstrous (to them) machine and as they scurried to safer environs, they sometimes met their fate in the crushing beaks of the sleek, black winged demons.

One even allowed me the opportunity to photograph him as he strutted across the lawn.